Windows E3 Watch Dogs Graphics in Game Files, Activated Via Mod (WTF, Ubisoft?)

[MICHAELSD]

It seems to level the PC version with consoles, Ubisoft intentionally limited the Watch Dogs graphics on PC. Yet... they kept the E3 shaders and effects in the game files, and modders are finding ways to activate on PC via mods. Huge difference that clearly shows how much they downgraded the game.

The game is so poorly optimized that my MBP wouldn't be able to run this... high settings with some settings set to low at 720p barely is playable.

Reportedly actually found in code lol...

More shaders, etc. coming too from original demo unearthed by nodders. WTF Ubisoft?

Mod found here:

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=390114

Performance improvements do sound promising though lol. Other WD thread is dead and gone so figured this justifies its own thread.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5HymW34U4E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DURGH2385co

Physics, lighting, bloom, and motion blur look much better with the mod. The way the game was released looks like a last-ten title.

 

[SilentPanda]

Sure it's in the game files but when push comes to shove the company has to choose what to devote resources to be it development, art, QA, etc. When you're targetting 6 systems you can't spend time custom tweaking all 6 systems to give the best graphical throughput. So you have to find a good middle ground which is likely what they did.

As for the developers comment in the code that could mean a bunch of things. Maybe he knew the PC wasn't going to get the love it 'deserved' so he wrote that comment upset with his management vs his hatred of PC gaming.

It's nice that they left certain things in and modders are able to tweak it. The bonus for Ubisoft is if these high end tweaks fail they can say "Hey, that's not supported." These modders aren't just going in and flipping settings and they magically work. They're testing the settings, trying things out, etc... essentially putting in free dev work that Ubisoft doesn't have to officially support.

 

[MICHAELSD]

Sure it's in the game files but when push comes to shove the company has to choose what to devote resources to be it development, art, QA, etc. When you're targetting 6 systems you can't spend time custom tweaking all 6 systems to give the best graphical throughput. So you have to find a good middle ground which is likely what they did.

As for the developers comment in the code that could mean a bunch of things. Maybe he knew the PC wasn't going to get the love it 'deserved' so he wrote that comment upset with his management vs his hatred of PC gaming.

It was finished though, and with the mod settings it actually doesn't run much worse than in my rMBP at High settings; possibly better than stock Ultra since I'm seeing 10-15fps at 720p. I feel if the game was optimized more for next gen consoles could've had these upgrades in the game.

 

[SilentPanda]

It was finished though, and with the mod settings it actually doesn't run much worse than in my rMBP at High settings; possibly better than stock Ultra since I'm seeing 10-15fps at 720p. I feel if the game was optimized more for next gen consoles could've had these upgrades in the game.

What was finished?

Ubisoft may have even tested these settings the modders are reenabling but found that the game was unstable under certain circumstances. While I don't do game development, I do develop and have been for 14 years now professionally. Things get turned off all the time if they aren't 100% stable and 100% necessary. Heck, Ubisoft may even reenable these options in a future patch. I've seen that happen before too.

 

[MICHAELSD]

What was finished?

Ubisoft may have even tested these settings the modders are reenabling but found that the game was unstable under certain circumstances. While I don't do game development, I do develop and have been for 14 years now professionally. Things get turned off all the time if they aren't 100% stable and 100% necessary. Heck, Ubisoft may even reenable these options in a future patch. I've seen that happen before too.

A lot of shaders, physics, explosions, bloom, blur, even rain effects were downgraded. People aren't reporting many issues. I feel if I could adjust shadows to low this would run better than the settings I was using before.

 

[SilentPanda]

A lot of shaders, physics, explosions, bloom, blur, even rain effects were downgraded. People aren't reporting many issues. I feel if I could adjust shadows to low this would run better than the settings I was using before.

There is a huge difference between a feature being implemented and a feature being fully tested. There are more considerations besides, "Man it make these screenshots look prettier." Metrics that Ubisoft was attempting to meet and couldn't with these features enabled. If they fully worked and spent money on implementing these features, there's little reason they would have turned them off. They are turned off for a reason. It may not even be a catastrophic reason. But they weren't just like, "Ehhhhh... let's lower the graphical quality just because...."

You note that people aren't reporting many issues but I would imagine it's a very small install base that's even trying out the mod(s) and I know when I've installed mods like this before in other games, if they don't work I just uninstall it without writing up a detailed bug report or complaint because I don't care.

 

[MICHAELSD]

There is a huge difference between a feature being implemented and a feature being fully tested. There are more considerations besides, "Man it make these screenshots look prettier." Metrics that Ubisoft was attempting to meet and couldn't with these features enabled. If they fully worked and spent money on implementing these features, there's little reason they would have turned them off. They are turned off for a reason. It may not even be a catastrophic reason. But they weren't just like, "Ehhhhh... let's lower the graphical quality just because...."

You note that people aren't reporting many issues but I would imagine it's a very small install base that's even trying out the mod(s) and I know when I've installed mods like this before in other games, if they don't work I just uninstall it without writing up a detailed bug report or complaint because I don't care.

In that case, many would have appreciated if Ubisoft took the time to incorporate these into the next-gen games. 900p on PS4 in its current state is unacceptable IMO. I am glad you brought up this point but many are speculating it was a performance issue on consoles and they didn't want the PC version to look that much better than the console game.

Edit: I do have to note the game looks much better in this state yet performs similarly. It doesn't run at 5fps as I expected.

 

[davelanger]

the reason is runs better after the mods is because now the GPU is able to take on some of the heavy graphics where as before the code was forcing the CPU to do it all and that is why it was stuttering all the time.