I profess my love for Dread Delusion. This game is a thick retro RPG set in an amazing otherworld where a body-horror-fueled society clings to life on an asteroid orbiting a tiny blood-red star.Despite its retro look and green “verified” badge, it used to be just tank My Steam deck rarely goes above 30fps and usually stays around 25fps. A recent early access update significantly improved these numbers. The cause is so simple that it is still almost unbelievable.
Developer Lovely Hellplace has outlined the upcoming changes in the Cadaver Keep update at the beginning of the month, one of which particularly caught my eye. “Our programmer, fotocopiadora, has greatly improved the way the game loads data across regions,” explained lead developer James Wragg. “This has allowed us to create ultra-low detail models of many of the structures in the game, which means even lower poly than usual if you are not in an area, even if you can imagine it.
“This means games run much faster, especially on low-end systems like the Steam Deck.”
So I was hoping to see good results when launching Dread Delusion on the deck after Wednesday’s update, but seeing it reach 60 fps when previously 30 fps was out of the question, I was shocked in a good way. This perfect 60 didn’t last when I stepped into Dread Delusion’s open world outdoors, but thanks to the option to set the deck’s refresh rate, I was able to get a solid 40hz/40fps from Dread Delusion. It will be possible and the predicted battery life will be between 3.5. and 4 hours.
Level of Detail (LOD) systems are common in open-world games, and old favorites like Skyrim sometimes have visible fade-outs and fade-ins when approaching landmarks, and low-level low-level images for distant views. The detailed model is replaced with the high detail model. One detail to examine closely. Dread Delusion has a seamless open world with no loading screens, and if I understand Wragg correctly, his LOD system hasn’t been introduced before and all of Oneiric Isles, or at least a good portion of it, is complete. rendered with good fidelity. In the background wherever you are.
This helps explain why my beefy Alder Lake desktop processor can handle Dread Delusion smoothly, while Deck’s quad-core mobile CPU was so sluggish despite the game’s retro visuals. increase. No matter how low I set the resolution or what graphics options I chose, those four cores were constantly squeaking under the weight of the entire open world.
In addition to significant performance improvements, the Cadaver Keep update further expands the Dread Delusion main quest and brings us one step closer to a full 1.0 release. This is the best news for me. Because no matter how much you love this game, you can’t keep playing little by little. The full patch notes for Cadaver Keep are reprinted below.
Selection subject
- New Quest: The Duchess, Players hunt down Bella’s old companions. An esoteric woman based in the Endless Realm.
- New dungeons: Corpse Keep, Search for new prey in multi-challenge dungeons filled with cannibal enemies.
- New Dungeons: Infinite Mine, A vast underground network of crystalline caverns with an eerie undertone.
- Enemy Strengthening: Certain enemies have been reworked to be able to drink potions and use shields, adding a new layer of strategy to combat.
- Performance review: Overall Performance Improvements – The game now loads fewer assets at once, low-poly variants appear when in-game structures are far away, and save games load more efficiently. rice field.
balance
- The number of spells a player can equip scales from 1 to 4 based on that player’s Spellcast skill.
- Players were confused by the ability to not drain stamina when sheathing a weapon, so this feature has been reverted.
others
- The journal map has been updated with new landmarks and landmasses, including Lustburg and the game’s new endless area.
- Added a secret passage next to the Wiccan Statue in Harrowshire that should reveal a secret.
Bug fixes
- Numerous changes have been made to dialogs, fixing minor mistakes and more.
- Fixed numerous UI bugs that were causing minor glitches in certain menus.
- Fixed an issue where the Alchemy screen was not available for controllers.
- Fixed a bug that caused the game to softlock when sheathing a weapon while crouching.
- Made it harder for large enemies to push players off walls.
- Fixed Endless Realms Flesh Door opening too late.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Dreaming Tendency quest from being completed if the journal was received too early.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed players to craft excessive items.
- Fixed an exploit that caused sold items to still give players buffs.
- Fixed a bug that allowed players to attack while drinking potions.
- Destructible doors now correctly register spellcasts as hits.
- Arrow colliders no longer damage players when they are on the floor.
- Fixed an issue where the Chained God would repeat dialogue every time the player died.
- Fixed a bug where levers would not play animations.
