No Man's Sky players discover severe frame rate drops in the space exploration game when flying too quickly across previously unexplored areas of a planet.

Today’s the big day for developer Hello Games, which launched its much-anticipated space exploration game No Man’s Sky. Gamers around the globe are launching their spacecraft and are on their way discover incredible planets, unique creatures, and numerous opportunities to build fascinating creations the game has to offer.

However, thanks to a new discovery by some gamers, it seems PlayStation 4 players should avoid exploring the planets too quickly, as doing so may cause a noticeable frame rate drop in the game. The folks at Digital Foundry ran their customary frame rate test, and found that No Man's Sky's rate can drop to 20 frames per second or lower.

Fortunately for players, it seems this issue usually only happens when pushing a ship full bore across previously unexplored parts of a planet. Once players slow down or move across parts of a planet they’ve already passed over, the frame rate drop isn’t present. Also, time spent on foot hoofing it around planets doesn’t cause any problems with the frame rate.

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Digital Foundry notes that any change in weather on the planets doesn’t seem to have any effect on frame rate. This is very good considering the first patch for No Man’s Sky includes adding random weather events like blizzards and dust storms. So, as long as players have previously explored an area, they should be fine to travel by any means at any speed in any weather and not experience frame rate issues. It's also good that the game is primarily a single-player experience, since getting too many ships together may exacerbate the frame rate problem.

Since the PC version of No Man’s Sky doesn’t launch until later this week, there’s no word yet on whether the frame rate issue will persist there. However, based on the information available, it would seem the PC version shouldn’t have any problems with frame rate, as long as players' systems are powerful enough to handle the game at the settings they choose.

Regardless, the team at Hello Games is undoubtedly hard at work to fix this issue considering they have so much riding on the success of No Man’s Sky. Considering the game has been in development for five years, and it’s the first major console and PC title released by Hello Games, there’s little room for error. With that in mind, it’s possible PlayStation 4 players will see a corrective update soon for this and any other bugs or issues that might crop up as players delve deeper into the game.

Have you been playing No Man’s Sky? What are your thoughts on the game so far?

No Man's Sky is out now for PlayStation 4, and is set to release on August 12, 2016 for PC.

Source: Digital Foundry - YouTube