It seems that the consensus of the performance of Monster Hunter Wilds on PC is mixed at current. To some, it’s smooth enough to not disrupt the gameplay experience. Others find it only slightly better than the technical mess that was its beta. And as I noted back then, things were especially bad in multiplayer hubs. For those in the latter camp, there’s some good news. It seems that the cause for the poor performance may have been identified. And it may have been caused by the silliest thing ever.
Reddit user de_Tylmarande has made the claim that Monster Hunter Wilds runs better when you have DLC installed. And the effect is especially pronounced in hubs. Their testing involves using a friend’s copy of their game with a lot of DLC installed versus their own with none, both running on the same machine. The result is over 60fps gain on the account with DLC in hubs. This test is repeated on PCs with different configurations, with the same result.
Another test included creating a mod that tricks the game into thinking it has all DLC installed, without actually having any. The result of this test ended up being better performance than the account with actual DLC bought. The post does note that the massive gain in frames is specifically in hubs, and especially when you’re near the Felyne NPC with the DLC menu. Elsewhere, the gains are much smaller, though the Reddit user says that more tests are needed on that front.
Another DRM-Like Check Causing Performance Issues
The working hypothesis here is that Monster Hunter Wilds on PC has a bug in the code which makes it constantly check for installed DLC when the game doesn’t detect them. And this constant check is what is tanking performance when the game is running.
PC Gamer and Digital Foundry did tests of their own, albeit the former doing so with a much beefier system. Which leads to less frames gained in the first camp area, and even less – if any – out in missions. The report does speculate that lower-specced PCs may see bigger differences, reflecting the claim by de_Tylmarande.
For those who remember, this is all pretty reminiscent of the Resident Evil Village DRM mess from back in 2021. Only now, rather than constantly checking for signs of tampering, Monster Hunter Wilds’ buggy code is checking for DLC, and repeatedly when it doesn’t detect DLC being installed.
For what it’s worth, in an update to the Reddit post, de_Tylmarande says that Capcom is aware of the problem. The publisher is working on a fix, on the DLC-checking logic, as well as potentially more. Hopefully this falls under the PC-specific optimisation patch coming this month that was previously announced.
