'No Man's Sky' New Experimental PC Update Released: Improves Framerate, Pop-In And More

“No Man’s Sky” PC players may want to download the latest experimental update for the game. In absence of an official changelog, fans on Reddit report increased framerates, improved terrain generation and a lot more.

Per “No Man’s Sky’s” official Steam database page, experimental build 1336968 was first published about six hours from the time of writing. Like most patches of this kind, it’s intended to offer bleeding-edge fixes for those that want them. By opting into the experimental chain, one receives early versions of the updates that will eventually be released to the public.

What makes this latest private tweak so special, however, is the markedly positive impact it has on some of “No Man’s Sky’s” biggest issues on PC. The source post notes that terrain loading happens much faster due to the introduction of multithreading in the game’s graphics files. Specific strings of code have been found to confirm the change. Objects and flora also seem to load from much further away as well, which alleviates the obvious nature of the pop-in that users had reported prior to now.

Equally controversial are title’s chronic framerate problems. While results will obviously vary by hardware configuration, some replies in the source thread note jumps as high as 90 fps in areas that used to generate 30. In an average gameplay environment, it seems like this update makes it at least a little bit easier to achieve a solid 60 fps or more.

Speaking of gameplay, there are a few adjustments on that end too. Instead of holding the E key or lingering on the “upload” button to catalog discoveries quickly, uploads must be made individually just like on PS4. Problems breaking down large nodes for resources have been resolved as well, and the Mining Laser interface has received some slight visual overhauls. Heights and sizes of located species even display on the visor and Discovery menu.

Of course, as with all things experimental, not all is perfect. Despite these major performance strides, a few new bugs have cropped up. Large fish animations appear to be broken and some layering foibles have been introduced.

Players can join the experimental update branch if they haven’t done so already. Simply go to Steam and right-click on “No Man’s Sky” in the library page. Select “properties,” and in the “BETAS” tab choose “Code: 3xperimental” from the dropdown menu for “beta you would like to opt into.” It might also help to check out our “No Man’s Sky” PC performance guide.

In addition to PC, “No Man’s Sky” is also available on PS4.

What do you think of the latest experimental patch? Are these improvements coming a little too late for PC players? Tell us in the comments section!