Guerrilla Games has released Horizon Forbidden West patch 1.09 and has provided an update on reported visual issues.
The new update is available across both PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 and packs numerous fixes and improvements, including fixes for quests, world activities, the game’s UI, graphics, performance, and more. Players will be happy to learn that the development team has implemented loading screen reductions, as well as fixes for several crashes, and further improvements related to sharpness and shimmering within the game.
Down below you’ll find the full release notes for this new patch.
Main Quests
Fixed an issue in Main Quest "The Dying Lands" where machines would stay stuck behind an energy shield.Fixed an issue in Main Quest "The Broken Sky" where the player could get stuck in invisible collision.Fixed an issue in Main Quest "The Broken Sky" where Dekka would be standing behind the throne and cannot be interacted with.Side Quests
Fixed an issue in Side Quest "The Second Verse" where Zo would not be in Plainsong after completing all Main Quests.Fixed an issue in Side Quest "Drowned Hopes" where the player could "pry open" rocks from the wrong side, breaking progression.Fixed an issue in Side Quest "The Deluge" where Aloy could become stuck in the ground under water after igniting firegleam.Fixed an issue in Side Quest "The Deluge" where Snapmaws could become stuck inside a wall, out of Aloy's reach.Fixed an issue in Side Quest "Thirst for the Hunt" where the quest did not update after killing the Thunderjaw.Fixed an issue in Side Quest "Lofty Ambitions" where Morlund could conveniently get stuck in a rock, leaving Aloy to take on the Stormbird on her own while he cheered her on from safety.Fixed an issue in Side Quest "In the Fog" where the memorial marker could not be found in Scrap Piles.Fixed an issue where alternating between Side Quest "What was lost" and Errand Quest "First to Fly" would cause Kotallo to be unable to be interacted with.Fixed an issue in Errand Quest "Supply Drop" where Littay would become stuck underneath the terrain.Fixed an issue in Errand Quest "Shining Example" where the player could block progression by destroying the metal flower's vines before the "Destroy the Metal Flower's Vines" mission objective shows up.Fixed an issue in Errand Quest "Sons of Prometheus Data" where the ambushers took the term ‘ghosted’ to a new level and are no longer present after dying.World Activities
Fixed an issue in Cauldron "Kappa" where the player could respawn in an out of bounds area.Fixed an issue in Rebel Camp "First Forge" where reloading a specific save game would spawn the player underneath the terrain.Fixed an issue in Salvage Contract "Colleague and Key" where the player would get stuck in an "Examine the Disc Launcher" animation.Fixed an issue in Relic Ruin "The Dry Yearn" where the railroad cart could get stuck behind a piece of rubble.Fixed an issue in Relic Ruin "The Long Coast" where a pullable crate can get stuck in the water.Fixed an issue where the Black Boxes could not be picked up.Fixed an issue where the Black Boxes could not be handed in with Untalla.UI/UX
Fixed issues when remapping specific button actions.
Graphics
Further improvements related to shimmering/sharpness.
Performance and Stability
Loading screen reductions.Crash fixes.Localization and spelling fixes.Other
Fixed several issues that prevented 100% completion in the Notebook. Completionists rejoice!Fixed several issues where the player could escape from a boss fight with a mount.Fixed an issue where customizations to the Hunter's Kit would not persist after restarting save.Rebalanced several combat mechanics.Fixed multiple Music issues.In addition to releasing this brand-new update for the game, the development team also provided an update on various reported visual issues within Forbidden West, including issues with over-sharpening, V-Sync frame pacing, dynamic resolution, Screen Space Shadows, and Screen Space Ambient Occlusion.
"Our Content and Rendering teams have been hard at work to address the image quality issues that some of you have been experiencing", the team writes. "These issues were especially visible on certain TV’s in the jungle areas of the game. As the issues that present themselves are highly dependent on the brand and make of the television, the team is extremely thankful for all the help our community has provided in guiding them in their search."
Through our patches, we’ve implemented a series of fixes designed to reduce the issues. Here are some of the changes we’ve included:
Rendering Changes
Removed over-sharpening in both Resolution and Performance modes.Reduced the “Saturation Boost” that could occur during motion blur.Added Temporal Filtering to the Cinematic Quality Depth-of-Field filter.Tuned the V-Sync frame pacing.Improved the average dynamic resolution by refining the frame feedback loop.Improved the Screen Space Shadows for very thin objects such as grass blades.Balanced the noise reduction of the Screen Space Ambient Occlusion.Content Changes
Reduced the amount of animation on foliage such as clovers, sorrel and the red cover grass to over distance to reduce noise.Reduced brightness of the white tips of the red cover grass to reduce noise over distance.Through feedback, we’ve seen these changes have been beneficial, but we will keep looking at ways to improve the overall quality.
We still advise making sure your TV is set up to play Horizon Forbidden West whenever you decide to explore the wilds, as certain features of modern TV’s can reduce the overall image quality.
Via your TV settings, please make sure to:
Set your TV to “Game mode”, if your TV supports it.Turn off any “sharpening” filter on your TV, it may even be active in “Game Mode”.It’s best to use the default setting of your TV and avoid any changes that affect the “Contrast”, “Vibrancy”, or “Saturation” of your TV.Horizon Forbidden West is available worldwide now for PS5 and PS4.