PC Patch For 'Rise Of The Tomb Raider' Includes Visual Upgrades

A week after its PC release, Rise of the Tomb Raider received its first post-launch update. Obviously, the patch repaired a few issues reported by some users, but it also added some new features based on the first wave of user feedback.

Aside from the usual tweaks and fixes, the 147.9 MB patch repaired some startup problems, such as a C++ runtime error and a work-around for an issue where the Visual C++ Redistributable app was not properly installed, which meant the game couldn’t run at all.

Startup issues (Steam Only):Fixed C++ runtime error showing up on startup preventing some users from running the game. Provided work-around for issue where the VC++ redist would not properly get installed, stopping the game from starting at all. Solved problem where the game would crash on startup when tools like Bins Taskbar organizer or Spacedesk are installed.Updated options screen with among other things:Independent mouse sensitivity control for aim and regular navigation. Mouse and gamepad X-axis inversion Option to disable keyboard button prompts. Option to disable mouse smoothing (very light mouse smoothing is present otherwise)Other fixes included in this patch:A variety of fixes and improvements to UI including map, basecamps, and Remnant Resistance mode. New graphics option 'Specular Reflection Quality' to enhance resolution and reduce aliasing of specular reflections, at some performance cost. New graphics option to disable film-grain independently from 'Screen Effects'. Improved HBAO+ quality, including better occlusion for distant objects. Improved NVIDIA SLI performance. (Steam only) Fixed SLI glitches during water/snow effects. (Steam only) Resolution Modifier option that allows you to use a lower rendering resolution independent from window size when running in windowed mode. Performance optimization for situations where Razer Chroma features are enabled. (Steam Only) Improvements to Razer Chroma effects. (Steam Only) Fixed an issue that could rarely lead to an error on machines with 16 hardware threads or more. Fixed mouse cursor not always being hidden when using gamepad. Fixed major stuttering in Endurance mode. Fixes for Endurance leaderboards. Fixed Remnant Resistance missions occasionally not starting.Fixed rendering glitches on some objects on NVIDIA 6x0 and 7x0 hardware. Some issue do still happen and we are working with NVIDIA to resolve those in future patches or drivers. Warning messages for users turning textures to Very High or enabling SSAA to indicate high-end hardware is required. A variety of other smaller optimizations, bug-fixes, and tweaks.

On the other end of the patch, the developers also made some improvements. Certain parts of the UI, such as the map and basecamps, are improved, although details weren’t available in the patch notes. Razer Chroma performance in certain parts of the game were also optimized. The developers partnered with Razer to include some special Chroma lighting effects in the game. Obviously, you’ll need a Razer peripheral with Chroma lighting to see the unique light show.

Rise of the Tomb Raider also received some visual upgrades for its PC version, as highlighted by the developers prior to release. But that didn’t stop them from adding even more visual options. There’s a new graphics option called “Specular Reflection Quality,” which, as the name describes, increases the resolution and also reduces the aliasing of specular reflection. However, the improvements do have an overall effect on game performance. You can now also disable the film grain effect independently from other screen effects.

If you use an Nvidia GPU, there are exclusive graphics improvements, as well. The Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion Plus (HBAO+) effect (realistic shading) received an upgrade, and distant objects have better occlusion. The patch also fixed an issue where glitches would appear with snow and water effects on systems with two GPUs in SLI.

In the event that the new patch doesn’t work, the developer also launched the beta build of the older version, so you can switch back if any issues arise. As always, more patches will come if needed, and the developers said they are always available for customer feedback.

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  • tomc100
    I want to see benchmark tests for this game in new gpu reviews.
    Reply
  • surphninja
    And for AMD users? Hah.
    Reply
  • John Wittenberg
    And for AMD users? Hah.

    For crossfire? You'll have to wait for however long it takes for the next driver they release. That's the reason I never went back to crossfire after two rather bumpy go's at it (and I also stopped going SLI as well due to poor support that game devs have been showing it).
    Reply
  • jerdle
    AMD has already released crossfire profiles for Rise of the Tomb Raider.
    Reply
  • photonboy
    And this is why I always WAIT until the game has been out a while (fixes, updates, price drops).

    Obviously SOMEONE has to buy the game, but when games get major fixes just WEEKS or even DAYS after launch it's hard to justify a pre-order just to get a golden sock.
    Reply
  • AndrewJacksonZA
    "If you use an Nvidia GPU, there are exclusive graphics improvements, as well."
    Hmmm... I don't like this: developers catering to an exclusive vendor. What will we get down the road? More and more and more features exclusive to graphics vendor X?

    Poor form guys. I don't want to see the PC market going down the toilet.
    Reply
  • photonboy
    17464266 said:
    "If you use an Nvidia GPU, there are exclusive graphics improvements, as well."
    Hmmm... I don't like this: developers catering to an exclusive vendor. What will we get down the road? More and more and more features exclusive to graphics vendor X?

    Poor form guys. I don't want to see the PC market going down the toilet.

    This has been an issue for quite a while. Probably before PhysX.

    AMD is trying to go more open with their approach. I respect that, though the primary motivations are probably more about financially not being able to do what NVidia is doing.

    I have an NVidia card and will buy one next, in part due to these features. I don't like it, but that's the state of things and I'm not going to go with an arguably degraded experience just to vote my opinion on the matter.

    I'm not clear how or if this matter can be resolved either. I guess we really need the open source community to offer something comparable. I doubt developers are completely happy with the situation either. Sure, they may get some tools that potentially make their lives easier, but then they still have to create something nice for AMD cards.

    I half expect the EU to jump in and say "no, no you can't sell games with proprietary stuff in Europe.. fix or be sued!"

    Dev tools like Unreal 4 Engine are also adding in great plugins. I believe Microsoft bought Havok so perhaps we'll see a viable solution to replace PhysX completely but these things take YEARS to develop.

    (to make things worse we have SteamOS which I love the concept of, but now we've got a Linux environment, non-DX API. I feel sorry for game developers and AMD. If NVidia offers a version of Gameworks for Linux that helps game devs that could be problematic for AMD in addition to their Linux driver difficulties.)
    Reply
  • alidan
    17464266 said:
    "If you use an Nvidia GPU, there are exclusive graphics improvements, as well."
    Hmmm... I don't like this: developers catering to an exclusive vendor. What will we get down the road? More and more and more features exclusive to graphics vendor X?

    Poor form guys. I don't want to see the PC market going down the toilet.

    This has been an issue for quite a while. Probably before PhysX.

    AMD is trying to go more open with their approach. I respect that, though the primary motivations are probably more about financially not being able to do what NVidia is doing.

    I have an NVidia card and will buy one next, in part due to these features. I don't like it, but that's the state of things and I'm not going to go with an arguably degraded experience just to vote my opinion on the matter.

    I'm not clear how or if this matter can be resolved either. I guess we really need the open source community to offer something comparable. I doubt developers are completely happy with the situation either. Sure, they may get some tools that potentially make their lives easier, but then they still have to create something nice for AMD cards.

    I half expect the EU to jump in and say "no, no you can't sell games with proprietary stuff in Europe.. fix or be sued!"

    Dev tools like Unreal 4 Engine are also adding in great plugins. I believe Microsoft bought Havok so perhaps we'll see a viable solution to replace PhysX completely but these things take YEARS to develop.

    (to make things worse we have SteamOS which I love the concept of, but now we've got a Linux environment, non-DX API. I feel sorry for game developers and AMD. If NVidia offers a version of Gameworks for Linux that helps game devs that could be problematic for AMD in addition to their Linux driver difficulties.)

    or, the most likely thing, we see havoc become an xbox only thing so microsoft can sell more consoles.

    honestly, nvidia can keep their nvidia only affects, so long as it does not touch my gpu, i'm sick of them giving out dlls that lock tessellation to retardedly high settings along with other crappy practices, they want to gimp their own cards, fine, sooner or later people will stop buying them as they see nvidia push things like tessellation to extremes, which hurts their new cards a bit, mad cards alot, and gives people with older cards a reason to upgrade.

    i mean the new fallout 4 patch, didn't it decrease nvidia performance 10% on new cards, 30-40% on kepler, and amd got a 30% performance boost?
    Reply