Myst Patch 2.0
Hello, everyone! Myst version 2.0 is here with some big stability updates, tech-adds, improvements, and more to make your experience playing Myst even better.
Before we dive in, we’d like to thank everyone for their support in playing this remake of Myst since it came out over three years ago. Everyone’s purchase of Myst has directly contributed to helping us update Myst over the years to make it a better experience for everyone, especially as hardware and operating systems evolve, which is a very tricky thing developers have to deal with. We are proud to be the kind of company that continues to maintain its games for as long as we possibly can!
This update is a beefy one, and we’ve tried to consolidate it as much as we could to make sure you all know what to expect. Let’s do this thing!
Engine Upgrade
First things first: We’ve upgraded Myst from using Unreal Engine 4.27+ to Unreal Engine 5.3.2. Doing this has resolved a WIDE number of stability issues related to the game running on various platforms.
Visual changes/stability: The newer engine has resolved a lot of flickering texture issues we saw come up on lower-end hardware especially. There should also be some slight improvements in lighting, reflections, and more, despite not using all of the bells and whistles in UE5 (no Lumen, no Nanite here in Myst… yet!).
HDR support changes: HDR has better support on all platforms now, including Steam Deck (when plugged into an HDR-capable screen if it’s a regular Steam Deck, or natively on an OLED Steam Deck), where previously the game would crash on startup if HDR had been enabled on an OLED Steam Deck.
RHI support changes:
- Windows: DX12 support is now a requirement for playing Myst on Windows. Engine support on this RHI is much better here moving forward, and it enables us to get rid of most shader compilation hitches when you move around the game.
- Mac: Metal 3 RHI support has been added. This is enabled for the M3 family of chips on Mac.
Device support changes:
- Windows: Nothing is changing here, actually, other than adjusting our minimum specifications to require DX12 (see above).
- Mac: We are increasing our MacOS minimum requirement from MacOS 11.6 to MacOS 14.5.
VR:
- We’ve officially moved to using OpenXR in Myst! This brings stability improvements, more generic launch options (see below), and a more flexible environment for our VR users.
- Were you tired of the trillion VR launch options we had? We were as well! There’s now a single launch option and it should work for all officially supported headsets in Myst (and maybe even some unsupported ones, since it’s still using the OpenXR backend).
- In-line with Meta’s official support drops, we are dropping official support in Myst for the original Rift headset and Quest 1 through Quest Link. We are also dropping official support in Myst for the original Vive headset. This doesn’t mean that you CAN’T play Myst with those headsets, it just means that we are unable to give official support for them anymore. This statement also applies to WMR headsets, of which we only supported the HP Reverb 2 previously, but we will unfortunately no longer be able to officially support it, especially because of Microsoft’s own announcements to deprecate this support on Windows. Note however that now that we have moved to OpenXR, it is very possible that folks will have an even easier time playing Myst on unsupported HMDs.
Performance changes: “Mileage may vary” based on your machine. We’ve seen areas have both increased performance on some hardware, and decreased performance on some hardware. We recommend toying with the existing & updated Supersampling options to see what works best for your machine and your preferred playstyle.
Online Subsystem improvements: Some folks were reporting instability with achievements on Mac in particular (with the occasional instability on Windows as well, but that was much rarer). This should be resolved now that the engine is using an updated version of the Steamworks SDK. We have been unable to reproduce any issues related to this since updating the engine.
Content Changes
Ray Tracing Changes
This is a big one…
We’ve got two things to cover, the first being that we continue to support ray traced reflections in Myst on Windows, and that you’ll find many of the ray traced reflections to be improved in multiple areas.
Second, we’re excited to offer Myst with support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing, now available on Macs with the powerful M3 and M4 family of chips. This is a part of the patch you are receiving today!
It has been very hard to find out in any of our research if Myst is, in-fact, one of the first titles with hardware ray tracing support for the M3 and M4 family of chips to be released (maybe it’s the first Unreal Engine title with this support?). Let us know if you know! We want another excuse to celebrate our hard work on this patch over here.
UI Refresh
We’re happy to introduce a cleaner, more usable, and much nicer looking version of the menu and general UI for everyone in Myst. For those who have played our remake of Riven, you may find some similarities between the two. Here are some of the improvements our new menu in Myst brings compared to the old one:
- New cursor options have been added, and the default cursor has been switched to be the hand cursor. The default cursor size has also been modified to accommodate this change. This will override what folks currently have set in their cursor settings as we believe it is the best default experience for folks moving forward.
- The graphics settings menu is now much clearer on which settings need to be “Applied” and which ones will Apply automatically.
- Updated naming for “Gameplay Context Subtitles” to “Sound Context Subtitles” for clarity
- There’s a “Help” sub-menu now, and you can find the game’s version number there, in addition to “Teleport to Safe Spot” when you are in-game, should you need it.
- The controller/keyboard diagrams are now much clearer and scale better for a variety of screen sizes instead of being baked images. It will also properly detect the kind of controller you are using. Note that a couple of bindings may have changed – in particular the screenshot binding is now “x” instead of spacebar, and the PC VR bindings for the menu now encourage the use of non-system bound buttons to open the menu if necessary.
- The resolution scale setting will now be much clearer as to what the acceptable resolution scale range is between 2D and VR.
- A Gamma settings menu has been added that all users will be prompted with when they start up the game for the first time (or if they have not previously configured the setting through this menu, which should be just about everyone right now!).
- A “UI Volume” slider has been added to the audio settings menu to quell anyone who abhors sounds playing while they click around the menu.
- The default font used in Myst for subtitles and other in-game UI has been changed to be more readable and aligned with the general style Myst already has.
- The credits formatting has been updated to be more readable., and new folks who contributed to this patch have been added to the credits as well.
Updated Supersampling Options
- All Supersampling options have been updated to newer versions to bring you even better performance and visuals in Myst based on your hardware’s needs.
- MetalFX is now the default Supersampling option on Mac.
- FSR has been removed as a Supersampling option on Mac.
- DLSS is now allowed to be used in VR if you have compatible hardware.
- DLSS is now the default Supersampling option on Windows if you’re running the game with compatible hardware, regardless of whether or not you are running the game in VR.
General Fixes
Global
- Added in movement tutorials for Vive
- Better support for Dualshock controllers added
- (SPOILER) Fixed incorrect translation of a Polish clue to get to the Selenitic Age
- Saving and loading while music is playing in an area now has better persistence when loading back into those areas
- Fixed some textures flickering if you stand too close to them on certain quality settings
- Fixed haptics not working in some areas
- Fixed unexpected lighting changes occurring when moving between various areas on Mac
- Fixed some items appearing outside of their drawers when you load into the room the drawers are in
- Added water splashing sounds when walking over puddles in Stoneship
- (Mac only) Fixed crash or hang that could occur on startup of the game when you had AirPods as your current audio device
- Lighting on AMD Macs has been improved in certain situations
VR only
- Fixed player height changing unexpectedly when teleporting into certain areas
- Fixed sound context subtitle for the water flowing in Channelwood not following the player properly when on a Vive HMD
- Fixed the in-game menu not showing up in front of the player when in particular areas of the game
- Fixed backward movement spamming if you hold the thumbstick down
- Fixed a crash that could occur if you leave one of the brother’s rooms in Stoneship while holding a page
- Fixed random occurrence where you could completely lose your teleport stream and not regain it until restarting the game
- Fixed menu not appearing for some SteamVR users based on various SteamVR settings they have set
- Fixed the water splashing effect for the gears raising on Myst Island looking differently in each eye
- Adjusted the VR bindings in some circumstances so that the menu can be opened on non-system reserved buttons
Support & Future Update Questions
“When does this patch come to other platforms?”: For folks who are on Xbox or Microsoft Store platforms, or Quest platform, or iOS, or other store platforms supported by Myst: we are working on getting this patch over to you soon, but we don’t have a clear estimate at this time.
“I’m running into new issues in this new patch that I never used to run into. How do I report these?”: Please see our pinned post in the Steam discussion forums here for our to properly report a problem to our support team: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1255560/discussions/0/3810660546002327220/
Looking for more adventures?
If you haven’t already, check out our latest release from this year, Riven, which is the sequel to Myst. It launched in June to absolutely rave reviews by press and fans alike! If you already own Myst, you get a special discount on Riven by buying it as a part of a bundle here.