The Outer Worlds Switch Update 1.2 Improves Visuals and Performance; Half-resolution SSAO Implemented Alongside Skybox Clouds and More

The Outer World Switch update 1.2 has been released, which aims to improve the game’s performance and visuals on Nintendo’s hybrid platform.

Through the new patch, the porting wizards at Virtuos have successfully implemented half-resolution screen space ambient occlusion. In addition, the team has implemented Clouds in Skybox, which really improves the overall appeal of the game’s skies. Aside from these visual enhancements, performance of the game has been improved by packing textures, limiting the max instance count for sounds, and adjusting the volume threshold to improvement CPU performance.

“The next time you launch The Outer Worlds on your Nintendo Switch, you should see Patch 1.2 ready to download and install!”, the Outer Worlds team writes. “The patch is required in order to fix specific issues and apply any changes included.”

These, however, aren’t the only new features and changes that have been included in the new patch. Check out the full release notes down below:

The Outer Worlds Switch Update 1.2 Release Notes

Features included in this update:

• Implemented a half-resolution SSAO
• Implemented Clouds in Skybox
• Replace SSR with SphereReflectionCapture
• Disabled subsurface profile shading
• Added Depth of Field to Conversation Camera

Changes and Fixes included in this update:

• Limited the max instance count for sounds to improve CPU performance
• Adjusted the volume threshold for sounds to improve CPU performance
• Packed textures to save memory
• Optimized materials for the environment and terrain
• Optimized and added more vegetation to the world
• Added details to the world buildings
• Used normal map textures instead of triangles for objects
• Re-designed some buildings
• Meshes rebuilt for improved visuals
• Lightmap texture streaming rebuilt
• Fixed character AI issues
• Improved the streaming performance to fix the building dark issues players experienced and some texture blur issues

The Outer Worlds is available now for Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC.