NieR Automata Steam Patch Includes 4K Textures and HDR for PCs

The promised NieR Automata Steam patch, which would act as an upgrade for the initial PC version of the game, has a release date. Square Enix confirmed on the product page that it would launch on July 15, 2021. It also offered patch notes for the update confirming the changes. Namely, NieR Automata should look a lot different due to newly added 4K textures, anti-aliasing support, borderless videos, and an HDR mode.

This all came about once the Xbox Game Pass PC version of the game launched. People realized it was different than the Steam release and included some fixes to the game. Square Enix then promised a NieR Automata Steam patch that would “upgrade” the game.

While there aren’t too many details about the patch, a few specifics were mentioned. For example, there will be around 270 new NieR Automata 4K textures added, to improve the game’s appearance. Cutscenes will run at 60fps once it’s installed, and it should remain at 60fps generally while you play. The NieR Automata HDR support also means it’ll detect if you have it.

Here are the full patch notes from Steam.

• Borderless Video Settings
Borderless video settings have been implemented.
• Fidelity FX
A Fidelity FX CAS feature has been added.
• HDR
The system will now detect whether HDR has been activated in the Windows display settings, and automatically boot the game in HDR mode if it has.
• Anti-aliasing
Adjustments to the anti-aliasing functionality
• UI textures (4K)
Approximately 270 UI textures for icons, backdrops and UI elements etc. now support 4K resolutions.
• Cut scenes
The bit rate has been improved and all pre-rendered cut scenes adjusted, so they will now play in 60FPS and display in the correct aspect ratio without stretching the picture.
• Global illumination
A new “Global illumination” feature has been implemented. This can be set to three different levels; High, Medium or Low.
• Ambient occlusion/ bloom
The rendering targets for ambient occlusion and bloom effects have been changed to dynamic resolution based on the game’s resolution.
▼ Bug fixes
• It is now possible to switch between recently selected display modes for screenshots, such as between full screen and windowed mode or between borderless and windowed mode, by pushing the Alt + Enter keys together.
• The mouse cursor is no longer displayed when using a game pad controller.
• The frame rate has been stabilized at 60FPS under default settings.
Other stability related fixes have also been implemented.

NieR Automata is available on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. It is also on Xbox Game Pass. The NieR Automata Steam patch will arrive on July 15, 2021.