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Horizon Zero Dawn

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Horizon Zero Dawn
Horizon Zero Dawn cover
Developers
Guerrilla Games
Windows Virtuos[1][2]
Optimization Nixxes Software[3]
Publishers
PlayStation PC
THQ Nordic[4][5]
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
Series Horizon
Horizon Zero Dawn on HowLongToBeat
Horizon Zero Dawn on IGDB
Horizon Zero Dawn on MobyGames
Horizon Zero Dawn on Wikipedia
Horizon
Horizon Zero Dawn 2020
Horizon Forbidden West 2024

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.[6] 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.[7]

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.[7]

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.[8][9] Guerrilla Games released multiple patches in the following months, addressing various reported issues and improving the state of the game significantly.[10] 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.[11][12]

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Epic Games Store
DRM-free after installation through Epic Games Launcher (notes may include more details)
DRM-free when a shortcut is made to the executable with the -EpicPortal command line argument appended to the Target URL.[13]
Windows
GamersGate
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Windows
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Amazon.com (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Windows

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Skip intros with user mod[14]
  1. Download Intro Logos Skip mod.
  2. 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/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Horizon Zero Dawn\Saved Game\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1151640/pfx/[Note 1]
Save files can be imported from a jailbroken PlayStation 4.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Epic Games Launcher
[15][16]
GOG Galaxy
OneDrive
Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video

Display settings
Display settings
Graphics settings
Graphics settings
General settings [Note 2]
General settings [Note 2]

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.[7]
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.[7]
High-fidelity upscaling
FSR 1.0, DLSS 2.3
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.[17]
Ray tracing (RT)

Ultra-widescreen

Native cutscenes at 32:9 resolutions
Native cutscenes at 32:9 resolutions
Cutscenes after modification
Cutscenes after modification
Use SUWSF to remove the real-time cutscenes' pillarboxing[18]
Works also with DLSS enabled
  1. Download HZD-SUWSF.zip
  2. Extract the zip file to <path-to-game>
  3. 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[19]
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.
  1. Open <path-to-game>\HorizonZeroDawn.exe in a hex editor (e.g. HxD).
  2. Search for 39 8E E3 3F as hex.
  3. Replace it with 26 B4 17 40 (for 2560x1080) or any other aspect ratio in hex.
  4. DLSS fix: Search for 40 38 B0 C1 00 00 00 74 12 as hex.
  5. DLSS fix: Replace 74 12 with EB 12
  6. Save the changes.
  7. 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[14]
  1. Download Cheat Engine from the official website.
  2. Download the table from Fearless Revolution.
  3. Start the game.
  4. Run CE, and attach the HorizonZeroDawn.exe process.
  5. Load downloaded table.
  6. Set DOF Disable to Active, and optionally set a hotkey if desired.

Input

Control settings
Control settings

Audio

Audio settings
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
Audio is region locked to Japanese storefronts.
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 [21]
Cutscenes Bink Video [21]

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 10 v1809[22]
Processor (CPU) Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3 GHz
AMD FX-6300 3.5 GHz
System memory (RAM) 8 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
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.


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/1151640/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (1151640) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
  2. The HUD settings do not appear in the main menu.

References

  1. Our Services - Game Development - Virtuos - last accessed on 2022-10-05
    "HORIZON ZERO DAWN Guerrilla Games PC"
  2. Spaziogames.it - Horizon Zero Dawn PC review – Aloy has a new home (translated using Google Translate)) - last accessed on 2020-08-06
    "This conversion was not produced in-house but has the signature of Virtuos, a China-based studio based in Singapore."
  3. Guerilla Game Twitter Nixxes post-launch patches - last accessed on 2022-08-14
    "A huge shoutout to our friends at @NixxesSoftware who helped our teams with the recent PC patches! ❤"
  4. [1] - last accessed on 2021-05-18
  5. [2] - last accessed on 2021-05-19
  6. Hermen Hulst Q&A: Interview with Head of PlayStation’s Worldwide Studios - last accessed on 2020-07-30
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition for PC – FAQ - last accessed on 2020-07-30
  8. Horizon Zero Dawn's PC port is deeply disappointing - last accessed on 2020-08-07
  9. Horizon Zero Dawn on PC: Not the optimized port we were hoping for - last accessed on 2020-08-07
  10. Guerrilla Games - Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition For PC - Patch Notes - last accessed on 2020-11-06
  11. Horizon Zero Dawn Steam page news - last accessed on 2022-08-14
  12. Guerrilla Games Twitter Nixxes - last accessed on 2022-08-14
  13. Verified by User:Princeps on 2023-02-15
  14. 14.0 14.1 Verified by User:Keith on 2022-10-01
  15. Horizon Zero Dawn has no cloud save? - last accessed on 2021-04-06
  16. Epic Games Store - not working cloud saves in HZD.. - last accessed on 2021-04-06
  17. Verified by User:Rose on 2020-08-10
    Tested on an HDR TV. Screenshots taken with HDR off and on, then compared.
  18. How to get Horizon Zero Dawn's Cutscenes running in 21:9/Ultrawide - last accessed on 2020-08-07
  19. How to get Horizon Zero Dawn's Cutscenes running in 21:9/Ultrawide - last accessed on 2020-08-07
  20. Verified by User:Rose on 2020-09-17
    Leaving the global setting disabled results in the game recognizing the controller, while forcing it off for the game results in no recognition.
  21. 21.0 21.1 Horizon Zero Dawn Playstation 4 Credits - MobyGames - last accessed on 2020-03-12
    "Uses Bink Video Copyright © 2008-2017 by RAD Game Tools Inc
    Horizon Zero Dawn uses Havok © Copyright 1999-2008 Havok.com Inc. [and its Licensors]., All rights reserved.
    "
  22. Guerrilla Games - Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition for PC - Patch 1.03 - last accessed on 2020-09-02
    "Windows Version Check - The game checks if Windows 10 Build 1809 or above is used (lower versions cause instability in DirectX 12)."