Has Crimson Desert Been Fixed? (Patch 1.03 Test)

Crimson Desert has received numerous patches, significantly altering the game since its initial release. This video revisits the game, focusing on version 1.03, which introduces official support for Intel Arc GPUs, Intel-specific features like XCSS 3.0, and new graphics settings such as displacement scale and detail decorative mesh options. The patch also claims improved indoor lighting quality. This update serves as an optimization guide part two, examining fixes for previously identified issues, evaluating new graphics options, and assessing performance on an Intel Arc B580. The latest patches have made progress in addressing noise issues, particularly with the standard cinematic preset without ray reconstruction or regeneration. While not fully resolved, indoor environments now exhibit less blockiness, sizzling, and low sample count artifacts, making lighting more stable. The "max lighting" setting, which was previously prone to severe flicker, now offers improved indoor lighting without such issues, making it a viable option despite its performance cost. However, some indoor scenes still suffer from noise and blockiness, even with the ultra lighting setting in patch 1.03. Areas like the stair test, which previously had noticeable lighting occlusion artifacts, show some improvement but still have stability issues. Ray reconstruction remains the best solution for visual stability in these cases. Despite general improvements, DLSS 4.5 still produces a less stable image than DLSS 4.0 when lighting artifacts persist. Therefore, DLSS 4.0 is still recommended for indoor scenes. For outdoor environments, where lighting artifacts are less common, DLSS 4.5 might be preferable due to its superior sharpness and better handling of occlusion. However, native rendering is still recommended where possible because lighting effect resolution is tied to render resolution, providing better shadow definition, and to avoid the blurriness that persists with all upscaling options. The developers are aware of the "rough-looking screen textures" issue with upscaling, suggesting a future fix. Patch 1.03 introduces two new graphics options. "Displacement scale" affects the game's displacement mapping, adding surface depth and detail. Higher settings create more rounded corners and brick detail, while turning it off results in a flat appearance. This setting also influences "sizzling" artifacts around object edges when displacement mapping is active. Lowering the displacement scale can reduce these artifacts. Medium or low settings offer a good balance between visual depth and artifact reduction. While turning it off significantly impacts visuals, it can improve performance by 4%, which might be beneficial for lower-tier GPUs. These new settings are not the promised "higher than cinematic visuals" but rather options for performance scaling. The "detail decorative mesh" setting adds extra decorative elements like moss, short grass, and small pebbles, provided foliage density is set to at least ultra. This setting has no noticeable performance impact, so it's generally recommended to keep it enabled unless resource limitations on lower-tier systems necessitate disabling it. Overall game performance has not improved since launch, with benchmark results remaining consistent across Nvidia and AMD hardware. However, this means lighting stability improvements were achieved without performance degradation. The major exception is Intel Arc GPUs. Initially unsupported, Crimson Desert now officially supports Intel Arc cards and integrates Intel's XCSS 3.0 upscaling and XCSS frame generation. While the game is now playable on an Arc B580, XCSS 3.0 implementation is notably blurry, significantly more so than DLSS or FSR, indicating a broken implementation that needs developer attention. Despite this, the game is playable on the Arc B580, with no game-breaking visual issues experienced in the latest version. However, overall performance is moderate, with approximately 50 FPS using FSR 3.1 quality upscaling at 1440p ultra settings, and 35-40 FPS with native TAA rendering. Stuttering was also observed in densely populated areas, unlike the smoother experience on Nvidia and AMD GPUs. For now, the Arc B580 is better suited for 1080p output in Crimson Desert. The rapid pace of developer patches and improvements is commendable, suggesting further fixes and visual enhancements are planned, including upcoming distant scenery quality features to address pop-in. Current recommendations for settings largely remain unchanged, though experimenting with displacement scale is advised. While Arc GPU support is a welcome addition, XCSS 3.0 should be avoided due to blurriness. Further monitoring of the game is warranted for future fixes, particularly for upscaling issues and visual advancements.