[2021] 3.14.3 Engine Patch Notes Preview

In preparation for the launch of our 3.15 expansion, we've been working on an update that includes some engine improvements and new performance metrics graphs. You can check out a preview of the patch notes in today's news post.

We're planning to deploy this patch before the end of the working week, possibly around two days from now. In the meantime, we've prepared a preview of the patch notes for you, which you can check out below.

Please note that these patch notes may be changed prior to their deployment.

Engine and Technical Changes:

• In addition to the internal engine improvements in this patch, there are some technical changes for you to be aware of.


• We have replaced the old Performance Metrics graphs with new ones
  
  that show a lot more information. We now graph several different metrics on the same graph and have bars that show relative load on different systems (CPU, GPU, System Memory, VRAM, Drive, Shader Compilation, Latency and the Instance Server). If one of these bars is maxing out, then that's the current bottleneck that you should consider upgrading. If critical issues such as insufficient VRAM are noticed, then the display will alert you to this.


• If you are encountering performance issues and want to make a video of it to show us then please have the Performance Metrics graphs on, as they have lots of information about what is bottlenecking your performance.


• If the Shaders bar alerts you about shader loading/saving being critically slow, consider changing what the drive that shader cache is stored on to a faster one. In the [GENERAL] section of the settings file, you can set cache_directory=x:\path\to\preferred\location to a folder on a faster drive.


• Like before, you can cycle through the three Performance Metrics states (hidden, FPS/performance, latency-only) by pressing F1. In the settings file's [UI] section you can set performance_metrics_state=fps (or =latency or =hidden) to set the default state.


• We have added a Gameplay tab to the Options panel and tidied up the Options.


• We have removed the button in the Options panel that allows you to clear your local cache. This can still be done manually by advanced users that have a specific reason to. The button was causing players to clear their cache, which removes the significant performance benefits of having a cache. The cache is automatically cleared once every league launch.


• We have removed the 32-bit Path of Exile client. Basically no one is running 32-bit versions of Windows anymore.


• Vulkan users with less than 2600mb of VRAM are now unable to select High texture quality, as there isn't enough video memory for the high-quality textures. DirectX users can continue to select it, but like before, performance will suffer on low memory systems as DirectX swaps assets into and out of system memory to try to cope.

General Improvements and Crash Fixes:

• Fixed a bug where tutorial notifications were not showing on macOS.


• Fixed a visual bug with Celestial Toxic Rain that caused flickering white boxes.


• Fixed an instance crash.