purpleHorizons

Concept art example Why is this feature still not a thing as of 2026, ~14 years since the launch of this game? Why must someone still edit configs (bSmoothFrameRate) to use this limiter? In fact, while at it, why not implement a proper frame rate limiter that isn't native APB's UE2/UE3 engine build? Take a look at SpecialK I still can't believe that this miniscule feature takes this long to do... complete lack of care for the game.

That's a separate issue from what I'm referring to. The entire APB Launcher wasn't functional while trying to launch it. It would generate a "crashed, send log" message box while trying to launch it. This happened regardless of Steam version of APB or version on site.

I've had this happen before the update as well. Yesterday, to be specific.

I've tried 3 installations: Windows 10 Pro (22H2), Windows 10 Education (22H2), Windows 10 LTSC (21H2) I havent removed WebView2 The APB Launcher, upon starting it, instantly crashes with the typical "Send Log" window. Why is this a thing?

Let me get this straight: For 4 AMAs in a row, voice chat was labeled as "it's low on our priority list" and now suddenly it became the most important feature to be reintroduced into the game? Not only that, you're back to Vivox, which most people used to disable back in the day due to it being a CPU cycle hog. Amazing. Yet actual issues this game has still aren't solved: • The UI of the game is completely unusable on 1080p, 1440p and 4K displays due to the game using fixed size assets made for 720p screens. Using the in-game "UI scaling" option results in all UI elements being subjected to some form of bad software algorithm which lowers the total sharpness of the game's UI elements. (Solution? Create higher resolution assets. Anything else is a band-aid; Should take up same UI size, proportionally) • Mismatched UI frameworks (Scaleform & native UI) mixed together. Raw Canvas (for gameplay UI) & Dear ImGui is superior for pre-UE4 titles such as APB. Ditch Scaleform already. • Crosshair is still bound to UI scaling and doesn't reflect accuracy across the entire 100m distance range of the game. • Visual fidelity took a nosedive since RTW with no signs for betterment. • Absolutely no sign of a new map (Midtown?), a new game mode (BR, racing district or something else) or something else which would freshen up the game. • Both maps have severe balancing issues for more than a decade with no changes significant changes to them. Even the ones from 2 years ago are borderline invisible changes. • Missions are still a unbalanced mess. • Clans are a forgotten feature since launch. • Griefing still exists in the game due to not segregating competitive & casual crowds in separate queues • (Clothing/Car/Music/Symbol) Designers are untouched since launch (no new instruments, no fix of long standing issues) • No weapon/modification/vehicle inventory changes in form of sorting, pre-made loadouts etc. • ARMAS, the only money source of the game, still isn't comprised of account-bound only items. Matt mentioned that it's their "vision" to turn JT store into character-bound only items and ARMAS for account-bound only items. Why is this still being relegated?.... The new UI "redesign" is absolutely dreadful in terms of a UI design perspective as well. • ARMAS also still has no way to properly inspect the item you plan on purchasing. • Many ARMAS items are still stuck within a pack (e.g.: TAS-20 with 2 mods from Rocker Bundle), with no signs of a debundle occurring any time soon. • No frame rate limiter in the UI since the inception of this game (It's 2026 already..) • No ability to adjust Garbage Collection & OneFrameThreadLag in the UI. • No map location pinging system akin to Apex, where during normal gunplay, you use a button bind & point to a location with your mouse, press the bind and a team/group marker appears, pointing out their location. • Mouse sensitivity issue is still a thing, as per this • Bullet holes cause stuttering, as per this (not fixed since 64-bit release) • Leaderboards, which no one asked for, still don't have a single reward attached to them. More than a year has passed already since their introduction. • MSI AB / RTSS & DXVK are blocked by GFAC for some peculiar reason. Heck, even Nvidia FrameView's overlay is blocked by GFAC... • FSE was killed off (likely unknowingly) and the "Fullscreen Windowed" setting results in a worse presentation model than was previously the case (before GFAC). • No new F2P clothing or hair styles since the inception of this. ...but Vivox, a "low priority task" took priority. I was expecting the PvE (FTUE) district to arrive in this patch, but apparently not... The cherry on top was this: The game designer definitely confirmed that he has no vision on how to balance guns in this game and it shows As per ("gatekept") extra information provided by the game designer, which he has written on Discord only, health damage per shot statistic looks like this for the ISSR-B now: 265 (for the longest time) → 315 (buffed pre-1.33) → 285 (this patch) Memes write themselves.

"True fullscreen" (HW: Legacy Flip) with a Bitblt or Flip swap effect isn't removed from any Windows release. It's not related to the Windows release. I can get other games into FSE fine using the above methods on both W11 and W10. APB, seemingly since GFAC got implemented, isn't able to be placed into the FSE mode. The game should be placed in HW: Independant Flip as soon as I use the "Fullscreen " or "Fullscreen Windowed" setting. The fact that GFAC broke MSI AB & other overlays also confirms this software regression somewhat.

https://wiki.special-k.info/Presentation_Model Tested on W10 22H2 and 2 different GPUs (Nvidia & AMD), each running on 551.86 and 23.8.2 driver versions respectively. Using the common methods of toggling True Fullscreen: 1.) "Disable fullscreen optimization" checkmark on APB.exe 2.) Finding the appropriate registry key in GameConfigStore (setting it to 211 hexadec) When setting the game to "Fullscreen", the game uses “Hardware: Independant Flip” (which shouldn't be the case, it should be Hardware: Legacy Flip) When setting the game to "Fullscreen Windowed", the game uses “Composed: Copy with GPU/CPU GDI” (which shouldn't ever be the case) This implies that APB is using the BitBlt swap effect, as per the sankey diagrams in the link above. I am very certain that pre-GFAC, this wasn't the case, as I have FrameView data of APB during SARD era where Hardware: Legacy Flip was working fine. FSE (HW: Legacy Flip) is still a desirable presentation model to include in D3D9 games such as APB, as it leads to less CPU overhead than FSO (HW:Independant Flip) on higher frame rates. As a side-note: I've also checked DGVoodoo2 compatibility with APB. Surprisingly, it works!... Sort of. I managed to play for 2 missions without an issue. Until GFAC decided to kick me out with the message “GFAC: Disallowed File Modifications” D3D11 works fine. D3D12 crashes on district selection (I am able to login however) Funnily enough, depending on which swap effect I choose in DGVoodoo, I can invoke FSE (HW: Legacy Flip) or FSO (HW:Independant Flip) just fine. Of course, since it's a translation layer, it's still less maximum performance than native D3D9. Practical implications: DGVoodoo2 translating APB into D3D11 would allow you to use Nvidia Smooth Motion UPDATE (September 2026): It seems that DXVK on Windows worked with APB at one point, as I've seen a user complain that GFAC blocks DXVK use as of the time of writing. I am unable to load into the game at all. Getting greeted with a exception handler message box whenever I place the d3d9.dll within the same directory as APB.exe

https://www.gamersfirst.com/apb/news/2026/8/22/summer-nights Premium code: Summer_Nights Once again, no new thread on the forums in regards to this event... one has to be in LO's Discord or find this information on the news page to be alerted. Why are the forums being relegated again?...

Well, at least one doesn't have to suffer through a dreadful AMA at 2x speed filled with "it's on our priority list". Now, one can CTRL+F through blog posts.

It's a mystery to me how this type of content is a bannable offense, while nude pornographic symbols, cars & clothing are prevalent in-game. “Specific historical symbol is where the lines are drawn, but porn? Sure, go ahead! Feast your eyes in degenerate media!”

This is hillarious. The same company that started advertising the game again to a newer, fresher audience... while repeating the same mistake the old management had. Comedy. UPDATE: From LO discord... Matt's reply:

Questions locked down to Discord only? Why is this forum being relegated to this extent?

Bump. Great post.

You're talking about the end-user problem, not the actual reason why this is occurring. Which is what my question was asking. Especially the fact that they've seemingly nerfed the RoF twice on 2 guns to "reduce ghost shots"? This would imply that the .45 AP was ghostshot gallore pre-nerf. Is it because specific RoF values (being below or above a certain threshold) are "incompatible" with some network-related construct? Is it because of the low tickrate? Is it because of insufficient server hardware? These are questions which I'd like to see answered. How are you evaluating whether a shot was registered on client-side or server-side? Do you have the tools which would enable you to have such insight? If not, all of what you're mentioning is just your guess. For instance, such as the game designer's developer tools, where you see the client-side and server-side bullets. https://imgur.com/a/apb-bullet-spread-change-26th-july-2025-XzaFFL0 This was to showcase the supposed hit registration fix applied around July 2025 (the game was "broken" for +3 years prior to that) The more you write about this though, the more it seems to be tick rate related....

How has adjusting the fire rate to a lower value (slow-down) supposedly increased the amount of ghost shooting on the .45 AP? By that logic, the .45 AP must've "ghostshot" a ton pre-nerf for the duration of it's existence. Not only that, if you've lowered the RoF even further, that implies that the TTK has been changed again. How is this the fault of the rate of fire of a weapon, when what you're describing reads like a server/networking related issue? Can we know what causes the increased amount of ghostshots and whether other guns in the game are prone to this issue in some way? Having another point of RNG into the mix with the already large bullet spread of most guns is concerning.

Agreed. The tick rate is dreadfully low in this game. However, I don't understand what "ghost shots" are meant to be. In my PoV, it's simply the bullet spread of the guns not playing well with how networking is handled in this game. Perhaps even the former alone... I don't know how the claim of "reduced rate of fire" (even further than what they've done in previous patch) will lead to less ghost shots? This would imply that AP .45 pre-nerf was constantly "ghost shotting"?

People like him & others in this thread are the reason why the secondaries got nerfed... bronze & silvers players are at the weapon balancing wheel by peer pressure

I don't need to log in to know that the trivial TTK difference still makes it one of the lowest TTK's in the game and that the lower recoil & increased ammo size is just a benefit. Sadly, now it's higher TTK than the OCA with CJ3. The NFA9 was capable of shredding OCA with CJ3 relatively easy when played correctly (crouch and ADS, never hipfire) In terms of where it stacks up now: 1st – SHAW 0,56s TTK [CJ3 possible] 1st – NFAS 0,56s TTK [CJ3 possible] 2nd – AMG 0,585s TTK [CJ3 possible] 3rd – S1-TIC RABID 0,6s TTK [CJ3 possible] 3rd – DOW 0,6s TTK [CJ3 possible;] --previous NFA9-- 4th – VAS C2 0,63s TTK [no CJ3 possible] 4th – ACES 0,63s TTK [no CJ3 possible] 5th – VBR HUNTRESS 0,65 [no CJ3] 5th – JG 0,65 [CJ3 possible] --NFA9 new, live-- 6th – M1922 0,675s [cj3 possible] 7th – NTEC-7c 0,68s [cj3 possible] 8th S1-FA 'Frenzy' 0,69s [cj3 possible] 9th CAP40 0,696s [cj3 possible] 10th PMG/OCA 0,7s [CJ3 possible, went to ~0,65s afterwards] It was the 4th fastest TTK in the game. I don't see a point of them changing it. Barely anyone out of the 300-500 people still playing the game used it during the last 4-5 years. In fact, I don't recall the NFA9 being touched in years at this point. I assume the game designer got some complaints of the lower skilled players in this game and succumbed to their requests Sad how simple peer pressure impacts weapon balancing decisions. I'd have rather seen them buff the "Crouch Modifier" & "ADS Modifier" or change the "Accuracy @ 10m" statistic, while keeping the TTK unchanged.

Bump, because the maps are the worst part of this game for 14 years now. It's one of largest QoL changes LO can do which will drastically affect UX for the better.

Balancing TTK by changing rate of fire (affecting tapping muscle memory) is a large mistake. - Why would they nerf the S-AS PDW?.... It was completely fine. I would have lowered made these changes: Run Modifier=1; ShotModifierCap<1,01; CrouchModifier≤0,7; Maybe even adjust the "Accuracy Radius @ 10m" statistic. - The .45 got a indirect buff.... why? Why would they change SprintModifier=1,5 to something lower?.... You are indirectly buffing it's total accuracy during gameplay. The 60ms difference in TTK is not enough to offset it... - RFP & FBW buffs are going to be a good buff. I don't see the necessity of it though. - NANO got unnecessarily buffed, but it'll still be mediocre. It's close to FR0G Kokoe levels of Equip Time - The NFA9 got a buff... regardless of this trivial +45ms TTK difference. I'd have rather seen them change the "Accuracy Radius @ 10m" statistic to ≤35cm and buff the CrouchModifier<0,8, set WalkModifier=1 & RunModifier=1 and set Marksman Modifier<0,9 - Buffing FR0G to the extents mentioned in this patch are going to be a slight issue, as it's already top 3 in terms of bullet spread secondaries while hipfiring or walking. Changing the values from WalkModifier=1,2 & RunModifier=1,3 is bound to create even more issues... I dislike the fact that they're omitting exact weapon stats again on some of these weapons. A overall trivial weapon balancing patch, but better than doing nothing I suppose... I'd rather see them balance the districts, add a internal frame rate limiter, get away from Scaleform & add a map notification pinging system (without entering the map for it). What's also hillarious to me is that ARMAS still isn't account lifetime only, which is the vision Matt has for ARMAS as per the last AMA. What's the point of sales if the interface of ARMAS, the main income source of this game, still isn't solved?

snip.

The entire AMA can be summarised with: “This question is better routed to design” Which begs the question, why not do a Q&A with the main game designer then? Ideally not with the host from this AMA, as the person didn't have control of the conversation at all. Matt seems to not have a single, concrete answer to any glaring issue which was mentioned to him in the AMA. The typical "it's on our radar" "It's not our top priority" excuses. But apparently, they have the time to work on a PS4 version of the game again...... which absolutely no one asked for. Absolute clown show. In the game's current state, even with a PvE-based FTUE with bots (which will take up server hardware resources even further), no one in their right mind will stay or spend money on this game. LO has been at the wheel for 8 years. 8 years. That's more than enough time to tackle all the glaring issues (MM not separating casual & comp crowd, weapons, missions cars, districts, UI mess, clothing/car/symbol designers, ARMAS redesign) I cannot fathom the thought pattern of anyone who keeps on defending LO to the levels I've seen in Discord in the slightest.

I still can't believe that LO has been at the wheel for 8 years and only 3 radical changes have been done to the game, most of which are secondary to the main gameplay experience. No amount of bot-based PvE districts will alleviate the fundamental flaws of the game. Game designer, do your job and fix the district's balancing already. Every single patch in this game needs to be at least 10k words long. That's how many issues there are.

Finally good changes after a while. The game needs 10x more similar changes, more substantial ones. It's sad that a static crosshair took 14 years to implement.... Let's hope this patch didn't introduce new issues. I fail to see why the pack is separated for males & females and have different pricing for each? Why not make it into 1 bundle for both M/F?....

- Competitive queue (1 mission per district; crim vs enf only; fixed 3vs3 or 4vs4 format) & casual queue (enf/crim Vs enf/crim; mm based on playtime and/or other factors), when? - Server tickrate upgrade, when? - District balancing, when? Waterfront is still extremely dreadful for 14 years now. Financial also has very problematic spots. See: https://forums.gamersfirst.com/topic/33404-“not-so-lazy-ideas-for-map-changing”-—-ellixs-mission-district-balancing-suggestions/ - Mission balancing, when? - Vehicle balancing, when? - Longer TTK (no =<0,8s guns) with low to no bullet spread in ADS, when? - Removal of problematic mods & bloated up weapon pool, when? - In-game FPS limiter in the UI without the need to adjust configs, when? - New clothing & hair styles, when? - Overhaul of designers (car, clothing, symbols) by fixing decade old issues, when? - Removal of Scaleform segments of the UI (due to performance reasons) & opting for a Kismet (UnrealScript)-only UI, when? - UE5, when? If this is still a thing, please skip it and go for UE4.27. I have absolutely no certainty that you'll manage to make UE5 performant as live currently is right now. - New game modes (PvP, not PvE), when? - New districts, when? - New clan content, when? See: https://forums.gamersfirst.com/topic/2042-game-clan-progression/ - UI Scaling fix (tied to specific resolution, crosshair gets scaled with UI and isn't correct for 1080/1440p/4k), when? See https://forums.gamersfirst.com/topic/2804-resolution-differences-affecting-crosshair-and-perceived-recoil/ - MSI AB / RTSS support reintroduction, when? They don't work in live. - Melee weapons (make them do 50-100 HP damage or TTK=5-6s), when? - What happened to the Epic Games Store release? Will it ever get released there? - Any works for a new Tutorial or perhaps a fully separate district for new players? - Crosshair customizations, when? - Are there any plans to debundle certain clothing items, weapons or vehicles from ARMAS packs and place them into the Joker Store? - What are your thoughts on buffing the crouch movement speed? Something along the lines of multiplying it by 2. - Are there any plans on upgrading the pinging system? Perhaps adding a bind which allows for a user to ping a location without entering the map. - Gun bullet tracers? When? - Will you ever adjust the in-game crosshair to accurately reflect weapon accuracy, regardless of resolution? - More account lifetime vehicles, when? - New VOIP system, when?