3 days ago
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Not for the archetypal time, there’s a new, wuxia-inspired RPG whose method fortitude shatters faster than a bandit’s teeth. A fewer hours into the F2P, bear-brawling Where Winds Meet, it does astatine slightest look to beryllium arriving connected Western PCs (it’s been retired successful China for astir a year) successful amended wide signifier than Wuchang: Fallen Feathers did. Even so, it’s beset by show hitches and adjacent basal ocular nuisances, ranging from iffy translations to unplayable stuttering.
It's not each bittersweet news. Where Winds Meet tin deed precocious framerates connected inexpensive oregon aged graphics cards, perchance a affirmative side-effect of it besides having a Genshin Impact-style mobile version, portion its PC credentials are evident successful its afloat mouse/keyboard enactment and a settings paper that decently covers DLSS oregon FSR upscaling and framework gen. For a crippled that’s been unrecorded and kicking overseas since December 2024, though, I wasn’t expecting to spot truthful overmuch of what would typically beryllium day-one blues.
Where Winds Meet strategy requirements and PC performance
This is simply a chunky crippled – the authoritative specs database a 100GB retention request (ideally connected an SSD, and the 'Standard' mentation I tested asked for 110GB astatine the clip of installation. The aforesaid installer offered a "Lite" mentation for 68GB, though it’ll much intimately lucifer the visually pared-back mobile version, and I truthful look down connected it arsenic I thrust past successful my PC carriage.
Not that this has stopped the minimum specs database from naming 60GB (not 68GB) arsenic the retention outgo of entry, and to marque things adjacent stranger, the requirements connected the game’s website disagree from those connected its Steam page. I’m reproducing the erstwhile below, connected the grounds that they’re from much of a superior source.
Where Winds Meet minimum PC specs
- OS: Windows 10 / 11
- CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K / AMD Ryzen 5 2400G oregon equivalent
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti / AMD Radeon RX 550 / Intel Arc A380 oregon equivalent
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 60GB HDD space, SSD recommended
Where Winds Meet recommended PC specs
- OS: Windows 10 / 11
- CPU: Intel Core i7-10700 / AMD Ryzen 7 3700X oregon equivalent
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super / AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT / Intel Arc A750 oregon equivalent
- RAM: 32GB
- Storage: 100GB SSD space
Where Winds Meet precocious PC specs
- OS: Windows 10 / 11
- CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K / AMD Ryzen 9 5950X oregon equivalent
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 / AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT oregon equivalent
- RAM: 32GB
- Storage: 100GB SSD space
32GB of RAM besides sounds a small high, though to honest, astir of my nitpicking grumpiness astir these specifications is washed distant by the soothing show of those GPU requirements. Genuine, honest-to-god fund cards listed arsenic minimums? The humble Arc A750, ascending to the glittering heights of the recommended tier? It’s beautiful. Sensible, tenable strategy requirements, conscionable surviving successful the moment. After games began having the gall to inquire for an RTX 2060 arsenic a starting point, I sometimes feared I’d ne'er spot their similar again.
In practice, too, Where Winds Meet shows a invited willingness to tally connected basal kit, adjacent without resorting to the DX11-only mode. The minimum-listed GPUs are successful information truthful minimal that I’ve neglected to ain immoderate of them. But, portion borrowing the GTX 1060 from those enigma Steam-posted requirements, the Performance preset – connected autochthonal 1080p – fto maine whizz my magic swordsman astir a peculiarly detail-heavy colony astatine a comfy 50fps average. Enabling FSR upscaling astatine its reasonably crisp 70% mounting pushed that up to 64fps, and upping to the Balanced preset (while keeping FSR) lone brought show down to a usable 45fps.
There are, again, tech problems going connected that framerate counts won’t capture, and we’ll get to those shortly. But Where Winds Meet is besides antithetic successful a overmuch much agreeable way: it is weirdly, astir suspiciously accelerated connected Intel graphics cards. The Arc A750 sped to 80fps astatine 1080p with the Quality preset, nary upscaling required, and adjacent connected Ultra, that simply dipped to 70fps. The newer Arc B580 managed 90fps astatine 1080p/Ultra, and adjacent secured a bully 65fps mean with the aforesaid preset astatine autochthonal 1440p.
Next to Nvidia’s RTX 4060, which usually trades punches with the Arc B580, it’s a wide vantage to Intel: the 4060 ain’t slow, scoring 64fps astatine 1080p/Ultra, but it needed DLSS connected Quality mode to mean 66fps astatine 1440p, lone narrowly beating the B580’s un-upscaled result. I checked astir to spot if determination was immoderate benignant of other ray tracing mounting that was enabled connected Nvidia’s paper but not Intel’s, oregon whether the second was mistakenly moving successful DX11 alternatively than DX12, but arsenic acold arsenic I tin tell, Where Winds Meet conscionable seems to person a earthy affinity for Arc hardware. And y’know what, just capable – fewer games do.
That said, the RTX 4060 could besides prosecute DLSS framework gen, rising from 66fps to 97fps astatine 1440p. It’s a respectable implementation, adjacent if it does look to beryllium DLSS 3 alternatively of the newer DLSS 4; I wasn’t offered the latest version’s Multi Frame Generation connected RTX 50 GPUs. Speaking of which, the entry-level RTX 5050 could grip Where Winds Meet conscionable fine, averaging 65fps connected Ultra prime erstwhile moving astatine autochthonal 1080p and 66fps – dormant adjacent with the RTX 4060 – connected a DLSS-upscaled 1440p. That, subsequently, became 95fps with framework gen. And portion you wouldn’t strictly request specified a almighty GPU for Ultra-quality 4K, the RTX 5080 is simply a beardown lucifer for it, pumping retired 116fps connected this tricky solution with Quality DLSS and 189fps with added framework gen.
So far, then, Where Winds Meet is simply a nimble-running, well-equipped PC crippled that opens its doors to those connected little extravagant rigs. So wherefore each that moaning above?
For one: these benchmark results look good, but they weren’t ever casual to collect. On aggregate runs, crossed assorted GPUs (including those precious Arcs), the crippled began stuttering truthful severely that I had to wantonness the signaling and commencement over. If you’re fortunate you mightiness conscionable get distant with the occasional spot of traversal stutter, but I’ve seen Where Winds Meet stumble truthful hard that it appeared to beryllium successful the midst of a full-on crash. The deficiency of a wide trigger for these moments lone adds to their capableness to frustrate, arsenic there’s nary reliable mounting to little oregon disable that mightiness halt them.
Frame procreation besides lone works if you’re utilizing the DLSS flavour. FSR upscaling is good if you’re connected non-RTX hardware, but its mentation of framework gen looks and runs atrociously, with crunchy, jarring frame-to-frame transitions of a benignant I’ve seldom seen since FSR 3 archetypal launched backmost successful 2023. It besides lacks an equivalent input lag compensator to Nvidia’s Reflex system, truthful inputs and camera movements consciousness extra-sluggish too.
Yet adjacent erstwhile Where Winds Meet is moving well, it inactive undermines itself with galore counts of sloppy presumption and unfixed ocular bugs. The magnitude (and variety) of pop-in is particularly egregious: adjacent connected Ultra settings, scenery and, successful a batch of cases, radical volition blip into beingness specified metres successful beforehand of you. On 1 juncture I entered a beverage location and was met by the abrupt apparition of a woman successful white, similar the vengeful tone of idiosyncratic who’d drank a poisoned oolong one 100 years agone that night.
There’s besides the occasional ropey effect, oregon questionable quality modelling work. Some of the erstwhile wouldn't look retired of spot successful Minecraft: burnable obstacles, similar vines and ropes, vanish successful a jerking, astir comically unpolished modulation betwixt chiseled Slightly On Fire, Very On Fire, and Combusted Into Nonexistence states.
The constituent of these show analyses is not and ne'er has been to reason for photorealism, but if you privation your crippled to look conventionally beauteous successful a modern, AAA mode – arsenic Where Winds Meet intelligibly does, astir of the clip – it should astatine slightest beryllium accordant successful its accumulation values. It besides needs, much urgently, to hole immoderate of its outright breached localisation: I’ve opened astatine slightest a mates of dialog boxes, portion playing English, that defaulted backmost to Chinese. Actually, during an yet failed effort to instal the game’s launcher connected a Steam Deck, I accidentally closed the installer, re-opened it, and recovered the full happening backmost successful Chinese.
(* I don’t privation to state excessively overmuch astir however oregon if Where Winds Meet runs connected the Deck, arsenic I was yet thwarted for bully by the launcher mistakenly underestimating the magnitude of escaped SSD abstraction I had left, blocking a afloat installation. The crippled is disposable connected Steam, which successful mentation should marque things a full batch easier than going the standalone launcher route, though I don’t person a Steam transcript and inactive haven’t tested show oregon whether the multiplayer anti-cheat plays bully with SteamOS. I’ll cheque post-launch and study back.)
Where Winds Meet champion settings guide
Fair warning: this is going to beryllium 1 of little utile settings guides connected RPS, partially due to the fact that small astir the settings helps to lick the aforementioned problems, and partially due to the fact that successful elemental framerate terms, thing with much computing powerfulness than your nan’s crossword solver is going to tally it at least adequately.
Then again, making idiosyncratic changes to the defaults is worthy doing, adjacent if you’re different blessed to blast disconnected connected the Ultra preset. I really think, for example, that the next-step-down Quality mounting for reflections looks amended than Ultra’s, arsenic per these screenshots of the 4 presets successful action:
Ultra preset, 1920x1080 native
To its credit, Where Winds Meet besides isn't 1 of those games wherever precocious and debased settings each execute much oregon little the same. On the RTX 4060, which I utilized to benchmark the effect of lowering each prime mounting individually, the Ultra preset averaged 64fps astatine 1080p, Quality 79fps, Balanced 90fps, and Performance 108fps – each earlier adjacent taking into relationship the effect of boosting tricks similar the upscalers.
All the same, erstwhile astir PCs volition beryllium capable to tally the higher settings without chugging (the sustained type, anyway), it’s good to permission the little impactful options turned disconnected portion tactically cutting those with the biggest framework bounties. With that successful mind, here’s the setup I’d purpose for:
- Motion blur: Off
- Super solution type: DLSS (or FSR if DLSS not supported) connected Quality
- Tessellation: Low
- Vegetation quality: Medium
- Reflection quality: Medium
- Everything else: Ultra preset equivalent
Tessellation and vegetation prime were by acold the biggest FPS hogs successful my RTX 4060 testing, and portion trees and bushes looked a small excessively scraggly connected Low – thus, the Medium prime – tessellation tin beryllium safely cranked down with minimal ocular loss. Reflections gave a fewer other fames arsenic well, and I inactive similar however Medium looks to the peculiar haziness of Ultra. All told, these settings (including DLSS) got the 4060 averaging 84fps: inactive abbreviated of the Balanced preset astatine autochthonal resolution, but better-looking overall, and noticeably slicker if your monitor’s refresh complaint goes beyond 60Hz.
Feel escaped to adhd DLSS framework procreation if you want, and are able; it’s apt lone adding eye-candy smoothness to a framerate that’s already rather high, but past its latency drawbacks are acold little evident successful that script than if you were to usage it to fudge the numbers of a low-performing game. Either way, that each applies to DLSS specifically. FSR upscaling should beryllium shunned, shouted at, and driven retired of municipality nether a barrage of pelted stones. It truly is that bad.
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