Horizon Forbidden West PS5, PS4 Shimmering Bug Solved

Restart ‘twice’… how inconsiderate!

I haven’t had the chance to experience this as the game will just finish installing in 2 minutes but I find it interesting that they’re doing an update without an actual patch!

@lolwhatno yep how dare they. Sold my Ps5 and cancelled the game now.
This is not acceptable…
Oh man really, some people… I will never understand their issues. The game is so great, these dudes should stop complaining about minor things.

I wondered what that was, glad its fixed.

Is shimmering textures loading late? I took a video of the intro as it was terrible

Also... just FYI there's some weird motion blur that affects Aloy's hair and waist area when you go into Photo Mode and you change her pose. This obviously makes taking a good posing pic difficult but it can easily be fixed by switching off Motion Blur altogether from the settings menu!! 🙂

@Pixipantalon I have the same issue as well(on PS4), and for whatever reason turning off motion blur doesn't fix it either. It reduces the amount of blur, but it's still there. Guess I'll just have to wait till they patch the game till I can have fun with photomode!

@Reeneman Its a pretty annoying visual bug what kills immersion so yeah its worth complaining. Also this "hotfix" hasn't helped as i'm still getting it as are many others, at its worst its like your sharpness gets boosted to max.

I don’t know exactly what “shimmering” is supposed to mean, but:

I’m about 45 minutes into the game on PS5 and, while it’s fun, I’m underwhelmed with the graphics performance during gameplay so far. The cut scenes/cinematically look amazing, but just in my few minutes with the game, I’ve already noticed (1) late loading textures/graphics; (2) weird gameplay mechanics (like the behavior of the only NPC in the game so far - running in place, etc.); (3) “misaligned” graphics during combat (not sure if that’s the right word), like Aloy’s spear stabbing into thin air while finishing off a machine rather than into the machine itself.

@Pixipantalon motion blur is a terrible thing and should never be on ... especially at 60fps

@Chibbie had none of this after 4 hours play...

on PS5 I am noticing far more mid field blurriness like on trees and such that looks like older games shimmer, i wonder if that's what they are referring to? Its definitely distracting and makes the visuals more underwhelming than what the mainstream reviews sold for sure. It seems to be present no matter the graphics mode and with motion blur off as well.

I close and reponed the game several times thinking maybe this hotfix addressed that, but maybe that isn't what they are referring to?

Is anyone else noticing the Low-res looking shimmer on trees and grass and geometry and anything beyond like a past like 30 foot depth of field? I only bring it up because it really doesn't make the game look like its running at 1800p even standing still.

@Mezzer

That’s cool. I was running it in Resolution Mode based on the recommendation in several articles (like this: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.gamingbible.co.uk/news/horizon-forbidden-west-runs-best-on-ps5-at-30fps-20220216.amp.html). I switched to Performance mode and it’s now running better in some respects, but not all. No more late loading graphics/textures, but still graphical errors like Aloy’s spear killing machines by stabbing into air near the machine rather than the machine itself. And still some janky NPC behavior, like the NPC standing in the open directly in front of a machine and the machine not noticing him at all. (Of course, Performance v Resolution mode wouldn’t affect that: just saying that it seems like they still have some not-minor tweaking to do.)

Been playing in resolution mode and I haven't really noticed anything bad. I'm frankly surprised that they have the game running so well, especially when I compare it to Jedi fallen order which seemed to run very poorly in resolution mode. Very well optimized game that will no doubt have the usual open world jank. I still hate climbing in this game too...

The main thing that threw me off is how much harder hard mode is than in HZD. The very first enemy killed me in one hit. Every enemy I've seen at least halves Aloy's health in one hit and takes very little damage even from a part being knocked off. Then again, maybe I'm also used to her being powered up rather than just having an un-upgraded basic bow and armour.

With the graphic/performance modes, the problem is that 2160p (4k) doesn't divide into 1800p equally. With 1080p on a 2160p display you just take each pixel and turn it into 2x2 pixels. Doing that you'll have the same exact image. Trying to scale a 720p image to a 1080p display, you'd have to take each pixel and turn it into 1.5x1.5 pixels which is impossible so instead you get a fuzzier image. 720p goes neatly into 1440p so the same image would look better on that display. So here 1800p looks worse than it should. It's a comparable idea to how 40fps looks worse on a 60hz display than a 120hz display because it doesn't neatly go into it.

@Pixipantalon Tried to toggle every option in photo mode but nothing worked so far.

EDIT: Sorry, I got it mixed up with lens flare option in photo mode but you meant motion blur in visual settings of the game. Well it reduces the effect but doesn’t remove it completely. Also Aloy is sometimes floating a little bit when you change poses so looks like something folks at Guerrilla need to fix.

@Matroska thrilled to see what’s coming. I’m sure we will see some heavier patches with some improvements in gameplay and visuals.

Playing on resolution mode and the 30FPS framerate is a real bummer.

The problem is, performance mode has this shimmering problem as well. Some of the "blight" spores from a small distance are really distracting with how bad they look compared to the resolution mode, for example.

They really, really, really need a 120z@40FPS mode as a middle ground. It made Ratchet and Clank 100% playable with full "fidelity".

There's a lot more then just checkerboard rendering going on in the performance mode and it totally messes with the visuals to the point of distraction.

Playing on PS5

Edit:

All that said, I'm having fun so far and it seems pretty good.

I'm in the unfortunate position of introducing my partner to PS4 games and playing them together, and she's not seen Horizon Zero Dawn, yet, so I'm going to be putting Forbidden West down for a bit and we'll finish Zero Dawn first together and then play Forbidden West together.

Playing on resolution mode feels awful, not sure why DF recommended it. It's like being underwater and whenever you move the camera it's a blurry mess due to the low framerate. I've noticed what others are talking about with the performance mode though. There's a graininess that reminds me of PS2 graphics. I wouldn't quite call it a shimmer because it's doesn't move around, it's almost like there's a gauze over everything, especially trees and other foliage. Like I said, it's probably just the bad ratio of 1800p to 2160p. My PS3 looked better on a 720p TV than it did in my 1080p monitor. It'd be interesting to see this on an 1800p display if there was such a thing.

I dunno what they exactly meant with shimmer bug...but I had the issue of shifting brightness when moving the camera around which now seems to be fixed after restarting the game twice. Only happened in resolution mode this far.

@Chibbie exactly. Huge open world tends to equal bugs unfortunately. Most won't matter but some could hinder some player's?

My big issue is the checkerboard performance mode and the upscale shimmering on vegetation and trees. It such a stunningly detailed game but this shimmering needs to be fixed and should never have been released in this way. I have put the game down now and won't get time to go back. Will go back to Cyber 2077 as it's update to native PS5 is excellent overall .

This is why I dislike modern gaming. Release a game and patch it later. It's business. I started gaming late 70s and have seen it all ,pretty much and my time these days is hard to find so releases like this are a killer for me, especially when issues that distract gameplay are at the forefront. Such a shame and a surprise as generally Sony first party games are sublime at launch.

I can't play at 30fps. It's like running in treacle. I've spoken to John at DF in the past and 30fps on an Oled TV is not good... especially in an action game.

They should have went with native 1440p at 60fps...no need for checkerboard rendering...hell I would have taken 1080p at 60fps if it killed the distracting shimmering.

Besides GTA, I wish open world games would go away or at least be much smaller. Wide linear is a better option. This will stop developers from over extending their resources so we can have better graphics and performance. Also, stop pre ordering and buying games on day one. No games are finished and you are paying full price. Just my opinion.

Yah after playing another several hours it's just bizarre. Some sort of sacrifices were made in both performance and resolution modes in Ps5 that have absolutely resulted in some very distracting visual quality elements on anything that isn't within like 15-30 feet of your character.

Not sure why too, when you look k at rdr2 or even a more recent example would be dying light 2. That game runs at a stated lower resolution and has way less shimmer and blurriness of items in the mid to far distance. While I get that the textures and assets are far different in that and hfw, still hfw has a great deal of downscaling the further away from the character you are and to have the bizzare blurry static particulation going on as well, it is definitely underwhelming. This was no where near like this in hzd. As a cross Gen game I thought the visuals at 1800 p would be far less muddied on the Ps5 version . I recently tried to play dying light 1 to see if I'd be interested in 2, and couldn't make it through because of the dated blurry 1080p visuals. Hfw has that same resolution based blurriness in the mid and background as well.

I do hope it gets addressed if possible. Or perhaps a 45 fps 4k mode be implemented that lessens whatever scaling issues are resulting in this.

Is it possible iT just looks worse on a 65 inch 4k TV? (it's not an old or cheap model, but the flagship high end Samsung and most other games with great visuals look outstanding on it, without using the ever broken hdr as that is a whole other Playstation issue in itself).

This issue has not been fixed. Its still there. I am hugely disappointed with the visuals on performance mode. Once you see the pixelation on the foliage you can't unsee it. DF have actually said this is one of the fews games you should play on quality mode to avoid the 'noise'. I know some people may think we are over reacting but I will say this, these games aren't cheap and when you hype a first party game like this you have to deliver. 30 fps is no longer an option for me so I am not happy. I won't buy a game on launch for PS5 again.

@Reeneman
I am sorry but it's a bug. and a big one. it breaks the immersion completly. And I payed for a working product. if it has a bug, I should be able to complain about it. I worked for the money that I spent on it. And I am lucky enought to earn a salary that allows me to buy a game per month without any problems, but other people are not that lucky. that have to save in order to buy them. So yes, we have the right (I would even say "the obligation") to complain and it has to be fixed asap.
This mediocrity is a constant thing and it has to stop. But if people are "always happy" with mediocre, unfinished or unpolished products, companies will keep doing what they do: releasing unfinished or buggy games.
And btw, the restart bla bla bla didn't work. so it's either a bad correction, or a lie.

@LowTech I think it’s something in between. I fully agree that especially a first party exclusive game shouldn’t ship (or after the day1 patch) with such issues. Can’t agree more.
But otherwise as always these days, things are heating up so much in social media. To say that the game is ugly or unplayable because of these issues is too much in my honest opinion.
I played around 6 hrs so far end highly enjoyed the prologue part. Graphics looked very well (LG Oled E9 55“) - yes the shimmering stresses my eyes too, but like I said it’s not unplayable.
I’m very sure we will see a new patch this week and I’m thrilled to see how they can improve the visual quality.

@Reeneman
I have to agree that people go too far this days. Saying it is unplayable is way too much. Also the review bombing that the gaming is suffering in metacritic is just and idiotic use of a very good tool.
Maybe I am exaggerating but the feeling I have is that people this days just don't understand the concept of having common sense. I saw people deffending "cyberpunk" on day one and I saw people attacking "The last of us 2" saying it was a really bad game just because they didn't agree how the story went..