Helldivers 2 Revamped Upscalers Are Causing Major Issues

Arrowhead Game Studios just released a new patch for Helldivers 2 that was meant to improve the game's performance on PC, but some players are reporting that the newly added upscaling features may not have been implemented correctly.

The Hell Divers 2 Machinery of Oppression: 6.2.5 patch introduces additional resolution options, latency reduction features, and upscaling support, including DLSS 4.5, but many members of the Helldivers community are reporting major problems with the upscalers.

Helldivers 2 Players Say Upscalers Aren't Working Properly

For this patch, Arrowhead recruited the help of Nixxes Software, who worked on PC ports of Death Stranding 2, and Horizon Forbidden West, with the goal of solving the game's performance woes once and for all, but it may not be going according to plan.

Arrowhead stated, "Together with our friends at Nixxes Software, we’ve deployed an update with improvements for PC. From upscaling technologies and latency-reduction features to various optimizations and stability fixes, this patch is built to help you stay on target when the battlefield gets chaotic."

Helldivers 2 added the following support for the following version of upscalers:

• FSR 3.1.5
• DLSS 4.5
• XeSS 3.0
• Variable Rate Shading (VRS) for supported devices
• Added support for DRS on PC
• Added NVIDIA's Reflex for NVIDIA GPUs
• Added AMD's Anti-Lag 2 for AMD GPUs

HD2 players are reporting that DLSS and FSR are not working properly, resulting in blurry or pixelated graphics. Reddit user kizuati posted screenshots of the Helldivers DLSS in action, stating, "Upscalers are not implemented correctly and are essentially unusable."

Kizuati explains that the new upscaling technologies may only be partially working and will need to be patched. "It looks like the actual Helldiver model gets upscaled correctly, while the rest of the world doesn't."

This issue appears to be widespread, and is not only resulting in poor image quality, but many Steam users are also reporting crashes and reduced FPS when upscaling is on.

Aside from the upscaling technology that may need to be patched, Machinery of Oppression: 6.2.5 was meant to resolve a number of technical problems. This patch claims to have:

• Fixed an issue where Helldivers couldn't climb small obstacles without auto-climb on
• Fixed multiple rendering issues
• Added additional resolution options
• Improved the high reflection setting
• Improved VRAM management on PC

When it comes to co-op shooters, Helldivers is definitely one of the more well-known names, as many players fell in love with the gameplay and the universe; blasting bugs with friends as the galaxy's last line of offense, but performance issues and patches that seem to do more harm than good have left many members of the Helldivers community feeling frustrated.

Another Reddit user corroborates the issues with HD2's new upscaling technology, stating, "I swear I'm not part of the always mad at AH group, and I'm sorry, I really am, but did we seriously get ANOTHER untested patch that created a new batch of issues once again with the upscalers?"

Despite having fans that love the premise of the game and are hoping to see Arrowhead finally iron out all the wrinkles, this latest batch of problems has once again left the game's review scores plummeting.

Since this latest patch, Helldivers 2's user reviews on Steam have once again landed the game in the mostly negative category, as players continue to report weird visual anomalies, crashes that weren't happening prior to the latest patch, and, of course, the issues with upscaling.

Arrowhead Game Studios has not addressed the issue yet, but we'll likely see an announcement in the very near future.

Released February 8, 2024

ESRB Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact

Developer(s) Arrowhead Game Studios, Nixxes