The recent update made by No Man’s Sky Beyond brought along with it a full graphics rendering API overhaul. With such an overhaul, they switched to Vulkan from the previous OpenGL.
The recent Vulkan update will only be finally released after the completion of Beyond. Despite this, Hello Games are still very glad about the improvements. More specifically, Hello Games is excited to get their hands on the Vulkan update finally. These updates will be available on branches where the trial versions will be run.
Many were excited about the news. Those who haven’t played NMS for a while did some quick tests to see how the update affects performance.
Firstly, to install the update’s experimental branch, users need access to the properties panel of NMS via steam. Next, they have to access the Betas tab and write down “experimental” in the text box.
After which, they need to press the button which reads “Check Code.” Once pressed, they can now choose experimental beta from the dropdown menu. Upon selecting an experimental beta, they can now initiate the NMS 3.8GB update. Once the initiation of the update is complete, they can now try using the Vulkan patch.
For those who have tried the experimental beta, Hello Games suggests that they back up their saves before they start playing. To do this, they have to go to AppData, choose Roaming, continue to HelloGames before finally reaching the NMS folder.
The reason why they need to back-up is to avoid problems in file updating and saving. Hello Games said there are current issues in saving while the players switch back to the game’s main branch.
Players also need to remember that the switching to main will automatically download the update which is equivalent to 5.6GB.
Given this, they might not want to switch between main and experimental branches multiple times.
This particular tip came from players who tested the game on Radeon VII and GTX 1080 Ti, at the utmost quality. Both of these graphics cards are said to have similar performance in running games. They ran around the game’s planet for more than a minute, logged frame times at 4K, 1440p, and 1080p.
When they switched back and forth between branches, they noticed the additional file added. Though the experience was still great, the point is players have to take note of the unnecessary space usage.
Overall, critics said that there’s still too much work to do before the company releases the update. Hello Games could use the bug and issue reports they’ll receive regarding the experimental branch.
