Watch Dogs thread (new story trailer and release date announced!)

[Jeff7181]

I don't believe this because with ultra textures the game is unplayable at times on my overclocked SLI setup and 2GB even with no AA applied at all.

High textures runs perfectly fine and I finished the game that way. It looked alright to me and I saw no noticeable drop from ultra. Would I have preferred to run ultra? Of course.

Actually, you're right. I'm thinking of the Level of Detail setting that I have set to Ultra, not the textures.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Actually, you're right. I'm thinking of the Level of Detail setting that I have set to Ultra, not the textures.

Hey I didn't mean to put you on the spot but believe me I tried ultra first thing because I said "that 3GB vram warning is BS.", but either it wasn't BS or the game is heavily unoptimized. In either case I found it terribly unplayable at some points in the beginning of the game. Quickly changed to high and continued on no problems.

 

[Carfax83]

Glad you got yours fixed, but no luck with mine. I don't have a Logitech keyboard, just a standard Dell USB one. My textures were already at medium which is the lowest they'll go. I've tried every frame sync option, no luck.

I'm usually pretty lucky when it comes to bugs, but I guess you can't always be lucky...

What are your system specs? It would be easier to help with troubleshooting if you provided them.

 

[Jeff7181]

I got around to finishing Watch Dogs today. I thought the ending was a little lackluster, but leaves the door open for a sequel, which I'll likely buy on release day again. I enjoyed the game.

 

[Carfax83]

I haven't even come close to finishing the game yet (still on Act 1) as I've been so busy, but I certainly don't regret buying the game at all; even on release day.

The game is very enjoyable despite it's deficiencies, and I consider it a successful franchise boot up.. Watch Dogs 2 will have a strong foundation to build on..

Rumor is, that Watch Dogs 2 might take place in London which would be an appropriate setting given how many cameras there are in that city..

 

[KentState]

I got around to finishing Watch Dogs today. I thought the ending was a little lackluster, but leaves the door open for a sequel, which I'll likely buy on release day again. I enjoyed the game.

The ending pretty much said sequels will be coming.

Spoiler

ctOS 2.0 was splattered everywhere and it talked about monitoring all major cities.

Really depends on how quick they can model a city. I enjoyed the game enough to buy the next one, but will not jump on a pre-order the next time. I have to be assured that the issues with this one a truly addressed.

 

[Jeff7181]

I have to be assured that the issues with this one a truly addressed.

I imagine a sequel will use the same game engine, so any bugs that get fixed in this one will likely remain fixed in the next one. You're right, it's all about modeling a new city. I loved the detail in this one... but I would hope in the next one there would be more "open" buildings. I like how everything looks real and alive. I just get disappointed when I try to walk into a building and can't open the door.

 

[Red Storm]

What are your system specs? It would be easier to help with troubleshooting if you provided them.

C2D E8400
8GB RAM
GTX 760
Intel 530 SSD
Win 7

 

[sze5003]

C2D E8400
8GB RAM
GTX 760
Intel 530 SSD
Win 7

I think the issue could be the core 2 duo processor.

 

[Jodell88]

A modder tinkering with the PC version of Watch Dogs has installed various visual effects to significantly upgrade the game's graphics.
Changes to fog effects, bloom, lighting and shadows, as well as various improvements to reflections and rain, are said to achieve a look that is reminiscent of the infamous Watch Dogs E3 2012 reveal trailer.
When Ubisoft unveiled Watch Dogs that year, numerous critics and gamers reacted with amazement to the high-end graphics.
As the project crept closer to release, various videos and trailers suggested that Ubisoft would not be able to meet the expectations it had set for itself. A debate on the game's "downgrade" ensued.
But a modder going by the online handle The Worse claims to have found various effects packed in the game's PC code (it is suspected that these were left out of the game for stability reasons).
Now, with the help of various modding tools, The Worse has displayed images of the upgraded PC version, which brings the game closer to the E3 2012 reveal trailer. Pictured below are some screenshots of the mod, published first on the Guru3D forums.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/468478/watch-dogs-pc-mod-restores-ultra-e3-2012-visuals/

"After studying how bin hex worked and downloading many tools to convert files etc, I was able to integrate and enable many effects," explains mod creator "TheWorse". Essentially, he's saying that the effects were already supported by files contained within the engine, and which, with the right tweaks, can be easily reintroduced back into the game.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2014/06/16/w...e-e3-2012-visual-effects-improve-performance/

 

[dougp]

Crazy thing is, people are saying WorseMod is improving performance. I'm wondering if it was running already and the added "filters" that Ubisoft put in place actually made the performance worse while also downgrading the graphics. Can't wait to give it a shot when I get home, it is a huge increase in visual fidelity.

 

[toyota]

C2D E8400
8GB RAM
GTX 760
Intel 530 SSD
Win 7

your system is WAY out of balance. that 760 is not even going to come close to being fully utilized and in newer games the cpu is also a playable limitation. I remember Crysis 2 pegging my oced E8500 and that was several years ago. you dont even meet the min requirements for Watch Dogs and for most newer games you certainly don't meet the realistic cpu requirements.

 

[sze5003]

your system is WAY out of balance. that 760 is not even going to come close to being fully utilized and in newer games the cpu is also a playable limitation. I remember Crysis 2 pegging my oced E8500 and that was several years ago. you dont even meet the min requirements for Watch Dogs and for most newer games you certainly don't meet the realistic cpu requirements.

Yea I remember him saying turning down the graphics setting to high or medium and having performance issues or stuttering. The processor is a bottleneck in this case and I bet that is why you have stuttering and an unplayable game at most times.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Crazy thing is, people are saying WorseMod is improving performance. I'm wondering if it was running already and the added "filters" that Ubisoft put in place actually made the performance worse while also downgrading the graphics. Can't wait to give it a shot when I get home, it is a huge increase in visual fidelity.

I've seen people say performance doesn't go up from this at all and that it's not a mod, the author just changed the game's code values to something other than 0. I have also seen someone mention that enabling these things creates a very buggy experience.

I dunno...I'm already done with the game.

 

[Homer Simpson]

i loaded the mod up yesterday and not only does the game look better, but it does indeed run better too. i was able to bump back up to ultra and get "decent" performance. even a lot of the stuttering is fixed. i previously had stuttering while driving even with high textures. now the stutters are much fewer and less severe. driving at high speed is actually do-able. My only complaint is the DoF is maybe a bit overdone when standing still but otherwise, the game is much better looking and more playable.
4930k, 780ti sli @1440p, 16GB, SSD for reference.

 

[toyota]

I will never understand how sometimes just one guy who is not even familiar with the game or engine can spend a few hours and make it both look and run better. same thing happened with even the original Crysis. really how can a whole team not do in years what takes one person to do in hours?

 

[futurefields]

Ubisoft are incompetent and/or malicious in their coding, yet the money continues to pour in.

 

[Jeff7181]

I will never understand how sometimes just one guy who is not even familiar with the game or engine can spend a few hours and make it both look and run better. same thing happened with even the original Crysis. really how can a whole team not do in years what takes one person to do in hours?

He didn't actually do anything except change settings. He didn't write code, he didn't find some magical combination of settings that make 1+1=3. Ubisoft wrote the code, they know it's there, they undoubtedly tested it.

Why it was left in if it wasn't going to be used is a mystery to me, too. Maybe they intend on using it in the future when bugs have been worked out.

 

[sze5003]

He didn't actually do anything except change settings. He didn't write code, he didn't find some magical combination of settings that make 1+1=3. Ubisoft wrote the code, they know it's there, they undoubtedly tested it.

Why it was left in if it wasn't going to be used is a mystery to me, too. Maybe they intend on using it in the future when bugs have been worked out.

They need to read clean code by Bob Martin.

 

[Jeff7181]

They need to read clean code by Bob Martin.

You may be right about that. It's a shame unused code makes it into the final product, especially when they plan on a large portion of their sales being digital. But to say that this guy did something in a few hours that Ubisoft's entire team who worked on this game couldn't do in months or years? No. That's incorrect.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I have never seen a game that had these options in the code or engine remain unused though. I don't think it was malacious on the part of Ubisoft, but rather someone made a mistake and nobody caught it. The guys working on the bugs probably didn't even realize.

It seems sloppy though. I may fire it up and try this and see what happens. I remember my performance before so I can give it a proper test now that I am home. Might spend a bit in the game doing some side things to see what this looks and runs like now. I still have my saves on the ubisoft server so I just need to install again.

edit: I just found one that apparently has all the effects enabled as in the screenshots but it re-enables the fog effects that were clearly absent from the game since the presentations we have seen in the past. It also increases the Civilian density. It's on Guru3D. I don't want to link directly to the file but the post is here http://forums.guru3d.com/showpost.php?p=4838857&postcount=25

 

[cyclohexane]

So, ubisoft purposely makes their pc game look worse. and possibly perform worse as well. To make the console games look ok by comparison....

Guess "my friends" will be pirating Ubisoft games in the future from now on.

 

[Homer Simpson]

You may be right about that. It's a shame unused code makes it into the final product, especially when they plan on a large portion of their sales being digital. But to say that this guy did something in a few hours that Ubisoft's entire team who worked on this game couldn't do in months or years? No. That's incorrect.

granted, that may be an overstatement, but given what the changes he made does, like make the game much more playable with less stuttering while also improving the image quality, its pretty impressive, IMO. the fact the game stutters and runs like poo on just about any machine speaks to the poor QA done at ubisoft if not their programmers. unless all their QA testers were running the game only on the lowest settings, how does something like this get a stamp of approval for sale to the customer? and we're now 3 weeks post release with still no patch from ubi.

 

[BrightCandle]

I suspect most of the performance is coming from the distance fog/haze. This is used on the consoles to reduce the draw distance and ultimately reduce the workload and its quite likely its responsible for much of the improvement here.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the reduction in stutter is simply due to the reduced performance impact of the fog, but it could also be the other shader programs are more consistent on PC hardware. There is quite a sizeable difference between an APU and a GPU especially when it comes to memory bandwidth, algorithms designed for high VRAM usage but lower overall bandwidth use might actually favour the console and hurt the PC GPU.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Well, the game runs about the same for me with the adjustments but there's a lot of bloom and glare that I dunno if I like. It's a bit unnatural. The reflections on the wet pavement at night are niceer though.