MindsEye Survives: New Update Aims to Boost Performance by Eliminating 'Ambient Rubbish'
MindsEye receives a substantial update intended to enhance its performance after a rocky launch, sparking interest in its potential revival.
I had pretty much written off MindsEye as a dead issue. The first third-party game to be published by IO Interactive, it was such a mess at launch that it might also be the last; concurrent player counts on Steam have crashed to a dozen or so a day, and there had been literally no sign of life from the game or developer Build a Rocket Boy since mid-July. By all reasonable measures, it was over.
And yet, it was not over. Build a Rocket Boy released a new patch today, dubbed Update 4, which introduces more bug fixes, performance enhancements, and “a range of UX improvements.” Notably, it also hints that Update 5 is in the making, with “major performance, combat and Enemy AI system improvements.”
There’s no marquee change here that I can see. “Trailer Tanks in Free Roam now explode when shot at,” which I suppose is good—explosions are fun—and it disables “ambient rubbish” to improve performance, which leads to an obvious joke that, out of respect for the difficulty of making games, I will not make.
Improvements
- Environment:
- Trailer Tanks in Free Roam now explode when shot at
- Several enhancements to architecture and assets for better performance
- Improved weather transitions at mission start
- Visual Effects:
- Cutscene VFX management updates to minimize CPU spikes
- Disabled ambient rubbish to enhance performance
- NPC:
- Natural interactions for NPCs aiming and in-cover
It remains unclear if these changes can salvage the game’s reputation amongst its players, as many believe the core experience is still lacking. However, there is a patch out. Anything’s possible, right?
