This update now enables the enhanced visual effects for certain users

Dec 7, 2011 09:39 GMT  ·  By

Batman: Arkham City has just received a brand new PC patch that fixes some of the variety of DirectX 11 issues that appeared once the game was released a couple of weeks ago for that platform.

Arkham City delighted millions of gamers that owned a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 back in October and, after a couple of delays, finally reached the PC last month, on which it promised to deliver a more high quality experience, thanks to special Nvidia’s PhysX effects or its 3D Vision system, which we got a chance to try out before the weekend.

Sadly, the PC version was crippled by issues and lag when players tried to run it with DirectX 11 effects, so Rocksteady, its developer, recommended everyone to run it in the older DirectX 9 setting, before a patch was released.

Now, finally, a patch has been deployed by the UK-based studio through Valve’s Steam digital distribution service, which promises to at least eliminate some of the DirectX 11 issues.

According to the announcement made on Steam, DirectX 11 can now be enabled by users who are running 64-bit editions of the Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems.

“We have just released a patch for Batman: Arkham City PC that provides fixes a variety of DX 11 issues, as well as fixes for a few other non-DX 11 related issues. The DX 11 fixes will apply for the majority of players, however, some specific Steam users will experience issues when running under DX 11,” Rocksteady said.

“With this latest patch, Steam users with the following Windows Operation Systems should avoid running the game under DX 11 until further notice: - Windows Vista 32 bit - Windows 7 32 bit”

“Users running Windows 7 32 bit or Windows Vista 32 bit should ONLY use DX 9 settings until a future patch that addresses this specific issue is released. We are actively working to address the remaining issue tied to DX 11 for users running 32 bit versions of Windows Vista or Windows 7.”

The patch also addresses some other issues encountered by Batman: Arkham City on the PC, so check them out below.

- Performance / hitching issues have been greatly improved for running in DX 11. - An issue with players running out of Video Memory or encountering a Rendering Thread Exceptions has been address. This was primarily affecting 32-bit Operating Systems. - A progression block after defeating Ra’s Al Ghul has been fixed. This was issue occurred primarily on lower end computer setups and described as Batman not readying his Reverse Batarang. - A crash that occurred when scrolling between the Character Bios and Arkham City Stories has been fixed. - A crash that occurred when selecting “Press Start” immediately when available at the Title Screen has been fixed. The issue was described as crashing/hard locking around the DLC (Downloadable Content) check. The patch will be automatically downloaded by Steam if you’re connected to the internet.