The Callisto Protocol, the debut game by Striking Distance Studios, released yesterday and was soon met with backlash primarily over issues on the PC version. Constant stuttering and poor performance were the main complaints, with even Neowin"s own Robbie Khan joining in to explain his journey and ultimate disappointment with the game.
Only a day later though, the studio released its first PC update, aiming to resolve the stuttering issues caused by Unreal Engine 4"s background shader compilation process the title uses.
"Thanks for your patience. A PC patch is now available to improve gameplay stuttering issues due to shader compilation," Striking Distance said in a tweet. "After updating, you may see temporary stuttering in the game menu the first time you launch the app."
As for why this fix wasn"t included at launch, The Callisto Protocol director Glen Schofield, and creator of Dead Space, has alluded to this being the fault of a wrong file being accidentally included with the release product due to "someone rushing."
The quick update seems to have at least resolved a majority of shader compilation-induced stutters going by user reports. As for performance, the studio added that further optimization-focused updates will be rolling out in the near future. The Callisto Protocol"s Steam user reviews are slowly improving already too, with it now touting a "Mixed" rating, up from the launch day"s "Mostly Negative" reception.