What simply occurred? Regardless of its superior age and competitors from newer comparable titles, Group Fortress 2 is as huge as ever and nonetheless receives important updates. The newest patch considerably alters how the sport runs underneath the hood, notably for fanatic players.
Group Fortress 2 obtained a patch this week that, whereas technically minor, introduces significant modifications to its efficiency. The sport lately hit all-time-high participant counts because it approaches its seventeenth birthday.
The brand new replace’s major results embrace efficiency enhancements for many customers and the introduction of 64-bit assist on Home windows and Linux. Though Valve did not formally affirm the extent of the anticipated framerate enhance, the official Group Fortress 2 wiki states that the patch raised the default cap from 300 to 400fps.
Taking part in aggressive first-person shooters at three-figure framerates is not unusual for gamers with the most recent high-end GPUs and excessive refresh-rate shows. Many declare it improves latency and movement readability. Gaming monitor distributors now usually provide fashions supporting 360hz at 1440p and approaching 500hz at 1080p. Blizzard elevated Overwatch 2’s most framerate when the GeForce RTX 4090 proved it might run the sport past 500fps in native 1440p.
Group Fortress 2’s new patch additionally engages uncooked enter by default, which may additional scale back latency by circumventing management panel settings to learn mouse enter instantly from the gadget. Moreover, the Direct3D-to-Vulkan translation layer is now accessible on Linux utilizing the “-vulkan” command line choice. One bug repair resolves a difficulty that induced some antivirus packages to flag the sport.
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Valve’s class-based shooter initially debuted within the fall of 2007 on PC and consoles alongside classics like the unique Portal and Name of Obligation 4, 9 years after its preliminary announcement in 1998. Group Fortress 2 is considerably of a predecessor to right this moment’s extra common stylized team-based shooters like Overwatch, Valorant, and Apex Legends, however maintains a wholesome group regardless of right this moment’s crowded market.
The numerous content material replace that the 16-year-old recreation obtained final 12 months was lengthy overdue however introduced in additional gamers than ever. The summer season 2023 bundle added over a dozen maps and different user-generated content material. In-game occasions have since maintained the momentum, with comparable spikes in concurrent gamers showing in October and over the vacations. The ozfortress Autumn 2024 occasion reaches its climax this weekend. Group Fortress 2 stays amongst Steam’s high 20 most-played video games, simply forward of Grand Theft Auto V.