'Resident Evil: Revelations 2' Receives Performance Patch On PC And PS4

Yoshinori Ono of Capcom speaks during the PlayStation 4 launch event in New York, February 20, 2013. Reuters/Brendan McDermid

"Resident Evil: Revelations 2," the latest instalment in the zombie-themed horror franchise, has proven to be a compelling experience for series veterans and survival horror fans as a whole. The game retains the signature old-school horror of the original games and blends it with the best of the newer instalments. "Revelations 2" has been a great value for money proposition by offering four episodes and two bonus episodes starting at $25 for the digital PC version.

The only chink it its armour has been a severely unoptimised MT Framework engine that was prone to major framerate issues and microstuttering. Thankfully, Capcom has addressed these performance issues barely a day after releasing the retail boxed versions for the PC, PS4 and Xbox One containing all four episodes, bonus episodes and DLCs according to a Gamespot report. The patch applies to the PS4 as well as the PC version, as the game performed at a consistent 60 fps on Xbox One from day one.

The PS4 patch fixes framerate dips in areas of the game where the performance would drop down to rather unplayable sub-30fps levels. This was largely caused by an unoptimised lighting engine that would severely affect performance in the presence of increased light sources; especially when players used the in-game flashlight. Eurogamer points out that the complexity of forest scenes with abundant vegetation in Barry's campaign would also cause the framerates to dip considerably.

The patch brings the performance of the troubled PS4 version of "Resident Evil: Revelations 2" to nearly the same level of polish as the Xbox One version. However, the framerate still plummets well under 60fps and closer to 30fps in levels with lighting and geometric complexity. The PC port, however, fares much better.

The latest 2.1 patch brings significant performance optimisation to the PC. Apart from being plagued with the same lighting issues as the PS4 version, the PC copy of the game faced significant framerate drops due to problems with shader complexity. The framerate would drop down to dismal and unplayable sub-10fps mark in areas of the game with elaborate fire and snow particle effects. The latest patch categorically irons out these kinks and brings the performance back to smooth 60fps in all areas of "Resident Evil: Revelations 2."

Some users on the Steam announcement page for the patch noted that the game now runs smooth even on their lower-end PCs after the patch. The 2.1 patch, however, caused some PC gamers to experience crashes and stability issues, which was subsequently fixed with patch 2.2 on the very next day. As it stands now, the PC version can now put forth a consistent 60 fps performance after the latest patch. The PS4 version, however, still experiences framerate drops in certain areas, but the overall performance is still widely reported to be satisfactory.

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