UPDATE MARCH 14: Total War: Warhammer 3’s Patch 1.0.2 is now live.
UPDATE MARCH 10: Total War: Warhammer 3’s Patch 1.0.2 delayed, will not contain ALT+Tab crash fix.
UPDATE MARCH 3: First details about Total War: Warhammer 3’s Patch 1.0.2 shared.
UPDATE FEBRUARY 24: Total War: Warhammer 3’s first hotfix is now live.
Developer Creative Assembly has outlined its hotfix plans and patch notes for the recently released Total War: Warhammer 3, revealing that the first set of changes is currently expected to arrive later this week.
Total War: Warhammer 3’s first hotfix will focus on addressing issues tied to multiplayer lobbies and DirectX 12 while also improving the framerate for players using modern Intel CPUs, as per its patch notes.
The developer does state that, much like the content of the upcoming hotfix, its release date may shift, depending on a number of different factors. These include having the changes “implemented, tested, and verified” by both itself and external partners as well as not compromising the game’s stability.
One big challenge Creative Assembly faces is related to “the fact that there is no single culprit for the variety of issues being reported.”
“We’ve already identified numerous actionable options, but each one will only improve things for a specific group of users rather than everyone at once. As a result, we’ve decided to take a surgical approach to address them: deploying smaller hotfixes at a faster rate rather than waiting to compile fixes into a large update that smashes multiple issues at once,” it wrote in a post on Steam.
“We are determined to make improvements as quickly and safely as possible, but it’s crucial that we avoid rushing the process at the expense of the game’s stability.”
Performance and optimization also remained at the top of the priority list as far as Total War: Warhammer III fixes go, but implementing solutions will also take time.
“At first, you can expect to see small, targeted improvements to specific areas of the game. Then, in later updates, we’ll be able to make larger improvements to the stability and other important areas of the game. This is a long-term project—one we expect to be a priority for the foreseeable future! “
Performance did get choppy towards the late game while I was reviewing the otherwise excellent Total War: Warhammer III</a> so, hopefully, the first improvements won’t take too long before they show up.
On February 24, Total War: Warhammer III’s first hotfix went live, featuring the set of changes mentioned above. You can check out its detailed patch notes on the Total War website.
Total War: Warhammer III Patch 1.0.2
On March 3, developer Creative Assembly shared more details about Total War: Warhammer III’s Patch 1.0.2 and the changes expected to be reflected in its patch notes. Here’s how the initial list looked:
ALT+Tab Stability:
- Accounting for a majority of our crash reports, the ALT+Tab crash is the primary issue under investigation. While we have a fix in testing, the complexity of the issue requires a substantial amount of review to ensure it doesn’t break anything else in the game. So, while we very much hope to include it in the next build, the results of our testing will determine whether it is safe to do so or whether it is held until the next-next update.
Unintended V-Sync Lock:
- Some users have noted that in certain circumstances, their game framerate will be capped at a low number regardless of their hardware capabilities. We’re working on a fix to make V-Sync behave if you want to flex on the game.
Further Alderlake Improvements:
- Windows 11 and Windows 10 users should no longer see performance stuttering related to their 12th generation Intel processors.
Battle Desyncs:
- Some players have desyncs during multiplayer battles. That’s bad, so we’re working to fix that up.
Issues when the game is installed to a path using non-ASCII/non-English characters:
- In this scenario, the game would crash upon booting. Players encountering this issue will now receive a warning message so the game can be moved to a supported location only using English characters.
Total War: Warhammer III’s Patch 1.0.2 was originally aiming for a March 10 release date, although Creative Assembly did note that it was possible it would be delayed until March 17, if more time was needed to ensure its changes don’t introduce other problems to the game.
On March 10, it clarified that the patch would, indeed, be delayed until the week of March 14, launching that very Monday. You can check out its patch notes for the full list of changes. The planned ALT+Tab crash fix won’t make it in patch 1.0.2 either, as it introduced new graphical issues to the game.
The developer aims “to host the fix as a Steam Beta branch once it has undergone further testing,” allowing willing players to opt in and test it using their hardware configurations.
Total War: Warhammer III is out now on PC. You can grab it from Fanatical, other major storefronts, as well as Xbox Game Pass.
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