Players who were excited to finally experience 2013's The Last of Us on PC have been less excited by the fact they have to experience what PC ports were like in 2013 to do so. (I'm looking at you, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West.) But Naughty Dog's efforts to patch its wayward child have resulted in some improvements, with previous patches fixing camera jitter when using a mouse as well as unexpected character moistness in cutscenes.
The latest patch brings The Last of Us Part 1 up to v1.0.3.0 and deals with various issues, like adding audio compatibility options to help those who find the music or dialogue in cutscenes too quiet or are hearing "pops, clicks, or distorted sound", and letting you reassign the arrow keys at long last.
That's a bigger deal than it might sound to committed WASD users like me, but the humble arrow keys remain a popular alternative, especially among left-handed players. And while The Last of Us Part 1 provided an option to select the old cursor movement keys as your primary method of Joel manipulation, they still retained their previous function of inventory selection. Meaning whenever you pressed them to move, they'd also cycle through that awkward item selection menu.
That's been fixed at last, as has an issue where "texture quality in-game appears lower then the targeted quality setting". The progress tracker for shader compilation has been updated too, "so progress is tracked more evenly", making it easier to eyeball whether it's going to take another 15 minutes or a whole hour. Also, enemies will apparently no longer T-pose if you do a quickturn while grappling one.
The full patch notes include plenty more changes, though the focus is still on crashes and graphical bugs rather than performance improvements. With luck, those will come in future patches, so that more players on PC can finally experience the true majesty of The Last of Us, with its clunky combat and a story Telltale's Walking Dead did better in 2012.
Here are the topline changes in the latest patch:
- Added new Audio Compatibility options (Options > Audio > Compatibility)
- Output Mode: Adjust which sounds are played through the OS spatial sound driver. Select different settings if you experience muffled, missing, or unusually quiet audio. If you are experiencing abnormally quiet music or dialogue during cutscenes, for example, try the Spatial mode instead of the Hybrid default.
- Latency: Adjust the short period of delay between when a sound effect is requested and when it plays. Higher latency improves reliability of audio playback, especially on lower spec CPUs. Increase this value if you are experiencing pops, clicks, or distorted sound. Higher latencies also resolve issues with audio interfaces configured with large buffer sizes and some wireless headphones. Note: You must restart the game for this change to take effect.
- Updated keyboard and mouse (KBM) controls to allow players to reassign arrow keys
- Updated the 'Building Shaders %' user interface (UI) so progress is tracked more evenly
- Restored audio in the End Credits that are accessed via the main game, Left Behind, or Extras Menu
- Fixed a crash that may occur when opening a collectible in the backpack UI then attempting to restart or quit the game
- Fixed a crash that may occur while sitting (for extended times) or entering into combat areas
- Fixed an issue where texture quality in-game appears lower then the targeted quality setting
- Fixed an issue where the player's backpack UI could fail to render after altering Render Scale (Options > Display > Resolution Scaling > Scaling Mode > Render Scale)
- Fixed an issue where an enemy NPC may T-pose if Joel performs a single input quickturn while holding said enemy
- Fixed an issue where toggling player character's flashlight may cause the environment to visibly shift momentarily
- Fixed an issue where using the flashlight in darker areas may make the lighting appear corrupted
- Fixed an issue where lighting and fog may appear lower resolution on Ultra settings
- Fixed an issue where VRAM usage UI did not properly update when lowering the display resolution
- Fixed an issue where water reflections may appear corrupted or pixelated
- Fixed an issue where the Quicktime Events UI prompts were not rendering on Minimum spec setups
- Fixed an issue where rapidly moving left and right while aiming may cause unintended camera shifts
- Fixed an issue where the Steam and Epic clients’ collectible tracking did not match the in-game collectible tracking, preventing achievements from unlocking
- Fixed an issue where, if playing at a higher FPS, player animations may not play correctly
- [Photo Mode] Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader would not register KBM 'Move' and 'Rotate' inputs
- [Photo Mode] Fixed an issue where the Performance stats' heads-up display (HUD) would still be visible after hiding the menu
- [Lakeside Resort, Bus Depot] Increased active loading to reduce load times during gameplay
- [Bill's Town] Fixed an issue where players may lose the ability to cancel their reload while hanging in Bill's trap
- [Tommy's Dam] Fixed an issue where interacting with the Training Manual forces the player to pick up the El Diablo gun and locks camera movement
- [The University] Fixed an issue where, after Joel kicks the door open, the melee prompt disappears while he struggles with an enemy NPC
- [Lakeside Resort] Fixed an issue where a loading screen may display during combat
- [Lakeside Resort] Fixed an issue where player is unable to melee with fists after the David boss fight
- [Bus Depot] Fixed an issue where pieces of geometry would appear corrupted or explode
- [New Game+] Fixed an issue where New Game+ mode would be ignored during chapter selection despite being the last loaded game
