Update: Rocksteady have released a preliminary PC patch to fix some bugs and crashes; more on the way.
It looks like Wayne Tech has employed some dud engineers, because all Batman’s gadgets are failing. And when we say gadgets, we mean the technology that powers his latest outing in Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Knight. Reports from vigilantes the world over suggests the PC version is a bit of a Killer Croc’s breakfast, and is in need of a good seeing to.
Here’s what we know is wrong, and we’ll keep you updated to fixes that arise.
Update 27/06/15: Warner Bros. and Rocksteady has detailed their current goals, and also issued the first PC patch to fix some of the worst crash-causing culprits.
Update 26/06/15:Rocksteady’s co-founder Sefton Hill has tweeted to say “Totally supported decision to suspend PC version. We have our best engineers at Rocksteady working like crazy to help fix the issues ASAP.”
Meanwhile, Nvidia have explained to Eurogamer that they are working on performance issues. “[We are] working with WB Games and the development teams to address the performance issues of the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight. We have made our QA and engineering resources available and will provide updates when they are available.”
Update 24/06/15: Rocksteady have provided graphical set-up recommendations for people using both recommended and minimum spec rigs. That’s awfully considerate of them, but there is a huge problem: basically the advice is set everything to ‘low’. This is a million miles away from the experience PC gamers are looking for, especially when they’re equipped with top-range CPUs like i7’s. Naturally the response on Reddit and the Steam forums has been one of distinct anger.
Rocksteady’s recommended graphics settings are:
Minimum Hardware Specs
- Resolution: 1280×720
- V-Sync: Off
- Anti-Aliasing: Off
- Texture Resolution: Low
- Shadow Quality: Low
- Level of Detail: Low
- Interactive Smoke/Fog: Off
- Interactive Paper Debris: Off
- Enhanced Rain: Off
- Enhanced Light Shafts: Off
Recommended Hardware Specs
- Resolution: 1920×1080
- V-Sync: On
- Anti-Aliasing: On
- Texture Resolution: Normal
- Shadow Quality: Normal
- Level of Detail: Normal
- Interactive Smoke/Fog: Off
- Interactive Paper Debris: Off
- Enhanced Rain: Off
- Enhanced Light Shafts: Off
This is to produce a 30fps experience, and the recommended hardware spec set-up will produce something on-par with current-gen consoles. Rocksteady still advise that there may be texture pop-in, loading times during fast-paced sequences, and some stuttering when gliding or driving the Batmobile.
There are currently no recommendations for ‘ultra’ set-ups, but Rocksteady will provide some when they’ve done further testing.
Rocksteady advise against changing the .ini files in the game directory, but if you want to escape the 30fps lock it’s the only work-around available right now.
Also advised is to install to an SSD hard drive if you have one, which provides better streaming performance.
Original story: Rocksteady is aware of the problems, and have issued the following statement: “We’re aware that some users are reporting performance issues with the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight. This is something that Rocksteady takes very seriously. We are working closely with our external PC development partner to make sure these issues get resolved as quickly as possible.”
Reddit and the Steam Forums are filled with all kinds of reports and complaints about the condition of the PC version. Performance problems are aplenty, and another common fault seems to be problematic game files.
Players who pre-loaded the game are reporting that the game crashes and freezes after Steam decrypts the game files. The only solution appears to be verifying the game cache, but unfortunately this prompts Steam to download the whole 33GB game over again, or at the very least massive chunks of it.
Performance-wise, AMD users are having the rawest deal. The sneaky addition of AMD minimum specs late last night made it apparent this would be the case, but users are reporting that frame rates are dropping as low as 5fps.
Gliding across Gotham and using the Batmobile seems to be problematic for many, with deep frame rate drops to around 10fps, even on high-end hardware like Nvidia’s Titan X.
The game also seems to be locked to 30fps for many players. This can be changed by locating the “BMSystemSettings.ini” file in the install director and searching for “maxfps”. Change the value of this command to 60 or 0 from the default 30 to allow your frame rate to increase.
In general though, most people are still seeing a massive fluctuation in frame rate without there being any justification for it.
I tried playing Arkham Knight for an hour earlier today, and certainly found that the frame rate was locked to 30fps, where it stayed pretty much consistently. It does ramp up to the high 50s during cut-scenes. Other than that I found it surprisingly acceptable considering I’m running AMD hardware, but it’s clear I’m a lucky case. I made sure to install the latest AMD beta Catalyst drivers before playing.
Nvidia has also issued drivers tailored for Arkham Knight, which you should probably grab before playing.