The long awaited patch number 3 released earlier tonight for not only the client side but also the server side and the official Treyarch RCON tool. The update for the client side includes a nice list of changes as seen below but we haven’t really been getting a change log for the server side updates; just notes that state a patch is being applied to all servers. The RCON tool also gets a few nice little changes – but still leaves a lot to be desired even on the Ranked server side.

I have been suffering from some solid freezes requiring Control+Alt+Delete ever since the last patch and at least for tonight’s testing of the patch for about 3 hours I didn’t have any freezes. On top of that overall game play seemed to be a little smoother graphics wise with a little bump in frame rate it in some aspects. It’s still not solid but I know I haven’t seen the 150’s or 170’s before tonight and I was hitting them in some places without any settings adjustments and running the game at 1680×1050 on medium-high settings on an EVGA GTX260 SSC Edition.

[fancy_link link=http://www.callofdutyview.net/articles/codblack-ops-patch-history/]View the full COD:Black Ops Patch History page here[/fancy_link]

[fancy_header]Multiplayer Update[/fancy_header]

[check_list]

  • Improved threading performance on computers with only 2 cores.
  • Additional performance optimizations
  • Added an option to pre-cache all shaders during load time. This fixes hitching related to shader compiling on some video cards when viewing an area of the map for the first time
  • Fixed random freezes in certain computer configurations
  • Allow Team Change on Ranked servers when it does not unbalance teams (this is a server admin option)
  • Allow Team Change grace period at start of match (server admin option)
  • Added 4 more reserved slots (server admin option)
  • Added /connect
  • Improved quickmatch results (server side change)
  • Fix for watching films through Combat Record
  • Fixed compassSpectatorsSeeEnemies exploit
  • Fixed 3rd person fov exploit
  • Fix for infinite supply drop exploit
  • Fixed crosshair flickering when stereo is active
  • Various spawn improvements
  • Various sound improvements
  • Fix for Zombies – Teammate shadows not displayed properly
  • Fix for radar not staying on in One in the Chamber when it should
  • In a Domination match, the Position Secured medal is no longer delayed
  • ‘Hardened: Equipment Shot’ Challenge can now be completed by destroying a ‘Camera Spike’
  • Fix for choppy final killcam in dedicated servers
  • Various map glitches fixed
  • Weekly and Monthly leaderboards will now track all kills, deaths and assists properly (All Time leaderboards were not affected by this)
  • Added mixed hardcore playlist
  • Added mixed barebones playlist
  • Added 12 player versions of all playlists

[/check_list]

[fancy_header]RCON Tool Update[/fancy_header]

[check_list]

  • Reduced timeout values. Connect (or failure to connect is faster)
  • Added all white-listed dvars for Ranked and Unranked. Admins have rcon access to ALL available dvars
  • Added Settings and Console tabs for Ranked servers
  • Fixes a bug where the “Server” tab doesn’t update values when connecting to a new server
  • Added version number to the title bar
  • Fixed a bug where UI state didn’t persist after switching to another server
  • Added “disconnect” button
  • Fixed map “set” to not use admindvar
  • Changed all dvars which could be possibly float, to float. Mostly these are time-type dvars
  • Fixed bug where entering a value of zero for Message Duration would cause a unhandled exception error
  • Truncated all message fields to 140 chars

[/check_list]