Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.2: Improved performance of Arrow Lake and Silverhand in the car 88 comments
Image: CD Projekt Red
With update 2.2 for Cyberpunk 2077, CDPR promises a massive performance boost to Arrow Lake, aka Intel Core Ultra 200, stealth paint jobs to foil the NCPD, and chatty sidekick Johnny Silverhand now occasionally appears during rides by car. The character menu offers over 100 new options.
Vehicle painting becomes flexible
With CrystalCoat, players can now give various vehicles a special flexible paint job. This allows the paint to be changed quickly while driving and can therefore also lower the desired NCPD level. What Lester represents to GTA Online players could now become CrystalCoat to Cyberpunk players.
Steal paint with TwinTone
In conjunction with CrystalCoat, players can now use TwinTone to copy various paint finishes from on-road vehicles and save them for a “small fee.” Since CrystalCoat allows for flexible repainting, you also save yourself a trip to the workshop. TwinTone uses Kiroshi implant scanning technology, but only works inside vehicles painted with CrystalCoat.
Vehicles supporting both new features are marked with a spray can at in-game car dealerships. Ten additional vehicles are also available for purchase.
Core Ultra 200 gets significantly better performance
When testing the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, Intel’s new Arrow Lake architecture was able to shine with significantly improved power efficiency, but it was especially noticeable in Cyberpunk that the new Intel processors were slower than their predecessors. This ensured that the new top model was behind a Core i5 14600K and failed to outperform the AMD 9950X – and that in the CPU-intensive 720p test.
Few explanations, but a nice promise
With update 2.2, at the very end of the change history, it simply states that “the threading system has been optimized” and that performance has been “improved by up to 33%.” However, tests will have to show whether this refers to the reference sequence or whether it is truly a major improvement. A 33 percent improvement would give Arrow Lake a significant boost.
Silverhand continues now
The fact that development studios draw inspiration from an active mod community is not new and has already happened several times for CDPR in Cyberpunk 2077; The Night City Metro was also implemented for the first time using mods. With update 2.2, the developers are implementing a popular mod for Johnny: he now occasionally accompanies the player on car rides through Night City and comments on what is happening.
GIF Johnny in the passenger seat (Image: cd projekt red)
Photo mode, character creation and more
CDPR also worked on V’s character menu: the player can now choose from 100 additional customization options, ranging from eye color to nail color to facial scars.
Big update for photo mode
The photo mode has also been generously revised and now offers a free drone camera with increased range. This not only gives more freedom for recording, but also comes with the ability to set your own aspect ratio. The controls have also been refined. So that V does not have to pose alone in the photos, up to 3 NPCs can be placed next to him. The placement of the light sources and the adjustment of the intensity of the effects ensure the right atmosphere. The developer is thus significantly expanding the photo mode.
GIF New photo mode with NPCs (Image: cd projekt red)
Digital photo frames for V’s apartment
Anyone who puts a lot of effort into creating exhibitable recordings using the new functions can display them in their apartment thanks to the new SmartFrames. These are digital photo frames made by the manufacturer Kiroshi, known for its cyberpunk visual products. Technically, the feature simply grabs images from the screenshot folder, so images of cyberpunk outsiders can also be exposed.
Changelog
Other changes include some bug fixes as well as new Razer Chroma effects, as well as the adjustment so that players now have to complete other quests in order to progress the “Wait” quests and can no longer simply marvel at the Corpo Plaza. The full changelog for update 2.2 can be found on CD Projekt Red.
The update is already being distributed via Steam, Epic Games Store, and GOG.
Topics: Action Games CD Projekt Cyberpunk 2077 Gaming Intel Arrow Lake Source: CD Projekt
A lifelong video game enthusiast, Julien reviews the latest releases and explores the technologies transforming the gaming world.
