Just a week shy of PlanetSide 2's first birthday, Sony Online Entertainment has given players a welcome gift. Today brings the launch of the patch jazzily named 'Performance Update 01,' which, well, does exactly what it says on the tin. The core engine and UI now make better use of multi-core processors and oh gosh, that's just the beginning.

The patch notes explain that SOE has looked all over for places to performance improvements, from optimising bullet impacts and players' arms to texture efficiency and plugging memory leaks.

It also adds an FPS smoothing option, which defaults to on. "Trust us, you probably want this," the notes explain. "It will make your frame rate smoother and reduce spikes. Your FPS counter will show as lower overall, but that's not a bad thing."

While the patch's main focus is performance, it also brings a few changes to drop pods, some other balance tweaks, the odd bug fix or two, and it shifts the continent Amerish 12 hours so it'll be daylight there as the others fall dark.