Horizon Zero Dawn

Horizon Zero Dawn

Developers
	Guerrilla Games
Windows	Virtuos
Optimization	Nixxes Software
Publishers
	PlayStation PC
	THQ Nordic
Engines
	Decima
Release dates
Windows	August 7, 2020
Reception
Metacritic	84
OpenCritic	83
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	ARPG, Open world
Vehicles	Robot
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Post-apocalyptic, Sci-fi

Horizon Zero Dawn is an open world action RPG game developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. This game is a port of the 2017 PlayStation 4 console exclusive of the same name. The port was handled by Guerrilla Games and Virtuos. It is the first title that Guerrilla Games have developed for PC following their acquisition by SIE Worldwide Studios, and also marks the fourth game Sony Interactive Entertainment have directly published on the platform under the PlayStation PC brand. It is also the second release on PC to make use of the Decima engine, following the previous release of Death Stranding.

The game was initially announced for PC during March 2020 with a placeholder release date for later that year. The final release date, August 7, 2020, was announced in June alongside the release of a trailer showcasing the features of the PC version of the game.

The PC version of the game is available for Windows and distributed through Epic Games Store, Steam and GOG as the Complete Edition, which includes The Frozen Wilds expansion, along with a digital art book and additional in-game items, weapons and outfits. Despite the PC version being a Complete Edition, pre-order bonuses from the original PlayStation 4 (Nora Machine-Trapper Pack, Nora Lookout Armor, Nora Longshot Bow) are not included. It features ultra-widescreen support, high frame rates, adjustable field of view, and remapping for keyboard and mouse controls and controllers.

Reviews published shortly before the global release suggested that the game suffered from a number of technical problems, including stuttering introduced from a variety of different game elements, non-functional graphical settings, and major performance issues. Guerrilla Games released multiple patches in the following months, addressing various reported issues and improving the state of the game significantly. Nixxes Software was responsible for assisting Guerrilla Games with patch 1.11 and onwards, which introduced support for FSR 1.0, DLSS, improved shader management (less stutters and removed need for shader pre-compilation at startup) and various other fixes.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Epic Games Store		DRM-free when a shortcut is made to the executable with the -EpicPortal command line argument appended to the Target URL.
GamersGate
GOG.com
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam
Amazon.com (unavailable)

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Skip intros with user mod
Download Intro Logos Skip mod. Extract Patch_NoIntroLogos.bin to <path-to-game>\Packed_DX12.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Horizon Zero Dawn\Saved Game\profile\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1151640/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Horizon Zero Dawn\Saved Game\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1151640/pfx/

Save files can be imported from a jailbroken PlayStation 4.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video

Display settings

Graphics settings

General settings

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor		Limited to the borderless display mode. Cutscenes are pillarboxed to 16:9. See Ultra-widescreen for a solution.
Ultra-widescreen		Cutscenes are pillarboxed to 16:9. See Ultra-widescreen for a solution.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Ranges from 70°-100° in increments of 10. See Field of view (FOV) for more.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		In-game anisotropic filtering has been fixed as of Patch 1.07.[dubious – discuss]
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Camera-based, FXAA, SMAA and TAA.
High-fidelity upscaling		FSR 1.0, DLSS 2.0
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		The internal frame rate limiter allows for a cap between 30-120 in increments of 10, or Unlimited.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		HDR must be enabled in Windows. Brightness and Whitepoint adjustment sliders are available.
Ray tracing (RT)

• 

  FOV of 100 at 16:9

• 

  FOV of 100 at 21:9

• 

  FOV of 100 at 32:9

• 

  FOV of 100 at 48:9
  HUD To The Edges is Off

Ultra-widescreen

See Field of view (FOV) to remove black bars from cutscenes

Native cutscenes at 32:9 resolutions

Cutscenes after modification

Use SUWSF to remove the real-time cutscenes' pillarboxing
Works also with DLSS enabled Download HZD-SUWSF.zip Extract the zip file to <path-to-game> Launch the game and make sure the Display Aspect ratio option is set to Auto.

Modify the game executable to remove the real-time cutscenes' pillarboxing

This fix is available as patchers for a number of 21:9 and 32:9 resolutions.[dubious – discuss] The patchers do not include the fix for DLSS-compatibility with these patchers, so it has to be done seperately through the hex-editor. Open <path-to-game>\HorizonZeroDawn.exe in a hex editor (e.g. HxD). Search for 39 8E E3 3F as hex. Replace it with 26 B4 17 40 (for 2560x1080) or any other aspect ratio in hex. DLSS fix: Search for 40 38 B0 C1 00 00 00 74 12 as hex. DLSS fix: Replace 74 12 with EB 12 Save the changes. Launch the game and make sure the Display Aspect ratio option is set to Auto.

Depth of field

See Field of view (FOV) to disable DoF

Disable DoF with Cheat Engine
Download Cheat Engine from the official website. Download the table from Fearless Revolution. Start the game. Run CE, and attach the HorizonZeroDawn.exe process. Load downloaded table. Set DOF Disable to Active, and optionally set a hotkey if desired.

Input

Control settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Also supports X-axis inversion.
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		Also supports X-axis inversion.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		Steam version uses Steam Input.
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers		Steam Input must be enabled for the game.
DualShock button prompts
Light bar support
Connection modes	Wired, Bluetooth V2 tested

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Steam Input
Steam Input API support
Official controller preset(s)		Steam Controller, Xbox One controller and DualShock 4.
Steam Controller button prompts

• 

  Key remapping

• 

  Remapping for a DualShock 4 controller

• 

  Remapping for an
  Xbox One controller

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Speech and Sound Effects
Surround sound		Output is automatically set to what the output audio device supports.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Arabic
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Italian
Japanese				Japanese audio is available for Japan version
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Slovak				Use unofficial Slovak language file (Windows). Also contains localized textures.
Spanish
Latin American Spanish
Swedish

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		Z3D Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	12

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok
Cutscenes	Bink Video

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10 v1809
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3 GHz AMD FX-6300 3.5 GHz	Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5 GHz AMD Ryzen 5 1500X 3.5 GHz
System memory (RAM)	8 GB	16 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	100 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 AMD Radeon R9 290 3 GB (Nvidia), 4 GB (AMD) of VRAM DirectX 12 compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 AMD Radeon RX 580 6 GB (Nvidia), 8 GB (AMD) of VRAM

A 64-bit operating system is required.

The game required a CPU with AVX instructions on release. This was fixed in patch 1.0.8, now only requiring SSE4.2. This can in turn be lowered with a fix. As the fix hasn't been tested by the maker him/herself on the latest Steam-version of the game and an unsupported CPU requiring this fix (thus most likely resulting is severe performance-problems), it is not advised to apply this fix.