Capcom has announced a new update for Monster Hunter Wilds, numbered at version 1.040.03.01. The goal of this patch is to bring in further optimizations to the game, especially addressing Steam-specific processing loads, and providing options to further reduce other kinds of processing loads. The update, out today, comes in at 2.0 GB in size. Players using the high-resolution texture pack will have to re-download around 31 GB due to revisions that have been made. This, however, ultimately results in a reduction of 45 GB in storage requirements.
Capcom recommends Monster Hunter Wilds players to be on more current versions of their graphics card drivers. For Nvidia, it recommends driver version 581.57 or newer, whereas for AMD, it recommends version 25.9.1 or 25.9.2. Radeon GPU users on driver version 25.10.2 or higher should be careful, as Capcom has provided warnings for “some issues” that it has identified.
Capcom has also confirmed that more stability and performance improvements will be coming to Monster Hunter Wilds through an update planned for February 18. Among these improvements will be measures to reduce GPU processing loads by adding more quality levels (LOD) options for the game to access.
DLC checks causing frame rates to plummet was first discovered earlier this month by a Reddit user who noted that owning cosmetic DLC resulted in improved performance. This led to the creation of a mod that could convince Monster Hunter Wilds to stop its DLC checks by letting it think that the player already owns the DLC.
Further testing, however, revealed that this performance issue only happened when players were close to the Support Desk Felyne—the NPC responsible for checking DLC ownership.
Monster Hunter Wilds is available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. For more details, check out our review of its launch version. Also take a look at Capcom’s recent earnings report that revealed it recently having crossed a major sales milestone.
Monster Hunter Wilds Update 1.040.03.01 patch notes:
Major Additions and Changes
- Improved CPU/GPU processing specific to the Steam version.
- Reduced shader warming processes performed outside the shader compilation screen to lower CPU load.
- Adjusted texture streaming to improve visual quality while reducing VRAM usage.
- Adjusted the High Resolution Texture Pack to reduce VRAM usage and overall package size.
- Added a CPU tab to the Options menu, allowing players to adjust settings related to CPU load.
- Added new categories to the graphics settings, along with new settings for existing options.
- Adjusted graphic presets and added a confirmation window to automatically update your settings on first launch after updating.
- Expanded the Volumetric Fog setting in the graphics options from two levels to five. The previous “High” setting has been renamed to “Highest,” and “Low” to “High,” with three new lower options—”Medium,” “Low,” and “Lowest”—now available.
- Fixed an issue where a warning dialogue incorrectly indicated that the AMD Radeon driver was outdated when using driver version 26.1.1 or later.
Bug Fixes and Balance Adjustments
- Fixed an issue where system load could increase around the Support Desk at Base Camp or the Grand Hub due to claimed content status checks.
- Adjusted Variable Rate Shading behavior so it is forced off during upscaling to maintain proper effect visuals.
- Fixed other miscellaneous issues.
