Lords of the Fallen's latest patch promises 'substantial performance improvements' for struggling GPUs

The new soulslike Lords of the Fallen got hammered pretty hard in its first few days on Steam, primarily over complaints about its dodgy performance. For some players it's been fine, but others encountered issues with low frame rates, stuttering, and crashes. Some people on Steam said they weren't even able to access the main menu.

In response, publisher CI Games posted some troubleshooting tips, and a handful of small patches have also rolled out. In the latest, which takes the game to version 1.1.203, developer Hexworks said it has "begun to implement more substantial performance improvements ... aimed at freeing up VRAM to provide additional headroom for GPUs that are operating at the limit of their capabilities." The process is taking time to implement, the studio added, "because we are committed to ensuring that you do not lose any quality."

The reaction to the patch on Reddit stands in stark contrast to the "mixed" user rating on Steam. Not everyone is happy, which should come as no shock, but the general response to Hexworks' ongoing efforts seems very positive. "I don't know what they are feeding the guys at Hexworks but these are pretty big patches coming almost on a daily basis," one redditor wrote. "I think we can all agree their response to post launch feedback and issues has been amazing."

"It’s been great. I haven’t gotten to play as often as I'd like since release but every time I do, there's been an update and the game runs better. Honestly it’s fine at max settings for me now," another replied.

"I have never seen this speed from any dev ever," a third said. "A lot of things I [dislike] got fixed and I hope a lot more will come. Kudos to them."

So who knows? Maybe that Steam rating will turn around quicker than anyone expected.

Hexworks also announced today that studio head Saul Gascon will be taking part in a live Q&A session on Twitch, which will take place on October 19 at 10 am PT/1 pm ET/7 pm CET.

The full Lords of the Fallen 1.1.203 patch notes are below.

Stability

• Fixed a crash that could occur when an NPC was talking, under very specific conditions.
  
• Fixed a rare crash that could happen when enemies were targeting players when using some of their abilities.
  
• Fixed a rare crash that could occur when interacting with certain in-game elements.
  
• Fixed a crash that could happen with some Niagara particles that left a trail behind them.
  
• Fixed a crash that could occur when running out of ammo and trying to perform an action that consumes ammo.
  
• Fixed a rare crash related to player spawning in multiplayer by the host when the client is still not fully ready.
  
• Fixed a rare crash that could occur when resurrecting at an anchor.
  
• Fixed a crash when being invaded by a player who happens to lose connection at the right frame.
  
• Moved 2 parameters from local saves to settings save to provide more configurable options to GeForce Experience.

Performance

• Adjusted Soulflay texture sizes and materials to make them easier for the GPU to handle VRM-wise.
  
• Reworked some UI elements to free up memory.
  
• Reduced memory allocation for environment interaction to free up approximately 16MBs of memory.
  
• Anchor images are now loaded only when interacting with vestiges.
  
• Fixed several textures used throughout the game to reduce VRAM consumption by approximately 10MBs.

Bosses

• Crimson Rector's parasites will no longer trigger heavy reactions on the player.

NPCs

• Sparky has received some additional lines of dialogue.

Balancing

• Balancing adjustments have been made for NG+ bosses and regions, especially in the almost end-game stages of NG+. We felt we were too enthusiastic and the previous curve was too steep.
  
• Molhu has decided to reduce the price of seeds in his store from 2,500 vigor to 1,200 vigor.

Gameplay

• Fixed player behavior during interactions with NPCs and vendor screens, which could lead to weird orientations.
  
• Modified Vestige interactions to allow camera movement while interacting with the vestige.

Collisions

• Fixed a small collision bump that could cause AIs to get stuck near Agatha's vestige.
  
• Fixed a missing Umbral navmesh in Pilgrim's Perch East section that would make umbral inhabitants stop pursuing players.
  
• Fixed a small ground issue at Skyrest bridge.

VFX

• Umbral nail attack from a secret boss has been optimized for AMD cards.
  
• Adjusted banners FX angle that could sometimes be rotated too much.
  
• Reworked both poison and Umbral mists to look better, addressing issues with pixelization observed on some streams.
  
• Optimized Barrage of Echoes spell.
  
• Steps VFX now disappear when off-screen instead of being frozen but still calculated.
  
• Improved the Lightreaper jump attack particles to make it even more spectacular.
  
• Fixed skinning issues for the sword of a very important person.
  
• Crossbowmen now have more noticeable and persistent arrow trails for increased visibility and directionality.

UI

• Modified the maximum length for online session passwords to 8 characters, as players typically use 4-6 character words.
  
• Added additional sounds to the splash screen.
  
• Now, if you equip ammo or a spell that cannot be used, the (X) button is also displayed in the widget.
  
• Fixed a bug where the character name pop-up couldn't be closed with the gamepad when spamming (A) or (B) while opening it.
  
• Reverted the "any button shows (A) to skip" in cinematics, as it wasn't working well on some devices.

3D Photo Mode

• Fixed an issue where the camera of a saved 3D scene in 3D Photo Mode could be in the wrong position, adding failsafes to prevent this from happening.
  
• Fixed a bug where the state of doors (opened/closed) and a few other interactables was not being saved in the 3D photo.