Experimental Branch 04/06

[Hello Games]

Hello Everyone,
First of all, thanks so much to everyone who has already spent time playing No Man's Sky and letting us know about any issues you've experienced.

Steam users are able to opt-in to the Experimental Branch, where we have pushed a patch to address some problems. We'll be rolling out these fixes to other platforms as soon as possible.

To play in Experimental, right-click on No Man's Sky from the Steam library page and select "Properties". Among the available tabs will be the "BETAS" tab. Enter "3xperimental" in the textbox and press "CHECK CODE", then select it from the dropdown menu.

The patch notes are as follows:

Experimental Branch 07/06

• Fixed an issue that could prevent the SSV Normandy SR1 frigate reward from being redeemed if it was first redeemed with a full fleet, or before acquiring a freighter.
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause music to stop playing in the Space Anomaly and photo mode.
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause the death quote screen to display at the incorrect size when running with DLSS enabled.
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause some planets to not look wet during ambient rain.
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause photo mode screenshots to get cut off in VR when running with DLSS enabled.
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause the stars on some planets to appear overly large with some resolutions and DLSS quality settings.

Experimental Branch 04/06

• Significantly improved and streamlined the freighter upgrade control menu, which includes access to the options to reset the freighter base.
  
• Improvements to ensure more consistent behaviour across the different photo mode settings.
  
• Made a change so the cockpit remains visible when transitioning to the Galaxy Map in VR.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the transition to play twice when entering a vehicle in PSVR.
  
• Improved the appearance of the UI in VR when using a refiner or performing a maintenance interaction.
  
• Fixed some clipping text in the inventory screen in VR.
  
• Added a popup for players running outdated drivers on compatible NVIDIA RTX cards, encouraging a driver update in order to enable DLSS support.
  
• Fixed an issue that could cause photomode screenshots to appear black with DLSS enabled.
  
• Fixed an issue that could prevent mission notifications from displaying.
  
• Fixed an issue that could prevent build menu tutorial hints from displaying.
  
• Fixed an issue that prevented display of the player's balance of Salvaged Data when using research trees, such as the Construction Research Station aboard the Space Anomaly.
  
• Updated the in-game patch notes to reflect the Prisms update.

As always, thank you to all players who use Experimental and take the time to report any issues you encounter.

Please note there is the possibility that experimental builds may introduce new issues that haven't been caught in test. We'd like to recommend that all players back up their save files, by making a local copy of the st_[userid] folder found here: %appdata%\HelloGames\NMS\

Note that we don't anticipate any issues here. However, performing your own backups could mean the difference between resuming play immediately, or waiting for the next patch.

If you decide to opt out of experimental and return to the main branch, we strongly recommend resuming from a backed-up save from the main branch, rather than taking an experimental branch save back to main, which may cause unexpected behaviour.

Feedback and reports of new bugs/issues being found on Experimental are welcome, so please reply to this thread or submit a ticket to https://hellogames.zendesk.com/ with the phrase "Steam Experimental" in the ticket title. If you are running any mods for the game, please list them along with your bug report.

[WoodyMontana]

Nice!

[Bowi]

Keep up the good work! At some point, the game will be final, hopefully. This is definitely not what I signed for in 2016.

[DmAnd]

Great updates!

I love the new look of the lighting and reflections in VR.
I was having some serious performance problems at first.
AMD 6900xt

I fixed it by deleting all the settings in the main game folder and have the game generate new ones on game start.

For QUEST 2 users, I found it most stable using 120hz and forcing ASW to half the frame.

[OreoGamingGeek]

Originally posted by DD:

Keep up the good work! At some point, the game will be final, hopefully. This (GaaS) is definitely not what I signed for in 2016.

What are you talking about? You mean you don't want this game to get more updates and content, for free? 🤔 If this was Marvel's Avengers PS4 edition, I could understand that, but this isn't a live-service debacle. This is genuine updates and new stuff to play with.

[Bowi]

Originally posted by OreoGamingGeek:

Originally posted by DD:

Keep up the good work! At some point, the game will be final, hopefully. This (GaaS) is definitely not what I signed for in 2016.

What are you talking about? You mean you don't want this game to get more updates and content, for free? 🤔 If this was Marvel's Avengers PS4 edition, I could understand that, but this isn't a live-service debacle. This is genuine updates and new stuff to play with.

Update 1.30 in 2017 broke my save and they never cared to fix the game even if I load the "not broken" save in No Man's Sky Version 3.5.

Plus, running Version 1.30 on Ultra Settings on my PC gives me relatively stable 60 FPS while I can't even run Version 3.5 at LOW, 720p and locked 30FPS without having microstutters.

I just wished they would maintain an OpenGL and a Vulkan branch like some games did.

[Licoricemint]

Don't say that. I want them to keep updating this game for the next 30 years.

[Bowi]

Originally posted by Licoricemint:

Don't say that. I want them to keep updating this game for the next 30 years.

They could solve this by making older builds available and fully connected to a separate (or identical, I don't know) Discovery Database so that players who prefer older versions can still play AND upload their discoveries.

Most people love all the updates, but some like me just want to play the game as they remember it when they last played.

Some people think I want Hello Games to develop *my* game because I think I'm right or something. This is not true. The last thing I want is for people to stop playing this game... I just want this game to be welcoming for EVERYONE, including first time buyers who don't want to re-learn new mechanics when they re-launch the game after a two-months break. That's it!

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by DD:

Originally posted by Licoricemint:

Don't say that. I want them to keep updating this game for the next 30 years.

They could solve this by making older builds available and fully connected to a separate (or identical, I don't know) Discovery Database so that players who prefer older versions can still play AND upload their discoveries.

Most people love all the updates, but some like me just want to play the game as they remember it when they last played.

Some people think I want Hello Games to develop *my* game because I think I'm right or something. This is not true. The last thing I want is for people to stop playing this game... I just want this game to be welcoming for EVERYONE, including first time buyers who don't want to re-learn new mechanics when they re-launch the game after a two-months break. That's it!

So, to be clear, you think HG should have a separate Discovery server for every version of NMS in existence (and yes, they'd have to be separate), increasing upkeep costs by a massive amount, just so a vocal minority can keep playing outdated versions of NMS, one of which was so buggy that, by your own admission, broke your save.

Think about that for a second. Does this sound reasonable to you?

[Bowi]

I think Hello Games need to think about it. I have no idea whether this is reasonable. At least I suggested something.

They could ditch the multiplayer experience (especially on older builds) and only maintains some versions of the game. I'm sure they can evaluate which versions would make the most sense.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by DD:

I think Hello Games need to think about it.

I disagree. That's time that could be better spent improving the game for the 99.9%* of players who updated the game, as opposed to the 0.1%* who refuse to.

*No, I don't have statistics. This is hyperbolic.

Originally posted by DD:

I have no idea whether this is reasonable.

I know. That's why I asked you to think about what you're saying/asking.

Originally posted by DD:

At least I suggested something.

Yes, you suggested a solution to a non-problem. Just because you suggest something doesn't mean it's needed.

Originally posted by DD:

They could ditch the multiplayer experience (especially on older builds) and only maintains some versions of the game.

They would have to do that to cut costs, yes. In fact, people playing old versions would be unable to send in bug reports (after all, if they wanted bug fixes, they could've just updated the game), get any sort of technical help from HG (again, because most problems have been fixed with subsequent updates),

Originally posted by DD:

I'm sure they can evaluate which versions would make the most sense.

They, like all developers, already did: it's the latest version, always. There are many reasons why most - if not all - games only have, at most, two versions: a live build and a beta build. Because anything more will greatly increase costs and provide basically no benefit.

[SumGumption]

Can someone help a noob out please.... Do I just make a copy of the whole file mentioned above or of a specific file in the file mentioned above. Sorry, I love specifics.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by sumgumption:

Can someone help a noob out please.... Do I just make a copy of the whole file mentioned above or of a specific file in the file mentioned above. Sorry, I love specifics.

Backup the entire folder.

[Bowi]

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

In fact, people playing old versions would be unable to send in bug reports (after all, if they wanted bug fixes, they could've just updated the game), get any sort of technical help from HG (again, because most problems have been fixed with subsequent updates),

Well... Now, you are the one bringing up hypothetical problems... (EDIT: Because I never thought/asked for such level of support.)

Why does it have to be "us" vs "them"? I simply suggested something, for a change.

I complain: people tell me to STFU;
I suggest solution: I read "this won't work, you live a unicorn world"

Meanwhile: people keep suggesting totally bonker new features in the sub-forum. 🤷‍♂️

[SumGumption]

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

Originally posted by sumgumption:

Can someone help a noob out please.... Do I just make a copy of the whole file mentioned above or of a specific file in the file mentioned above. Sorry, I love specifics.

Backup the entire folder.

Thank you. ")

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by DD:

Originally posted by Orion Invictus:

In fact, people playing old versions would be unable to send in bug reports (after all, if they wanted bug fixes, they could've just updated the game), get any sort of technical help from HG (again, because most problems have been fixed with subsequent updates),

Well... Now, you are the one bringing up hypothetical problems... (EDIT: Because I never thought/asked for such level of support.)

Why does it have to be "us" vs "them"? I simply suggested something, for a change.

I complain: people tell me to STFU;
I suggest solution: I read "this won't work, you live a unicorn world"

Meanwhile: people keep suggesting totally bonker new features in the sub-forum. 🤷‍♂️

I'm not telling you to STFU, but when you suggest things like "the devs should just support every version because I don't want to update" (paraphrasing), you should think about what you're really saying.

This isn't like adding a new feature to the game or changing a current one to provide more depth. It's increasing their workload and expenses tenfold just so a tiny fraction of the playerbase can keep playing on outdated versions of the game. Versions, I might add, that are unstable and buggy, by your own admission.