Respawn Entertainment has released a new patch for Apex Legends, its free to play battle royale title, that should fix a number of nagging issues. These include hit detection problems and PC crashes that have been occurring. It also seems that the development team has made improvements to the overall audio.
Community manager Jay Frechette stated on the EA Blog, “We have made improvements both in our code and with our content that will hopefully fix [sounds dropping out, missing sounds for an extended duration, or distortion for a period of time].” The developer has also taken to increasing the volume of footsteps for enemies close-by. You can also expect lower overall volume at the character select screen till the initial drop.
As for hit detection, Respawn believes that this patch should remove the majority of issues. “We expect there will still be some remaining hit registration problems, but with these fixes and diagnostic information, we are better equipped to track them down.” It’s also “refined the functionality behind network problem indicator icons in the upper right of the screen” to indicate when one’s internet connectivity is suffering. This will help to determine just how much one’s connectivity is affecting hit detection and whether any other bugs are in play.
You can check out some of the patch notes below. Apex Legends hasn’t had a ton of major updates in the past month or so – the newest legend Octane was added in March. However, we can likely expect news on Season 2 as EA Play rolls around. Apex Legends is also in development for mobile devices.
PERFORMANCE
- Improved audio engine to be around 30% more CPU efficient, lessening the chance of distortion or dropouts.
- Lowered impact on data loading through code and content changes to improve potential dropout issues.
QUALITY OF LIFE
- Lowered the master volume of all sounds during the character select screen through the end of the drop sequence.
- Lowered the volume of Wraith’s ambient kunai knife sound for those who are sensitive to the sound. If it is still bothersome we will remove it in a later patch.
- Increased the volume of close proximity enemy footsteps for all Legends.
- Increased the priority of enemy footsteps to ensure the sounds play even in heavy combat situations.
- Slightly lowered the volume of Pathfinder footstep sounds heard from the first person view.
- Fixed missing or quiet dryfire (out of ammo trigger click sound) and low ammo (the progressive change in sound that the gun makes as the magazine approaches empty) sounds for the R301, Hemlok, Flatline, and RE45.
- Increased the volume of the music that plays when winning a match.
Added more detailed audio to the Training mission.
BUG FIXES
- Fixed occlusion bug for the Havoc’s “wind down” sound.
- Fixed issue with automatic weapon fire sounds occasionally getting stuck on, usually after a Legend respawns.
- Fixed bug with RE45 missing tail sounds (the echo in the environment after the shot) when in close proximity.
