Wuchang: Fallen Feathers Patch Boosts Performance with Upscaling Fixes
â–Ľ Summary
– Wuchang: Fallen Feather has received a ‘mostly negative’ rating on Steam, with criticism for being a weak imitation of better games despite some fun boss fights.
– A performance patch (1.4) allegedly forces lower rendering resolution even at 100% setting, as demonstrated by tests from YouTube expert Daniel Owen.
– The game’s resolution scaling, labeled as “oversampling resolution,” adjusts rendering resolution but patch 1.4 makes 100% perform like 67%, suggesting forced upscaling.
– The developers appear to have implemented upscaling in patches 1.3 and 1.4 to mask performance issues, particularly on lower-tier GPUs, without transparency.
– Forcing upscaling while pretending it’s disabled has further damaged the game’s reputation, which was already poorly received by the PC gaming community.
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers’ latest performance patch has sparked controversy after tests revealed it may be forcing upscaling regardless of player settings. The action RPG, which has struggled with mixed reviews since launch, now faces criticism for what appears to be a deceptive approach to performance optimization.
Technical analysis by hardware expert Daniel Owen suggests the game’s 1.4 update artificially limits rendering resolution, even when players select 100% scaling. Testing on an RTX 3060 showed identical performance between 100% and 67% settings, a clear red flag, as native resolution should demand significantly more GPU power. This implies the developers may be secretly applying upscaling techniques across the board, despite presenting the option to disable them.
The game offers multiple upscaling methods, including DLSS, FSR, and TSR, but Owen’s findings indicate these technologies might be permanently active behind the scenes. Earlier patch notes vaguely referenced “optimizing performance for certain devices” and adjusting “supersampling resolution limits,” which now seem to confirm suspicions about forced upscaling.
Performance in Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is heavily tied to resolution scaling, with higher settings drastically reducing frame rates. While upscaling can help weaker hardware, transparency matters, players expect genuine control over graphical settings. The decision to mask these changes has only fueled frustration, especially since the game already faced skepticism for its derivative design.
Though Owen’s tests focused on one GPU, the implications extend further. If the developers are enforcing upscaling on mid-range cards like the RTX 3060, it likely affects other popular models as well. While upscaling isn’t inherently bad, misleading players about its implementation undermines trust. For a title already struggling to win over critics, these revelations could further damage its reputation.
The controversy highlights a growing tension in PC gaming: balancing performance with honesty. Players deserve to know how their settings truly impact performance, not discover hidden compromises after the fact. For Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, this patch may have solved some technical issues, but at the cost of credibility.
(Source: PC Gamer)
