Guerrilla Games’ forthcoming expansion for Horizon Forbidden West, Burning Shores, may have received a physics upgrade.
The Lead Game Tech Programmer at Guerrilla Games, Jorrit Rouwe, has released a new version of Jolt Physics, an open-source physics library that he wrote and maintains. The physics engine is used in Horizon Forbidden West, and it’s likely that the forthcoming Burning Shores expansion may have incorporated this physics upgrade.
According to Rouwe, version 3.0.0 of Jolt Physics adds double precision simulation, performance optimizations for large islands, and experimental motor cycle support. The bit about performance optimizations for large islands gives the impression that this update was specifically tailored for Horizon Forbidden West’s forthcoming expansion, Burning Shores. How this translates into actual gameplay scenarios remains to be seen, however.
Previously, it was revealed that access to Burning Shores, requires players to have completed the base game. Game journalists who were to receive early review copies of Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores were informed by the publisher, SIE, that access to the DLC is only available after finishing the last main quest line.
Despite the base game also being available on PS4, Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores is set for release exclusively for PS5 on April 18, 2023. Developer Guerrilla Games claims to be taking advantage of the current-gen console’s feature set, thereby preventing a PS4 version of the expansion from happening.
Horizon Forbidden West is a 2022 action role-playing game developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game, which is a follow-up to 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn, is set in a post-apocalyptic version of the Western United States that is recovering from an extinction event brought on by a rogue robot swarm. With ranged and melee weapons, the player can fight hostile machine creatures in the open world while completing quests. Since February 21, 2023, the game has been available as part of the PS Plus Extra and Premium catalog.
