Arkane is hard at work fixing Dishonored 2 on PC

Yesterday, we learned that Arkane’s excellent Dishonored 2 was going to get a patch next month that would add custom difficulties by letting you tweak enemy behaviour. The game would also host a New Game Plus mode. That’s fine – but what most players, particularly those playing on PC, really want is a patch to fix the PC version of the game.

That’s exactly what’s happening, as a new beta patch for the stabby stealth-em-up has appeared on Steam. As it’s a beta you’ll have to opt in to download it, but reports suggest it’s already making quite a difference to the experience. If you have been experiencing frame rate issues and stuttering in Dishonored 2, grab the patch.

The patch notes are extensive, but here’s the bit related to performance:

PERFORMANCE

• Reduced framerate stuttering
• Added a customizable FPS limiter to reduce the fluctuation
• Framerate capped at 120 FPS to prevent physics issues which occur only above 120fps
• Max pre-rendered frame is now managed by the game
• Adjusted Texture Details settings so settings make a significant visual and performance change
• Fixed a bug where AMD GPU experienced huge framerate drops when there is cloth simulation in the environment.
• Adjusted ocean settings for perf improvement
• Added frequency in V-sync UI
• Fixed a bug where VRAM usage was higher than available VRAM
• Fixed a bug where auto-detected settings were set too high for certain hardware
• Added HBAO+ support for AMD GPUs
• Fixed a bug where turning HBAO+ ON created some bad shadowing on player’s hands
• Removed Environment Details settings as it was strongly tied to View Distance
• Removed Fog Quality settings as it was not impacting the visuals or providing performance advantages
• Adjusted auto detected settings for R9 290X2
• Fixed a bug where Water Quality settings was only impacting ocean, not canals or pools
• Improved CPU cores utilization on high and low-end machines

It’s unfortunate that the PC version suffered as it did, because it’s really a rather bloody good game. Here’s what we said in our review:

“Dishonored 2’s story beats are perhaps a little too familiar, but it makes up for its narrative trappings with open-ended gameplay that rewards exploration and creativity. To call Dishonored 2 a stealth game is a bit of a disservice, because you can play it any way you like.”

Last Updated: November 22, 2016