Horizon Zero Dawn PC Patch Fixes Baby Aloy Bug And More

Horizon Zero Dawn launched on PC earlier this month, but it wasn't exactly a smooth experience on launch day. Guerrilla Games has been working on patches for the game's most pressing issues, many of which have been fixed in its latest update.

Patch 1.03 addresses numerous known issues with Horizon Zero Dawn, ranging from memory issues leading to performance woes to strange progression hurdles. That includes one peculiar instance where the game wouldn't recognize your progress correctly, locking you into the prologue where you play as a young Aloy and never transitioning to the character seen on the game's box art.

Other issues that have been mended are ones that have persisted since launch, such as the game not launching in native 4K even after being set to that on the previous launch, as well as the adaptive resolution scaling being tweaked to be far less aggressive when not hitting your optimal frame rate. Guerrilla Games also notes that there are several issues it is aware of and still addressing, while also keeping an eye on user-complied lists on the game's Reddit page.

Horizon Zero Dawn might not have launched in the best shape on PC, but with these patches it is inching closer to the sublime experience it was when it originally released on PS4. In our Horizon Zero Dawn review, critic Peter Brown wrote, "Guerrilla Games has delivered one of the best open-world games of this generation, and redefined its team's reputation in the process."

Horizon Zero Dawn - Patch 1.03

Known Issues

• Some players are experiencing an out of memory error during the game optimization process.
• Some players are experiencing graphical settings issues, such as Anisotropic Filtering or HDR not working correctly.
• Some players are experiencing performance issues on specific GPUs or hardware combinations.
• We're aware of and continue to investigate issues that are not yet solved on both the player-compiled lists by u/EvilMonkeySlayer and u/Rampage572 - thank you!

Patch Notes

Crash Fixes

• Fixed a GPU resource leak which could build up over time and cause instability.
• Fixed a GPU hang that caused a crash that could occur when Asynchronous Compute was used.
• Fixed a crash when AI would try to aim at an invalid position.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when sound obstruction was calculated in highly detailed areas.
• Fixed a crash that would occur when moving the game to a monitor with different DPI settings while in the menu.
• Fixed an issue where some players would crash on startup due to incorrect memory allocation.
• Fixed a GPU hang that would occur when the window was resized to a very small size.

Progression Issues

• Fixed a progression issue where some players would remain a child and not transition to adult Aloy.

Functionality Issues

• Fixed an issue where snow deformation was not working correctly in the Frozen Wilds area.
• Fixed an issue where the Concentration skill could stop working.

Other improvements

• 4K Scaling - Fixed an issue where the game wouldn't render at 4K properly on boot.
• Frame Rate Limiter - Improved Frame Rate Limiter functionality to be more accurate.
• Localization - Localized specific error messages.
• Windows Version Check - The game checks if Windows 10 Build 1809 or above is used (lower versions cause instability in DirectX 12).
• Minimum Spec Warning - Improved minimum spec warning message and options.
• Saving Issue Warning - Clarified text that is displayed when you do not have access to your My document folder or enough disk space.
• Player Profile Validation - The player profile is now validated and corrupt profiles (caused by manual editing or tweak tools) rejected.