Wuchang's latest update of Fallen Feathers under scrutiny for allegedly manipulating internal render resolution to enhance FPS, as the game continues to operate at 'Quality' upscaling despite setting render scale to 100% native.
In a recent update, publisher 505 Games has rolled out a series of patches aimed at improving the performance of the game Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. However, a closer look at the game's performance after the release of patch 1.4 has raised suspicions of misleading graphics settings.
Before the update, at 100% resolution scaling using Temporal Super Resolution (TSR), the game delivered about 29 FPS on an RTX 3060 at 1440p Ultra settings. Lowering the resolution scale to 67%, 59%, and 50% progressively increased FPS as expected, consistent with normal upscaling behavior.
After patch 1.4, the FPS at 100% TSR jumped dramatically from 29 to 37 FPS, a 28% increase that is unusually large for a minor performance patch. At the same time, lowering the scaling to 67%, 59%, and 50% only yielded small additional gains of 2–3 FPS each. This pattern strongly indicates that the "native" 100% upscale setting is no longer true native resolution rendering but rather some form of upscaling forced on the game.
Further analysis revealed that in patch 1.4, the 100% upscaling setting produced nearly the same performance as 67% scaling, unlike the launch version where 100% scaling had distinctly lower performance. This suggests developers are now forcing upscaling on even if the player disables it, which can be considered misleading graphics settings since it inflates performance numbers without delivering true native rendering.
Additional issues introduced by patch 1.4 were:
- The resolution scaling setting is broken and cannot be properly set to 100%, and defaults to very low scaling on game launch.
- DLSS mode often auto-switches to Performance mode against user preference.
- Frame Generation (Frame Gen) is buggy and can disable itself in some gameplay situations, undermining fluidity.
Patch 1.4 was officially noted as focused on performance optimizations for certain devices but provides no specifics about changes or which hardware benefited.
These findings indicate misleading graphics settings introduced in patch 1.4, casting doubt on the legitimacy of the performance improvements claimed by the update. Players with sharp eyes (and sharp GPUs) may find Wuchang: Fallen Feathers looking worse than ever, despite what the settings menu claims.
Popular hardware analyst Daniel Owen tested the game's performance, comparing the launch build with the latest 1.4 patch. His findings suggest that the "performance improvements" were mostly achieved by lowering visual quality without telling the players. The game's behavior with DLSS and FSR confirmed Owen's suspicions about the use of hidden upscaling. On the 1.4 patch, DLSS at 100% suddenly matched the performance of DLSS Quality mode from the original build.
This behavior of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is a direct manipulation of the resolution scaling slider, according to Owen. If these issues are not addressed, this discovery is likely to cause further backlash unless 505 Games issues a statement or reverts these changes. By clamping resolution and mislabeling settings, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers is robbing players of control over their graphics fidelity, going beyond just blatantly lying about the image quality.
- player discontent may escalate as the performance improvements claimed in the 1.4 patch for Wuchang: Fallen Feathers appear to be deceptive, with the game potentially using hidden upscaling techniques in technology.
- In the realm of finance, this situation could pose a risk for publisher 505 Games, causing potential losses in the industry if the game's poor performance and misleading graphics settings persist.
- The increasing trend of data-and-cloud-computing and technology analysis has brought to light this issue, as hardware analyst Daniel Owen compared the game's performance before and after the 1.4 patch.
- Furthermore, the sports of game development may face repercussions if companies continue to manipulate settings and mislead consumers about the true performance of their games, damaging trust and credibility in the market.
