Bethesda has released a new patch for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered to the Steam Beta ring. If you wish to download it, just switch to the beta tab in your Steam library.

Patch 1.2 introduces a series of fixes to performance, quests, and gameplay. Arguably, the most interesting could be the allegedly reduced frequency of stutters when traversing the open world, which were really dreadful at launch. Here’s the performance and visual related changelog:

• Fixed frame rate drop in Deepscorn Hollow
• Fixed frame rate drops in Black Rock Caverns
• Fixed frame rate drop between Skingrad and Skingrad Castle
• Fixed frame rate drop south of Bravil Castle courtyard
• Reduced the frequency of hitches in the open world.
• General improvements to frame time in many locations.
• Optimize the updating of character attachments.
• Optimize rendering of water volumes in the open world.
• Optimize light/shadow updates in several lairs.
• Optimize waterfall particle FX and rendering.
• Optimize the weather system.
• Optimize the character animation system.
• Fixed flickering shadows when using XeSS Upscaling
• Fixed title properly restarting after purchasing the Deluxe Upgrade on PC
• Fixed settings properly migrating between PC and XBOX
• Fixed water disappearing after fast travel
• Fixed cursor slowdown when enabling high frame rate V-Sync
• Fixed shaders not preloading due to cloud save replication
• Fixed long blackout during loading screens
• Fixed weather VFX flashing while outside
• Fixed motion blur artifacts while in the Oblivion Plane
• Fixed NPCs not obeying the Wait action from the player

Lastly, Bethesda Game Studios has introduced new difficulty options to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, specifically for Player Combat Damage and Enemy Combat Damage. Players can now select from “Novice”, “Apprentice”, “Adept”, “Journeyman”, “Expert”, and “Master” options in the Gameplay menu. The developers expressed the hope that the “Journeyman” setting would act as a better bridge between “Adept” and “Expert” for players.

Oblivion Remastered is currently still 20% off on Steam due to the Summer Sale, but the discount is only available for less than ten hours, so hurry up if you are interested.