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No Man’s Sky now supports the Vulkan API on the PC, improving overall performance

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Hello Games has released a brand new update for the PC version of No Man’s Sky, adding official support for the Vulkan API. As the team noted, Vulkan has replaced OpenGL in this latest update, meaning that players, particularly players with AMD graphics cards, should see a performance improvement.

As Hello Games stated:

“As part of our optimisation work, we have added Vulkan support to the game. We have been able to do this not only for Beyond, but for the current live version of the game. As such, we wanted to release this to you as soon as possible.

Final Vulkan support will bring many PC players an immediate performance improvement, but it also helps us increase our options as we continue to make significant engine changes. It is only one portion of a large body of work that will see technical improvements for all players on all platforms.”

This new PC patch also revises HDR support and updates the output curve in line with advances in HDR calibration, adds Adaptive and Triple-Buffered V-Sync options, and allows players with more than one GPU to select which one will be used.

This patch is currently available on the PC experimental build. In order to access it, you’ll have to right-click on No Man’s Sky from the Steam library page and select “Properties”. Among the available tabs will be the “BETAS” tab. Enter “3xperimental” in the textbox and click “Check Code”. “experimental – Experimental” will now be available in the dropdown menu under “Select the beta you would like to opt into”.

Below you can find the complete changelog this PC patch.

No Man’s Sky PC Vulkan Patch Release Notes

  • OpenGL has been replaced by Vulkan. Many players, particularly players with AMD graphics cards, should see a performance improvement
  • Revised HDR support, updated output curve in line with advances in HDR calibration
  • Adaptive and Triple-Buffered V-Sync are now selectable from Graphics Settings
  • Players with more than one GPU can now select which is used from Graphics Settings
  • Changing the following settings no longer require restarting:
    • Window Mode
    • Resolution
    • V-Sync
    • Shadow Detail
    • Reflection Quality
  • The ‘LOADING SHADERS’ load step has been removed, improving the loading experience.
  • Crash data is gathered via Steam to help us track down and fix issues.