Guerrilla has kept up a steady cadence of patches and updates for Horizon Forbidden West since the open world action RPG’s launch nearly a couple of weeks ago, and has now released another new update. Patch 1.09 has gone live, bringing with it several tweaks and improvement.
Like previous updates, patch 1.09 addresses several smaller issues in main quests, side quests, open world activities, and more. Some UI issues with remapping buttons have been addressed, while improvements to performance, stability, loading, and localization have also been made.
While the patch notes for the newest update themselves don’t linger much on the graphics section, in a separate update on Reddit, Guerrilla has shared some of the adjustments its made to the game to address issues with image quality. This includes reducing on-screen noise, removing over-sharpening, tuning the v-sync frame-pacing, and much more.
You can get all the details on the visual improvements as well as the full update notes for patch 1.09 below.
PATCH 1.09:
Main Quests
- Fixed an issue in Main Quest “The Dying Lands” where machines would stay stuck behind an energy shield.
- Fixed an issue in Main Quest “The Broken Sky” where the player could get stuck in invisible collision.
- Fixed an issue in Main Quest “The Broken Sky” where Dekka would be standing behind the throne and cannot be interacted with.
Side Quests
- Fixed an issue in Side Quest “The Second Verse” where Zo would not be in Plainsong after completing all Main Quests.
- Fixed an issue in Side Quest “Drowned Hopes” where the player could “pry open” rocks from the wrong side, breaking progression.
- Fixed an issue in Side Quest “The Deluge” where Aloy could become stuck in the ground under water after igniting firegleam.
- Fixed an issue in Side Quest “The Deluge” where Snapmaws could become stuck inside a wall, out of Aloy’s reach.
- Fixed an issue in Side Quest “Thirst for the Hunt” where the quest did not update after killing the Thunderjaw.
- Fixed an issue in Side Quest “Lofty Ambitions” where Morlund could conveniently get stuck in a rock, leaving Aloy to take on the Stormbird on her own while he cheered her on from safety.
- Fixed an issue in Side Quest “In the Fog” where the memorial marker could not be found in Scrap Piles.
- Fixed an issue where alternating between Side Quest “What was lost” and Errand Quest “First to Fly” would cause Kotallo to be unable to be interacted with.
- Fixed an issue in Errand Quest “Supply Drop” where Littay would become stuck underneath the terrain.
- Fixed an issue in Errand Quest “Shining Example” where the player could block progression by destroying the metal flower’s vines before the “Destroy the Metal Flower’s Vines” mission objective shows up.
- Fixed an issue in Errand Quest “Sons of Prometheus Data” where the ambushers took the term ‘ghosted’ to a new level and are no longer present after dying.
World Activities
- Fixed an issue in Cauldron “Kappa” where the player could respawn in an out of bounds area.
- Fixed an issue in Rebel Camp “First Forge” where reloading a specific save game would spawn the player underneath the terrain.
- Fixed an issue in Salvage Contract “Colleague and Key” where the player would get stuck in an “Examine the Disc Launcher” animation.
- Fixed an issue in Relic Ruin “The Dry Yearn” where the railroad cart could get stuck behind a piece of rubble.
- Fixed an issue in Relic Ruin “The Long Coast” where a pullable crate can get stuck in the water.
- Fixed an issue where the Black Boxes could not be picked up.
- Fixed an issue where the Black Boxes could not be handed in with Untalla.
UI/UX
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Fixed issues when remapping specific button actions.
Graphics
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Further improvements related to shimmering/sharpness.
Performance and Stability
- Loading screen reductions.
- Crash fixes.
- Localization and spelling fixes.
Other
- Fixed several issues that prevented 100% completion in the Notebook. Completionists rejoice!
- Fixed several issues where the player could escape from a boss fight with a mount.
- Fixed an issue where customizations to the Hunter’s Kit would not persist after restarting save.
- Rebalanced several combat mechanics.
- Fixed multiple Music issues.
VISUAL ISSUES:
Rendering Changes
- Removed over-sharpening in both Resolution and Performance modes.
- Reduced the “Saturation Boost” that could occur during motion blur.
- Added Temporal Filtering to the Cinematic Quality Depth-of-Field filter.
- Tuned the V-Sync frame pacing.
- Improved the average dynamic resolution by refining the frame feedback loop.
- Improved the Screen Space Shadows for very thin objects such as grass blades.
- Balanced the noise reduction of the Screen Space Ambient Occlusion.
Content Changes
- Reduced the amount of animation on foliage such as clovers, sorrel and the red cover grass to over distance to reduce noise.
- Reduced brightness of the white tips of the red cover grass to reduce noise over distance.
