v0.9.34

Everything from the 0.9.34 betas since 0.9.33.

The launcher is now Lantern Engine (Lantern Engine.exe). The first start renames it and fixes your shortcuts; don't close the small window while it works. Steam shortcuts to Bloodborne.exe keep working.

After updating, the launcher asks once: New engine or Legacy (0.9.33). New turns on the faster draw thread, quicker shader compiling and more VRAM for textures. Legacy keeps the engine as 0.9.33 ran it. You can switch any time under Graphics > Engine preset.

The first start after updating rebuilds the shader cache (the compiler changed), so expect some stutter the first time you visit each area.

Fixes

• Black screen at start: three engine threads could wait on each other while the game set up its first images, so nothing was ever drawn.
• Freezes a minute into play or right after loading a save: two engine threads could wait on each other when the game read memory the GPU had just written. Four more places where the same kind of hang could happen are fixed too.
• FPS dropping more and more after deaths or teleports: the engine looked up the game's locks, semaphores and threads in lists that grew with every loading screen. If your FPS still drops over time, send the log after it has slowed down: a "Load:" line every minute shows what is building up.
• Vertex explosions (stretched faces and meshes): draws no longer use outdated vertex data, and indirect draws read their whole index buffer.
• Crash at start on some laptops (Windows error 1450): the game checks that Windows can give it the larger memory pool, and falls back to the smaller one instead of crashing.
• Long sessions on 8 GB cards and laptops: game data unused for 3 minutes leaves video memory, so VRAM no longer grows until a crash.
• Stutter on 8 GB cards after moving from stable to a beta ("Use more VRAM for textures" was stuck off).
• AMD cards crashing at start while loading the shader cache: the next start skips the pipeline that crashed the driver.
• FSR 4.1.1: no longer freezes the game for seconds when it starts (it compiles in the background, FSR 3.1 runs until it's ready); works on AMD RX 9000 again; if it can't run on your GPU, the game uses the built-in FSR 4 instead of dropping to FSR 3.1.
• DLSS and FSR no longer switch off near water and puddles (sewers, Gascoigne's arena).
• Uncapped FPS stops at your monitor's refresh rate (the Uncap FPS++ patch froze Ludwig's second phase at very high frame rates). BB_FPS_LIMIT=0 in Extra variables removes the limit.
• Follow camera (Original): the game's per-area camera settings load again.
• Mouse buttons: middle click locks on and right click is the strong attack by default, as intended (the defaults were swapped). Binds you set yourself stay as they are. The in-game controls page and mouse icons show the right buttons.
• Keyboard: WASD no longer moves the menu cursor after you close a dialog with them held.
• Controller input flipping between two devices (DS4Windows, Steam Input).
• 5:4 and 4:3 screens show the full width instead of a zoomed-in view.
• Quitting is fast and no longer freezes the PC.
• Korean menu text cut short in the PC menus (thanks parsifal295).
• Copy buttons no longer show an "OpenClipboard Failed" error when another program (like Discord) is using the clipboard.
• Occlusion culling is off by default (it made objects and floors appear late or flicker). It's still under Graphics > Experimental.

New

• Frame generation (FSR 3.1, 2x): Graphics > Frame generation, or the in-game menu. Off by default; needs an upscaler on and adds a little input lag. The HUD comes from the real frame, so it doesn't smear. Your FPS limit counts the shown frames: with a 120 FPS limit the game runs at 60 and frame generation adds the other 60.
• Sharp UI (Display > Sharp UI, off by default): menus, HUD and text drawn at your output resolution instead of 1080p stretched up. Much sharper at 1440p and 4K.
• FPS counter: choose its corner, size, text and background colours, transparency and border (Graphics > Show FPS, or the in-game menu). It shows the shown and the game's own rate with frame generation, and its numbers update twice a second.
• Simplified Chinese for the launcher and the in-game menu (translated by 123456qewret).
• Native shader compiler (optional): turn off Graphics > Experimental > Legacy shader compiler to try it. Its shaders are smaller than legacy's, but in heavy scenes it can still be a bit behind on some GPUs, so legacy stays the default.
• DLSS model choice: Transformer (preset K, default), CNN (preset E) or the DLL's default.
• Custom output resolution, plus 1280 × 1024 (5:4) and 16:10 presets.
• In-game menu shortcut: Insert or L3 + R3, Insert only, or off, so a controller can't open it by accident.
• Discord status (Settings > Community, off by default), with a fully custom card if you want one.
• App icon choice (Settings): red lantern, blue lantern, or the lantern fan art by j3loo.
• Engine options are switches under More > Engine instead of typed variables. Sliders take typed values, long dropdowns can be searched, and settings search (Ctrl+F) is in the title bar.
• Sharper launcher text (Segoe UI Variable, crisper settings pages).
• CUSA00900 (US Bloodborne) with update 1.09 is fully supported, and patched 1.09 eboots (60 FPS or debug-menu packages) get keyboard and mouse, the PC menus, camera, cheats and the crash guards.
• Online: The Hunter's Dream's long polling (invites arrive at once, far fewer requests), and the launcher tells you why after the game closes if the server refuses your sign-in.
• Testing, for Intel 12th-14th gen effect crashes (Ebrietas, Witch of Hemwick, One Reborn): More > Engine > Game fixes > "Intel effect crash fix (test)", with the Effect trail crash fix turned off. Please post your log either way.

Faster

• Shaders are kept across updates unless the compiler itself changes, and when it does they're rebuilt before the game opens instead of while you play.
• Shader catalog for new players (NVIDIA RTX): the second start compiles the game's shaders from your own game files before the game opens, so new areas don't stutter on the first visit. BB_SHADER_CATALOG=0 turns it off.
• New shaders compile on more threads at once.
• Less GPU work on copies of images that didn't change.
• Game on a hard disk: area files are read ahead to cut pop-in.

Direct draw calls are still there for testing (More > Engine > Direct rendering), off by default.