Why More Pixels When Fewer Would Suffice?

The launch of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers has been met with mixed reviews, currently showcasing a ‘mostly negative’ status on Steam from over 25,000 evaluations. In a recent performance patch, critiques are emerging that it involuntarily reduces rendering resolution, even if users opt for a higher setting.

This assertion comes from YouTube GPU specialist Daniel Owen, supported by analytical evidence. He provided a comparison of the launch version against the latest 1.4 patch, illuminating how resolution scaling impacts the game’s execution on a GeForce RTX 3060.

The game labels the option as ‘oversampling resolution’, but it fundamentally operates as an upscaling attribute. Owen discovered that with a 100% scaling, the GPU processes a single frame at the display resolution (e.g., 3840 x 2160, or 4K). Meanwhile, adjusting the scaling to 50% pushes the rendering resolution down to 1920 x 1080—significantly easing the GPU’s workload.

Moreover, Wuchang’s framework supports various upscaling algorithms, integrating Epic’s TSR, AMD’s FSR, and Nvidia’s DLSS. Owen observed that in patch 1.4, the upscaling setting at 100% resulted in nearly identical performance to 67%. This discovery hints strongly that developers may be unintentionally mandating upscaling, regardless of user preferences.

Overall, this unsatisfactory approach, coupled with past critiques, may continue to drive poor perceptions of Wuchang: Fallen Feathers in the gaming community.