In response to physics exploits in the Fallout 76 PC beta, Bethesda has seemingly capped the game’s frame rate to around 60 frames per second. Last week’s PC beta saw users “speed hacking” the game by uncapping their frame rate, which caused physics simulations like character movement to run faster. Today’s PC beta introduced a fix that locks the game’s frame rate, and frustrated fans.
The Fallout 76 subreddit began to get posts from users frustrated by the arbitrary frame rate cap earlier today. According to several posts, the beta is now capped to 63 frames per second, which alleviates the speed hacking exploit seen in the previous PC betas. Several posters are angry that the game, which had been running near 100 frames per second for them, is now locked to 63 frames per second. Others have been dealing with input lag because of the frame rate cap. One Reddit poster is calling Bethesda’s fix “abysmal,” and that such a fix puts the game in “refund territory.”
Players of the previous Fallout 76 PC beta were able to edit a configuration file for the game to enable higher frame rates. The game engine ties physics simulations to frame rate, and each individual player was limited by the speed the game’s graphics processes refreshed on their system. Players running the game at a high frame rate experienced faster character movement, more “gravity” and could look at the ground to run faster.
Bethesda Game Studios have yet to respond directly about the frame rate cap, although other issues with the multiplayer code were recently addressed. Yesterday, we wrote about a Reddit post that asserted Fallout 76 PC was not secure and vulnerable to exploits. In a statement to IGN, Bethesda said claims in the thread were inaccurate. Bethesda also said that several issues were being actively tracked and fixes are being worked on, but did not detail those issues. Patch notes for the Fallout 76 beta did not include specifically related to the game’s supposed frame rate cap on PC.
