CoD players rally against forced texture streaming causing major lag in Warzone & MW3

Joseph Pascoulis
mw3 operators in cyber attack mode

A major MW3 graphics setting change is causing laggy matches for players as they’re now forced to enable On-Demand Texture Streaming.

The MW3 Season 5 Reloaded update introduced the first of the CoD HQ overhaul, which aims to reduce the app’s file and future update sizes, as well as set the path for a new UI in Black Ops 6.

As part of the changes, players are now prevented from turning off the On-Demand Texture Streaming setting and have two options instead – Optimized and Minimal. This is to reduce the file size of the games by streaming textures instead of storing them in the game files, but it does require a strong connection to work properly.

Previously, it was recommended to turn off this setting for both MW3 and Warzone to prevent lag. However, now that players are “forced” to use the setting, it’s causing laggy matches and they’re not happy.

X user ‘BryanCRT__’ shared a clip of MW3 multiplayer gameplay in the Season 5 Reloaded update, showing how this new setting is negatively affecting gameplay.

As you can see in the clip, the game is very laggy, with assets and textures constantly popping in and out. It’s disorientating to watch, let alone play, and they aren’t the only ones experiencing this either.

There are tons of complaints about texture streaming on social media, with one Reddit post calling for the change to be reversed, or for the devs to consider offering players the option of downloading the textures separately at the expense of a bigger file size.

In agreement, one comment read, “Yep, connection to their servers can be absolutely abysmal at times, now with forced texture streaming on top of it? What a joke. Just let me download the 64gb textures once and be done.”

The ability to download a separate texture pack is something that players remember from MW2019, calling for it to make a return: “MW2019 had this and it was mostly hassle-free.”

We’ll have to wait and see if the devs respond to the backlash and if any changes are made in the future.

With the Black Ops 6 beta on the horizon, players will want the smoothest experience, so it’s best to use the Minimal option for now and see how your connection handles the texture streaming. Check out the rest of our MW3 PC settings to optimize FPS and performance too.

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