Nier: Automata’s promised Steam patch coming July 15

Square Enix’s promised update for the Windows PC version of Nier: Automata is coming this Thursday, according to an update on the game’s Steam page. The Steam-specific patch will include updates to stabilize Nier: Automata’s frame rate, as well as add 4K resolution textures for certain visuals, and additional graphics tweaks.

Nier: Automata’s Steam patch was announced in April, shortly after the game came to Game Pass for PC and players noticed that that version was technically superior to the previously released version available through Valve’s digital storefront.

Nier: Automata launched on Windows PC in March 2017, about two weeks after its PlayStation 4 debut in the West. Reviews of the PC version panned it for its technical disappointments, but neither developer PlatinumGames nor publisher Square Enix ever issued a patch to resolve them. Fans made the Fix Automata Resolution tool, among other mods that improved the game’s visuals and repaired other glitches.

Here’s a look at what Steam customers can expect when Nier: Automata’s new patch goes live on July 15:

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Changes made

• 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 game pad controller.
• The frame rate has been stabilized at 60FPS under default settings.
• Other stability related fixes have also been implemented.