Outer Wilds update 4 out now on Switch, patch notes

The team behind Outer Wilds is still improving the game, and update 4 just went live on Switch.

Many improvements are included here for players on Nintendo’s console. The update includes lots of fixes to visuals across the game, some performance improvements, fixes some community reported bugs, and brings along some features found in patch 15 on other platforms. Worth noting, this is apparently the last major Switch patch panned.

The full overview of today’s update is as follows:

Art & Visuals

• Improved the visuals of tractor beams throughout the game
• Fixed inconsistent Nomai child writing visuals on Giant’s Deep
• A Nomai child’s toy is now officially sponsored.
• Improved resolution of a certain easter egg
• Fixed a misaligned island splash effect on Giant’s Deep
• Timber Hearth’s atmosphere visuals now react correctly during a certain solar event
• Fixed missing collision and improper scaling of floating Nomai lights
• Small slide projectors now cast shadows
• Giant’s Deep ocean no longer disappears when viewed through a projection pool
• It’s me. No time to chat, SERN has found me. The drop at the flaming flower’s atelier is active. Yes, of course I switched it off! El ps–hey, they hung up on me!
• Taking scout photos no longer causes textures to pop in and out in Echoes of the Eye
• Trees no longer turn white when approaching Brittle Hollow
• Reduced visibility of a hidden location in Echoes of the Eye
• Improved transition into and out of projection pools
• Improved the transition into a certain starless void
• Improved the visuals during the ending sequence
• Various lighting adjustments and fixes
• Improved texture resolution of many assets
• Various fixes to collisions
• Various fixes for incorrect, misaligned or missing textures and materials
• Various fixes for LODs so they match better with their high resolution versions and reducing noticeable LOD popping
• Fixed various issues where you could see through the world
• Fixes for various minor visual issues

Gameplay

• Sudden death from above should occur less frequently while exploring the Hanging City.
• The ship no longer falls through the ground if left behind on a planet
• Fixed some instances where the player could get stuck in a slow walk
• Flying outside the solar system long enough to trigger the associated achievement now correctly triggers a new Slate dialogue option
• Equipping the signalscope at a certain campsite no longer chucks the player away at high velocity
• A secret passage on Ember Twin is now harder to spot from a distance
• Fixed an issue where sometimes the music from many of the Travelers could not be heard

Tech

• Reduced performance degradation over time
• Improved loading speeds when traveling great distances instantly
• Various memory optimizations to improve performance and stability

Text & Localization

• Fixed some Japanese characters using the wrong glyph set in the Credits, causing certain characters to be incorrect
• Fixed a certain Easter Egg so the code can be scanned by external tools
• Updated the credits

UI

• The ship HUD marker is no longer visible in scout photos
• Various minor adjustments and fixes to UI in Normal and Large UI modes

The Outer Wilds update 4 is now live on Switch. We have rundowns of other patches and general coverage here.