Via a lengthy post on PUBG’s Steam Page, the developers of the massively popular Battle Royale have reaffirmed their commitment to sorting out many of the issues afflicting the title. Chief among these is addressing issues reported by players, notably performance and optimization problems that have plagued the game in recent months.
If you’ve played PUBG recently, you’ll inevitably have encountered some FPS stuttering. In itself, not a huge issue, but in the midst of a gunfight, missing frames can be the harbinger of a swift death. In an effort to rectify this, PUBG have singled out a couple of culprits.
First, fast moving vehicles that traverse a multitude of terrain in a short space of time, and therefore require the quick loading assets and effects. Graphics cards are unable to keep up and this affects performance. Secondly, the developers have pinpointed a power-hungry process in the lighting effects for the game. Fixes are on their way and instead of waiting for large content updates to integrate them, optimization patches are set to hit servers more often. Once shipped, they should significantly improve performance for most players.
The post also covers upcoming client-side changes designed for better performance such as revamping certain movement animations, character and unseen opponent/vehicle rendering, and optimization of map loading speeds among others. Server-side the devs want to fix a host of networking issues to do with data transfer, latency, and unnecessary bandwidth wastage.
Music to the ears of many a player, the post also covered steps planned to combat cheating including aggressive legal pursuit of hackers and more sophisticated encryption to make cheating far harder.
To round things off and on a much less technical note, PUBG confirmed Sanhok is set to hit servers from the tail of June. They are also working hard on the cosmetics of Sanhok to make it a truly immersive experience with detail orientated additions like moss on rock surfaces close to water and decorative items to make the map feel ‘lived in’. After release, the devs plan to introduce unique vehicles and weapons exclusive to Sanhok such as the three-wheeled Tukshai.
Given the worldwide success of PUBG, their commitment to developing the game further is refreshing and commendable. Especially, when they could have simply been happy with the fortune amassed from sales and foregone any improvements altogether.
