Although many of its mechanics mark a set step forward for the franchise, Monster Hunter Wilds hasn't been as well-received as Monster Hunter World and Monster Hunter Rise, mostly due to its low challenge level at launch and significant performance issues on PC and consoles.
While the development team addressed the low challenge issue in the past few months, introducing more powerful monsters and Arch-tempered variants with free title updates, performance issues still prevented many from enjoying the game. However, it seems like the time has come for CAPCOM to address the matter finally.
The Ver. 1.0.4.00 update launching on December 16 will implement CPU and GPU optimization across all hardware (which leads to noticeable perfomance improvements), applying a variety of improvements such as:
- Applying frame distribution, reviewing collision detection, and reducing the number of simultaneous effects to optimize processing time.
- Reducing the overall load by eliminating unnecessary processing.
- Implementing over 100 performance improvements for players, monsters, Seikret, Palicoes, NPCs, GUI, effects, gimmicks, and more.
The elimination of unnecessary processing, in particular, promises to address the issue that most suspect was behind the most significant performance issues. Shortly after release, an in-depth analysis suggested that performance hiccups were related to data streaming to the GPU, as the game likely streamed elements in and decompressed textures aggressively when the camera was in motion, among other factors.
These performance improvements will only be the beginning, as a PC-specific update will be launched next month, with further optimization improvements to follow in February.
Besides introducing over 100 performance improvements, the next Monster Hunter Wilds title update will also introduce new monster Gogmazios, additional 9★ tempered monsters, a tempered 9★ Rathalos roaming the Scarlet Forest and Oilwell Basin at Hunter Rank 100, balance changes for all weapons, support for new paid cosmetics, and more. All the details on the update can be found on the game's official website.
If the game's performance issues are finally fixed across all formats, Monster Hunter Wilds will be in a much better state than at launch later this month. Hopefully, more players will consider returning to the game, as producer Yuya Tokuda hopes.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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