The Xbox One X version of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is getting a temporary reduction to graphical quality to help stabilize framerates.
PUBG recently launched its 1.0 release on consoles, but still suffers from severe performance issues, even on the more powerful Xbox One X. The majority of players still experience regular drops in framerate that leach the game churning slowly - the last thing you need in the middle of a heated gunfight.
While work is ongoing to improve long-term performance as part of the FIX PUBG campaign, developer Bluehole is still looking to improve player experience in the short-term. According to a post on the PUBG website, this will come in the form of lowered graphical settings for the Xbox One X version of the game, at least for now. The update will drop on September 18, and you won't have the option to disable the changes even if you hadn't experienced any performance issues.
A number of features, from motion blur and depth of field to subsurface scattering are being switched off entirely in the hopes that this will provide a more consistent level of performance. To demonstrate the effect this will have on the game visually, the blog post included a number of before and after images, one of which you can check out below. The effect seems most profound indoors, most notably on the ceiling and floors where lighting appears less natural following the update.
Before:
After:
While this is a temporary measure, the post doesn't specify how long we can expect it to run for. What we do know is that the Xbox One X version will be getting the option to choose between better graphics or higher performance in future. Here's the official text:
"We are also working on a long term solution for Xbox One X that we intend on implementing in the future that will cater to two different audiences: those who prefer better graphics and those who prefer better performance and don’t mind sacrificing some graphical quality, We currently do not have many details to share, but will provide updates on this as soon as we’re able to."
For the full details on what's changing in the update tomorrow, read the blog post on the PUBG website.
