Wuchang: Fallen Feathers has recently received a patch aimed at improving performance. Yet, it seems the fix is mostly about forcing upscaling on, even if players turn it off. This approach has raised some eyebrows among the PC gaming community, especially given the game’s already mixed reception.
Steam reviews for Wuchang: Fallen Feathers are currently “mostly negative,” with over 25,000 reviews. Our own Tyler noted that while the game introduces some interesting boss fight ideas, the rest feels like a pale imitation of better titles. The latest patch, version 1.4, was intended to address performance issues; however, according to GPU expert Daniel Owen on YouTube and Reddit, it may be more of a workaround than a genuine fix.
Owen compared the launch version of the game with the 1.4 patch, running tests on a GeForce RTX 3060. The game labels the setting as “oversampling resolution,” but it’s basically an upscaling feature. At 100%, the GPU should render frames at the monitor’s resolution (for example, 3840 x 2160 for 4K). Lowering this percentage drops the rendering resolution, which is easier for the GPU to handle.
What Owen found surprising was that in patch 1.4, performance at 100% upscaling was almost the same as at 67%, while the launch version behaved as expected, with 100% giving lower performance. This strongly suggests the developers are forcing upscaling all the time, even when players select 100% or disable it.
From what I’ve seen in performance footage, the game appears to be very pixel-bound. This means frame rates drop sharply with higher resolutions. Upscaling can help here, but it feels like a shortcut rather than a genuine optimization. The developers hinted at this approach in patch notes for 1.3 and 1.4:
- Patch 1.4: “Optimizing performance issues for a certain device models.“
- Patch 1.3: “Supersampling resolution limits have been adjusted on select GPU models to prevent unintended performance degradation.“
Owen has only tested on an RTX 3060, but it looks like this forced upscaling might apply to many lower-tier GPUs, especially those popular among Valve’s Hardware Survey users. I don’t mind a developer using upscaling to help performance on weaker hardware, but forcing it on and then not being upfront about it feels off.
Given Wuchang: Fallen Feathers hasn’t exactly won over the PC crowd, sneaky tactics like this probably won’t improve its reputation. It might even make players more frustrated.
What do you think about this approach to performance fixes? Have you noticed changes in your gameplay experience? Let’s chat about it in the comments below.
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