Returnal PC Patch Fixes Crashes, Reduces Stuttering With Ray Tracing Enabled, and More

Housemarque and Climax Studios have released a new patch for Returnal on PC via Steam. It aims to improve optimization while reducing crashes and fixing other bugs. For those with CPUs with fewer than eight cores, there are multiple improvements to reduce stuttering.

The PSO system is also updated to reduce stuttering with ray tracing enabled. Crashes that occur when finding or using translocators or during combat and situations with high particle effects should also be fixed. The installation process is also optimized to reduce file size, and 3840×1600 resolutions should now display correctly.

Check out the full patch notes below for more details. Returnal launched last month for PC after first releasing in April 2021 for PS5. Though receiving strong critical acclaim (check out our review here), there have been complaints of performance issues and stuttering. Stay tuned for more details on future patches and improvements in the future.

Returnal – March 9th Patch

PATCH NOTES:

• Multiple optimisation improvements to reduce stuttering on CPUs with fewer than 8 cores.
• Updated PSO system to reduce stuttering when Ray Tracing is enabled.
• Fixed crash that can occur when finding or using translocators.
• Fixed crash that can occur during various combat or high particle effect situations.
• Enabled Intel’s XeSS screen scaling technology on non-Intel hardware.
• Fixed blocker that can occur when killing the Typhonops and using a Reconstructor.
• Fixed 3840×1600 resolutions not displaying correctly.
• Fixed Steam overlay run time being out of sync with in-game cycle time.
• Optimised installation process to reduce file size.