Summary
- Patch 9 for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor removes the controversial Denuvo DRM from the PC version.
- Performance improvements include framerate enhancements and mouse-and-keyboard controls.
- Bug fixes address crashes and collision issues, improving the overall gameplay experience.
A newly released update for action-adventure game Star Wars Jedi: Survivor removes one of the PC version's most controversial features, Denuvo Digital Rights Management. The update to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor also aims to improve the game's performance and add some quality-of-life upgrades.
Originally released in 2014, Denuvo DRM is a controversial anti-tampering program used by many game developers to prevent cheating in their games. While it's been implemented in many popular games franchises like Resident Evil and Far Cry, it's also earned a lot of criticism from the gaming community for its high rate of CPU usage and writing on storage components that players fear may shorten the lifespans of their SSD devices, though Denuvo denies those claims.
Notes regarding Patch 9 for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor were posted to the game's official website on September 12. While there are several features included in the list of upgrades made to the game, the removal of Denuvo DRM is likely to be the one to catch most players' attention. Many gaming fans seem to have an uneasy feeling whenever the anti-tampering software is mentioned, with a large part of the community believing that its inclusion in a game can negatively impact performance. Developer Respawn Entertainment had announced that Star Wars Jedi: Survivor would utilize Denuvo DRM just a few days ahead of its launch in April 2023, which elicited a strong negative response from some potential players. The new patch notes don't give any explanation for the reasons behind the removal of Denuvo DRM.
While not necessarily related to that change, the latest update for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor spells good news for performance on PC, as the notes point out performance improvements for mouse-and-keyboard controls, which also see functionality updates on various menu screens in the game. Additionally, the notes announce frame rate improvements depending on the hardware configurations used, and higher-end PC users should also see a notable improvement to visuals, as the new update also adds optimization for the game's Ray Tracing software.
A few bug fixes have been put in place as well, addressing crashes when walking away from NPCs and collision issues that have caused players to clip and fall through the bottoms of elevators when the game is experiencing low frame rates. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor had some game-breaking bugs at launch, and addressing them seems to have been a major concern for developers across the game's lifespan.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Patch 9 Details
Performance Improvements
- Framerate improvements for various hardware configurations.
- Fixes for several sources of framerate hitching for smoother gameplay.
- Ray Tracing has been optimized for CPU usage and should now scale better for high-end GPUs.
- Fixes for performance related to using a mouse as gameplay input.
Quality of Life
- The “Optimizing Game Files” screen has been optimized and can now see speed increases from multiple CPU cores.
- Mouse and keyboard functionality has been improved across a variety of menu screens, including the first time user screens, title menu, game menu, and workbench.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed collision issue where players could fall through elevators at low framerates.
- Fix for a conversation-related crash when walking away from NPC characters.
- Fix for various, intermittent crashes. Motion values, and not just the custom value and the default game speed.
General
- Denuvo DRM has been removed.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 84 /100 Critics Rec: 87%
- Released
- April 28, 2023
- ESRB
- T For Teen due to Mild Language, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Respawn Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Electronic Arts
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 4
- Franchise
- Star Wars
WHERE TO PLAY
The story of Cal Kestis continues in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor™, a third person galaxy-spanning action-adventure game from Respawn Entertainment, developed in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games. This narratively-driven, single player title picks up five years after the events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order™ and follows Cal’s increasingly desperate fight as the galaxy descends further into darkness. Pushed to the edges of the galaxy by the Empire, Cal will find himself surrounded by threats new and familiar. As one of the last surviving Jedi Knights, Cal is driven to make a stand during the galaxy’s darkest times - but how far is he willing to go to protect himself, his crew, and the legacy of the Jedi Order?
Explore an Untamed Galaxy – Discover new planets and familiar frontiers in the Star Wars galaxy, each with unique biomes, challenges, and enemies. Master new skills, equipment, and abilities that will augment the ways you explore, fight, and roam. With larger areas to explore and more to discover off the beaten path, players who adventure beyond the horizon will find hidden rewards.
- Platform(s)
- PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S
- Genre(s)
- Action-Adventure, Soulslike, Sci-Fi
- How Long To Beat
- 20 Hours
- X|S Optimized
- Yes
- File Size Xbox Series
- 134 GB (May 2024)
