Call of Duty Warzone gets private matches, and introduces texture streaming on PC

A new patch for Call of Duty: Warzone is available and, as well as fixing "a bug where helicopters could spin and float in the air after progressing in Survival", introduces the option to host private matches. Those of us on PC now also have a rather surprising new feature, which is texture streaming. That is, from now on Warzone will have a smaller install size, but pull-in high-res operator and weapon skins when required.

Here are the full release notes. Private Warzone matches are described as being in beta, and there are three options: Battle Royale with 50 players; Plunder with 30 players; Or Mini BR with 24 players.

Texture streaming will only apply to players who have their texture resolution set to high. There's a dedicated blog about the featured nested away on Activision's site, which explains that "[this] update will release with slightly reduced Operator and Weapon texture resolutions by default."

"[Texture Streaming] was developed to reduce the game's overall package size by removing certain textures rarely used or encountered by players. If players encounter an Operator or Weapon that uses a high-resolution texture, it will be streamed to the PC's cache as needed.

"You will be able to control bandwidth usage and set a daily cap through the Options menu. However, even with this flexibility, you shouldn't notice any effects on bandwidth with texture streaming enabled."

The only confusing element to this is that Activision says, yes, if you don't want texture streaming you can turn it off. But then it goes on to say that "if you choose to turn off texture streaming with your Texture Resolution set to High, you will still see high-resolution textures on other assets within the game." Which implies that you won't see high-res textures on operators and weapons. To reiterate, players with their settings on medium or low won't be affected by texture streaming at all.