Last Updated on July 23, 2021 by Mark P.
NieR Automata is still a phenomenal game with people singing its praises around the whole world. With how much love and attention the game has received from fans, one would think that any issues, like bugs or glitches, would be addressed fairly quickly. Well, that’s just not the case, at least not for the Steam version of the game. The PC version of NieR Automata has had issues with framerate and video issues for roughly four years, which is pretty crazy.
Thankfully, there is finally a patch coming that will officially fix these problems for the game. That patch is coming on July 15th. Before this patch, the aforementioned issues required a user-made mod to make the PC version of NieR Automata perform at the same level as the console versions, which is not something you hear very often. Rarely is a PC game outperformed by the console version, though this had a lot to do with extenuating circumstances. More importantly, it’s pretty unheard of for a popular game to go this long with such major issues.
The July 15th patch should address the vast majority of issues that plague the PC version of the game. On the 13th, the development team made a post on the game’s official Steam page to list all the changes that are going to come with the update, which we will provide to you in full further on in the article. For a brief glimpse though, the changelog includes anti-aliasing, HDR support, borderless video settings, 60fps cutscenes, ambient occlusion, stabilized frame rate, global illumination, 4K UI textures, and more.
We’re speaking pretty ill of the PC version of the game here, but truth be told, it’s not as if the game was broken or unplayable. But the aforementioned video and frame rate issues definitely impacted the experience and made it less enjoyable than the Xbox One and PS4 versions. This was especially a problem since NieR Automata has a very heavy focus on storytelling and plot, and visual impairments could really diminish the experience during cutscenes.
Related: Remastered Nier Replicant Game Review
Once again, it’s very odd that it took so long for this patch to come around, considering the smashing success that NieR Automata ended up being for Square Enix. It outsold the original NieR with ease, and thanks to its success, warranted a remake of that original NieR in the form of NieR: Replicant ver.1.22474487139. The remake even went as far as to replace its outdated combat system with one much closer to the Automata experience.
Aside from that, there is a mobile game in the NieR universe coming out soon, called NieR: Reincarnation. As far as an English release is concerned, that’s scheduled for both Android and iOS on July 28th.
NieR Automata July 15th PC Update Patch Notes
These patch notes are taken directly from the post that was made on the game’s Steam page by the devs.
- Borderless Video Settings
Borderless video settings have been implemented.
- Fidelity FX
A Fidelity FX CAS feature has been added.
- HDR
The system will now detect whether HDR has been activated in the Windows display settings, and automatically boot the game in HDR mode if it has.
- Anti-aliasing
Adjustments to the anti-aliasing functionality
- UI textures (4K)
Approximately 270 UI textures for icons, backdrops and UI elements etc. now support 4K resolutions.
- Cut scenes
The bit rate has been improved and all pre-rendered cut scenes adjusted, so they will now play in 60FPS and display in the correct aspect ratio without stretching the picture.
- Global illumination
A new “Global illumination” feature has been implemented. This can be set to three different levels; High, Medium, or Low.
- Ambient occlusion/ bloom
The rendering targets for ambient occlusion and bloom effects have been changed to dynamic resolution based on the game’s resolution.
Bug Fixes
- It is now possible to switch between recently selected display modes for screenshots, such as between full screen and windowed mode, or between borderless and windowed mode, by pushing the Alt + Enter keys together.
- The mouse cursor is no longer displayed when using a gamepad controller.
- The frame rate has been stabilized at 60FPS under default settings.
Other stability-related fixes have also been implemented.
