Capcom released the newest entry into its popular Monster Hunter franchise early last year. Monster Hunter Wilds was a massive hit for the publisher, with it going on to sell over eight million copies within just three days of launch. While most aspects of the game were received well, its performance has been a tough issue since launch. Now, one user may have uncovered an easy fix that seemingly boosts performance on the PC version significantly.
Explained in a text post submitted to the /r/MonsterHunter subreddit, user de_Tylmarande says that after being fed up with performance issues with Monster Hunter Wilds, they decided to get to the bottom of the issue. After accidentally launching the game from a friend"s account with all of the
game"s DLC active, the user had realized that this version of the game was running much better than the base version.
Following further tests on the same hardware using both accounts, the user had come to the conclusion that the more DLC you own and have installed in Monster Hunter Wilds, the more performance it provides. This seems to be stemming from a DLC verification check that has gone into overdrive, bogging down the performance of accounts that do not have any microtransactions purchased.
While they do not recommend it, the user had "emulated" owning DLC to trick the game into thinking it had everything enabled, and frame rates had once again jumped as a result.
According to de_Tylmarande, without any DLC, the base game was running at 20-25 FPS in hub areas. On accounts with all DLC packs purchased, the same areas had Monster Hunter Wilds running at over 80 FPS. The user had tested the fix across multiple computers, with every one seeing the same results.
Performance issues have been the primary complaint of the PC version of Monster Hunter Wilds. Steam user reviews show a steady decline in the reception too, with it now standing at a Mixed rating.
The $70 game currently touts almost 200 pieces of DLC. If this DLC checking issue turns out to be the actual bug behind at least some of these performance issues, Capcom may roll out a fix soon.