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Fallout iv has been widely lauded in the gaming press equally a stunning accomplishment, but operation issues and stuttering accept negatively afflicted the championship on all three platforms. The state of affairs was peculiarly bad on the Xbox One, but the PS4 even so struggled to maintain shine frame rates as well.

On the PC, the situation was even more than erratic. The Nvidia GTX 980 Ti I've used to test the championship was more than capable of maintaining 100 FPS, the maximum refresh rate yous tin use to play the game without running into problems related to physics and engine issues. But at that place were many areas of the game where functioning cratered to 25-30 FPS.

Now, Bethesda has released the i.2 patch for Fallout iv on all three platforms. Eurogamer reports that the PS4's frame charge per unit is much improved over the previous version of the game — just Bethesda appears to have striking its frame rate targets by lowering visual quality.

You lot can come across the change in the screenshot below. On the left is the Corvega Factory (a particularly problematic area) earlier Patch 1.2, on the right is the same factory after Patch 1.2.

Original-vs-Updated

Original on the left, current ane.two on the right

The shadows on the left-manus paradigm are existence thrown by a staircase that stretches out of frame. On the right, those shadows are removed. I don't accept a "Before" image on the PC, merely hither'south what that aforementioned area looks like on Ultra detail using a GTX 980 Ti.

Ambient occlusion is better on the PC but the old shadows are gone.

Ambient apoplexy is better on the PC, simply the sometime shadows are gone. (Click to enlarge.)

Once again, information technology's comparable with the PS4 version. There may be pocket-sized differences in quality and ambient occlusion, but the shadows are gone. There's another manner to encounter the change between the old and new version of the game. Commencement, here's a shot of the shadows trash can fires used to cast. Apologies for the blur, I had to screencap a YouTube video. Some take speculated this issue is confined to the Corvega manufactory, since Bethesda called information technology out specifically, but I don't think it is.

PS4-Fire

(Click to enlarge)

The adjacent screenshot is taken from well exterior the factory, not too far from Diamond City. Meet how there's a distinct spider web of lines around the trash can? Now compare that against a screenshot of a like fire I took today. Again, this is with a GTX 980 Ti, Ultra item, all settings maxed.

A similar fire + container, but without anything like the same shadow detail.

A similar fire + container, but without anything like the same shadow item.

Y'all can see the ghost of the upper band around this trash can, merely the network of lines is gone. At that place seems to be less flicker as well, though I'm non certain plenty of that to guarantee information technology.

In that location'south cypher wrong with Bethesda tuning its games to better friction match shipping hardware, just it'south unfortunate that the company appears to have cut item on the PC without giving gamers a chance to re-enable it. I haven't had time to dig into this exhaustively, but I took a await through the FalloutPrefs.ini file to see if at that place were whatever obvious changes that would explicate the shadow difference. I haven't plant any, though more than enterprising modders may be able to reverse the changes.

The good news is, while they're clearly visible, the changes don't actually impact the feel of playing the game all that much. If you dear Fallout 4, you're still going to love it after this patch — and overall frame rates do seem to have improved as a upshot. I love Fallout iv, specially some of its narrative bits, but I'd like to see Bethesda bring dorsum some of its graphical goodness.