Marvel Rivals is a demanding game on any platform, with PC players widely understanding that the hero shooter takes a toll on performance. That being said, the game has slowly but steadily been getting quality-of-life improvements every seasonal update, adding new options for players to reduce the strain it takes to run the title. With Season 9.5 releasing soon, another planned fix could help out players struggling to keep Marvel Rivals working well, drastically reducing one of the game’s more annoying elements.
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Every time a new Season for Marvel Rivals has released, new heroes, maps, skins, and other information need to be downloaded by players who want to experience everything new. With Season 9’s huge update to Team-Ups, the gameplay is incredibly varied in ways not seen since launch, but the visual clutter and performance problems have grown too. In response to the growing size of the game for players to download and update, developers at NetEase have one big change planned for Season 9.5.
Marvel Rivals Introduces Sweeping Storage Optimization In Season 9.5 To Vastly Improve Performance
Announced as part of the Season 9.5 Dev Vision video, Marvel Rivals plans to vastly reduce the storage size requirements for the game as part of its midway update. A number of changes are being made to the hero shooter internally, including a massive texture compression overhaul to reduce the overall visual display demands. With the new Team-Up effects causing large amounts of visual clutter fans have been critical of, this is a welcome adjustment. Fans have already been given the option to turn off unique Team-Up visuals, so greater reduction of optic strain will hopefully prevent further discomfort.
These changes are meant to not sacrifice any visual fidelity either, so players who can high the game on High or Ultra graphics settings won’t see any differences. Hopefully, this lower performance requirement gives other players the chance to see Marvel Rivals‘ stylized graphics on higher settings too. Another reason why this update is so promising is that it is shrinking the game’s total footprint on player hard drives, freeing up space for other titles. Alternatively, players could leave extra storage room on their systems with Marvel Rivals‘ size reduction, reducing strain on their system if they have limited RAM.
PC players in particular seem to benefit the most from this change, as the Dev Vision pointed out that almost 40 GB of Marvel Rivals will be reduced in size with the Season 9.5 update. Due to the complete re-packaging of in-game assets, the mid-Season update will take longer to download than most, but once done, players may experience relief in the game’s performance. As one of the largest held complaints against Marvel Rivals since its debut, this storage space issue could help players who have long desired to try the hero shooter in earnest.
Players Across All Platforms Can See The File Size Of The Hero Shooter Dramatically Decrease
The file size of Marvel Rivals is also going down on PlayStation and Xbox consoles by around 15 GB, opening up some space for other players besides just PC users. Console players will experience a similar big download of reworked assets for the 9.5 update, but not nearly as large as the comparative PC version. The final install size on the game for all devices will be much larger than before as well, meaning players downloading Marvel Rivals for the first time after Season 9.5 will have a far easier time doing so.
The fact that these performance changes are universal is a net positive for the game, even if console users haven’t been experiencing as many problems as PC players have. Anything that prevents stutters, crashes, frame drops, or even screen freezes that sometimes take place in Marvel Rivals is great for everyone. With new characters like The Hood also releasing for the Season 9.5 patch, along with several balance changes, it’s good to know that the new additions won’t be as detrimental to the game’s storage like it has been for prior updates.
Quality-Of-Life Features Could Allow PC Players To Try Marvel Rivals Without High-End Hardware
The demand Marvel Rivals takes on any PC usually causes players to make sacrifices in regards to the game’s visual fidelity. Unless you have a high-end graphics card and a lot of RAM, it’s likely you won’t be able to play on higher settings and get the game to work well. The strain of the hero shooter is well-known, but Season 9.5’s storage space improvements mark the latest in a trend of performance tweaks to give players with weaker equipment a better chance at playing.
In the best case scenario, players will now have an opportunity to play Marvel Rivals without as many issues on lower-end hardware. Even in the worst case, players will have extra room on their systems so that the hero shooter isn’t creating obstacles or driving the entirely of their device’s storage. In either case, the 9.5 changes are a big quality-of-life feature, even if it sounds simple on the surface.
For those looking to improve their PC performance, it looks like developers are continuing to make an effort to make their lives easier. At the same time, Marvel Rivals‘ experience keeps growing, so this kind of update could happen again when Season 10 and others roll around.
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