'Experimental' patch for 'No Man's Sky' on PC could be the fix you're looking for
If you're still having troubles playing No Man's Sky on PC, a new "experimental" patch from developer Hello Games might help.
The patch is technically unfinished -- hence the "experimental" designation -- but it addresses some of the bigger issues that still affect the game. You just need to jump through a few hoops to make it work.
Hello took to Steam on Saturday to share the in-progress patch notes and instructions for installing it. The official version should go live "early" this week, according to the post.
You May Also Like
For those that don't want to wait that long, it's easy to try the patch and then remove it if it just makes things worse. There's no danger of melting your computer or disrupting the space-time continuum or anything.
To install the patch, find the game's listing in your Steam Library tab and right-click it. Select "Properties" from the drop-down menu that appears and, in the window that opens, click over to the "Betas" tab.
Next, type "3xperimental" into the text field and click the "Check code" button. You should get a message telling you the game's "experimental" branch is active. Finally, click the pulldown menu in the Betas tab and choose "experimental - Experimental."
That's it. The game should automatically update, provided it's not running when you do all of this. If it is, just quit out, wait for the update to download and start it up again.
No Man's Sky launched in a sorry state when it arrived for PC on Aug. 12, but Hello has been quick to respond. The studio took to Steam twice on Saturday, first with a rundown of workarounds for common issues and later with the experimental patch.
The work-in-progress update improves the game's performance with certain AMD graphics cards and fixes issues with Alt-Tabbing in and out of the game. It also addresses an issue with shader caching, which was causing lots of visual hitches, even for those with high-spec PCs.
My own gaming PC -- equipped with an i7-5930K, GTX 1080 and 32GB RAM -- suffered from significant stuttering on Friday. I installed the experimental patch this morning and an improvement was evident even after a few minutes of play.
If you were hoping to close out the weekend with a lengthy No Man's Sky binge but have been deterred by ongoing PC issues, give this patch a shot.
Topics Gaming
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
