Textures eventually turn low-res after latest patch

[AsparagusTrevor]

While overall performance has improved and the patch has reduced stuttering, now a weird problem has appeared - after an hour or two playtime the textures suddenly turn really low resolution like an N64 game. Extremely blurry, missing alpha channels, it looks horrible. This didn't happen before today's patch, I've put about 70 hours into the game and never saw it before. Has anyone else seen this happen since the new patch, or indeed before it?

I have tried altering the settings when the problem pops up, changing resolution, DLSS, FSR, cycling through all the individual graphics settings, recompiling shaders, but it nothing corrects it. Closing and restarting the game will fix it for a while but eventually it goes back to blur city.

I've taken some screenshots, linked below. They are all from the 5th biome but I have had it occur on the 4th and 6th also.

https://imgbox.com/AwDZ0XZp
https://imgbox.com/xl7b5nCA
https://imgbox.com/GCbEgtSm
https://imgbox.com/C4SZwLYv

[lifestorock]

I played the game today for 4h. The textures were fine all the time.

[Ocelot]

+1

[Pöre]

That happened for me too, every time I go to new biome and specialy if I change screen optimization. Restarting game fixes it but after changing biome again it comes back.

Also after latest patch Returnal is using more VRAM if i use my old settings.

[⎛⎝ casedistorted™ ⎠⎞]

I saw this after playing for several hours, restarting fixed it.

Weird bug though not sure why it happens. Just restarting fixed the problem but never saw this pre-patch.

[Ultimate Bro]

Happens to me too, restarting returns textures/LOD to normal. Have a beefed out PC, definitely a bug

[C1REX]

Some games do it when short of VRAM. I wonder if there is a memory leak or something.
You can turn VRAM usage display on and see if you get close to your max VRAM when it happens and if it drops when you restart the game.

[ClarkKent]

I have the same problem after the last patch.

[alterpego]

I have the same issue though maybe a bit less severy than in the OP's pictures as not all textures are so degraded in my case. It's still very noticeable though, especially on doors and rocks. Restarting the game helps.
I am running an RTX 3080, 4K DLSS Quality, RT Off. VRAM usage is nowhere near the limit hovering at a very safe ~8 GB level.
Got the game a few days ago and I've been loving it, but this bug is annoying as hell.

[MelvinSmiley]

So tired of this one step forward two step backwards bs with this game.

[chacken]

Just bought this game and it happens all the time. Extremely irritating ;/
At start everything is fine for like 15-30 mins, and suddenly textures from 4k (2160p) drops to like 240p. It looks worse than Rayman 2 from 2000.
Tried everything to fix it, change all possible graphics settings, change resolution, turning rtx and dlss on/off - nothing helps, it just looks like ***.
Hope there will be a hotfix for this, because I just started my holidays today, wanted to play this game but without annoying bugs ;/

It seems that you played before this bug appeared - is it just a result of this patch? Or is it happening since release?

Edit: Forgot to write: changing RTX DLSS mode from quality to performance etc. fixes this problem for some short time.

[C1REX]

Maybe try to switch Resizable BAR on/off?

[alterpego]

I tried switching the ReBAR off but it made no difference. Reducing DLSS quality seems to indeed delay the issue, playing on Balanced now until they fix it.

[Eternal Wanderer]

Originally posted by alterpego:

I tried switching the ReBAR off but it made no difference. Reducing DLSS quality seems to indeed delay the issue, playing on Balanced now until they fix it.

Honestly it sounds like a DLSS issue to me as well. Graphics occasionally get quite heavy as you venture into the 6th biome. I suppose it might be the way DLSS is counteracting it.

[gregoron37]

Same for me on i5-13600KF + 4080 rtx

[mrfriki]

Same problem with a 3080 (11Gb) and 5900x. Game runs fine for an hour and a half or so and suddenly the textures go low res. Restating the game fix the issue for another hour and a half but it is very annoying.