Highguard's first title update adds more input and graphics options plus major stability fixes

Wildlight Entertainment has released the first title update for Highguard and published the full patch notes for Patch 1.0.4. The update focuses on input options, additional graphics controls for PC and consoles, and stability improvements that the developers say reduce major crashes by about 90 percent.

The patch adds player-facing input choices. Crouch can now be set to Hold or Toggle on all platforms. Aim Down Sights can be set to Hold or Toggle on PC for the moment, with the developer saying they are working to add that option for consoles later.

Graphics options receive a sizeable expansion, especially on PC. New toggles let players disable Anisotropic Materials, Chromatic Aberration, and Bloom. Global Illumination can now be switched off entirely to help performance. DLSS users can choose a DLSS preset, and the developers said more presets and clearer descriptions will arrive in a future update.

Low scalability settings for shadows and reflections have been tuned to boost performance further, and the low shadow option now also disables volumetric fog. The update introduces a new View Distance Quality setting that controls skeletal mesh level of detail to help reduce GPU and CPU load. Console players can now raise FoV to 110.

The team fixed an engine issue that could lock some laptops to 60 FPS regardless of chosen frame rate, and resolved crashes that could occur when leaving a match on PS5 with an unexpected input state or when loading matches on slower storage devices. The developers also listed a number of matchmaking and presence fixes, including corrected friend status updates and more reliable Xbox presence reporting.

Developers acknowledged reports that mouse controls felt “floaty” and that players suspected mouse acceleration. The developer stated Highguard does not use mouse acceleration and said it is investigating remaining input feel issues for a future update.

Highguard Patch 1.0.4 Release Notes

Added the ability to set Crouch to Hold or Toggle for all platforms.
Added the ability to set Aim Down Sights to Hold or Toggle for PC only (for now).

Toggling into ADS then tapping Sprint (shift on PC, left stick on controller) will swap your scope. This is disorienting on controller. PC players are recommended to rebind scope swap if using Toggle ADS. We will continue to look into adding this for console players who can’t rebind buttons yet, but we will need more time.

Console users can now adjust FoV to 110.
Low scalability settings for shadows and reflections are tuned for even more performance at the cost of some image quality.
Low shadow setting now also disables volumetric fog.
Added a new “View Distance Quality” setting that controls skeletal mesh LODs, which can be another useful control to tune GPU and CPU usage.

Players now have the ability to toggle the following features on or off, irrespective of other quality options:

Anisotropic Materials
Chromatic Aberration
Bloom

Motion Blur and Depth of Field need more testing to disable safely. Look for these options very soon.

DLSS users now have the ability to select a DLSS preset. More presets and better descriptions are coming in the next patch.
Players can now select Off to disable Global Illumination entirely.
Resolved an engine bug which could inadvertently throttled laptop users to 60 FPS regardless of frame rate settings.

This patch resolves crashes that could occur in the following scenarios

Leaving a match on PS5 with an unexpected input state.
Loading into matches on machines with slower storage devices.

A number of other bugs related to online user presence and matchmaking were also resolved.

Friends now appear online correctly after accepting requests, and Xbox presence updates properly. Major crash fixes have reduced crashes by 90%, significantly improving stability.
Friend status is fixed – players now appear online correctly and Xbox presence updates reliably. Our top crash issues are gone resulting in a 90% crash reduction.

Steam clients will download this patch the next time they are launched. What do you think? Please leave your thoughts and experiences with Patch 1.0.4 in the comment section below.

Highguard updates are shared on X, Bluesky, YouTube, and Instagram.

From the creators of Apex Legends and Titanfall, comes Highguard: a PvP raid shooter where players will ride, fight, and raid as Wardens, arcane gunslingers sent to fight for control of a mythical continent.