DF-Watch Dogs Legion PC Review: Ray Tracing + GFX Upgrades - A Taste of Next-Gen?

Jose92

Jose92

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Join Alex Battaglia for the complete breakdown of Watch Dogs Legion on PC - how is it enhanced over the current-gen consoles? What does the ray tracing look like? And we have to wonder - how much of the enhanced experience will make its way to Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5?
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Not sure about that title as the game has such a generic look and bad looking character models but decent breakdown. Ultra Ray tracing looks to be at the best half resolution(3:42). Not that it matters since no one will be zooming in windows in actual gameplay.
 
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Puddle gate is next gen

The amount of power spent for ray tracing but what about character details...

Also the stuttering drives me crazy

And all those graphs at 720p...what....
 
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Crazy dive

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Perfection !

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Runs like garbage, I was hoping that DX12 would improve CPU performance of Ubishaft engines but I was clearly wrong :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Next up: Valhalla!
 
If this is the taste of next gen then that makes RDR2 a taste of what's to come after next gen? And at better performance no less.

This is laughably average looking game with piss poor performance.
 
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MadAnon said:
If this is the taste of next gen then that makes RDR2 a taste of what's to come after next gen? And at better performance no less.

This is laughably average looking game with piss poor performance.
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It surprisingly looks pretty good at 4K with settings set to Ultra. It doesn't look as good as RDR2, but that's understandable because its environment is much more dynamic and filled with active NPCs, vehicles, and drones. It's also surprisingly fun to play, though the gunplay feels goofy.
 
People are crazy if they think that RT is the nextgen shit. That game is garbage and looks empty while all these lights and reflections being everywhere like a goddamn show. This isn't a fun game this is a show for RT.
 
I'm sorry but this video annoyed the hell out of me. Why are they nitpicking all this shit that I won't even notice and acting like it means something when the overall game looks fairly average?
 
If this is next gen we need to go back. I like reflections but overall it looks like your typical bland as fuck ubisoft game.
 
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I hope this shows why the game is mostly 1440p even on Series X. Ray Tracing is mega expensive.

Hopefully there's a non RT/60fps option added later.
 
It's a very mixed bag. A lot of animations don't look very good, some faces are bad, hair and beards look distractingly horrible.

But the city itself, maxed out with everything, looks incredible at times.
 
timmyp53 said:
Not sure about that title as the game has such a generic look and bad looking character models but decent breakdown. Ultra Ray tracing looks to be at the best half resolution(3:42). Not that it matters since no one will be zooming in windows in actual gameplay.
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Agreed, character models and animations are the least impressive part of what I've seen thus far. Environment is A1 though. Lighting is unreal


Polygonal_Sprite said:
I hope this shows why the game is mostly 1440p even on Series X. Ray Tracing is mega expensive.

Hopefully there's a non RT/60fps option added later.
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An SSR 60-120FPS Mode would be a Christmas miracle
 
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Balducci30 said:
I'm sorry but this video annoyed the hell out of me. Why are they nitpicking all this shit that I won't even notice and acting like it means something when the overall game looks fairly average?
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I don't know, it doesn't look "average" to me. Not counting the characters, the game looks outstanding. It's the best looking open-world city to date.

pAbdmsa.jpg
 
Dolomite said:
Agreed, character models and animations are the least impressive part of what I've seen thus far. Environment is A1 though. Lighting is unreal



An SSR 60-120FPS Mode would be a Christmas miracle
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I don't think WD Legion is getting anywhere near 120fps on console or many PC's for that matter outside 720p/low settings lol.
 
Armorian said:
LOL, true that. This game doesn't even have volumetric lighting...
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which also wouldn't be new to any console or PC game. Raytracing is basically the only thing that really differentiates next gen graphics from current gen, everything else is just being refined really. textures getting sharper, polygons getting more numerous, particle effects getting more... particles... it's all just refinement while RT actually is something new that could barely be done before and now is finally something achievable.
 
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It looks like a turd without RT, with RT it looks like a polished turd. 🙂

Dumb AF AI, abysmal looking character models. 🤮 Wtf Ubi?

I liked WD2, but this feels like it's nothing but a cash grab banking on the success of the previous 2 installments.
 
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Md Ray said:
It looks like a turd without RT, with RT it looks like a polished turd. 🙂

Dumb AF AI, abysmal looking character models. 🤮 Wtf Ubi?

I liked WD2, but this feels like it's nothing but a cash grab banking on the success of the previous 2 installments.
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A real person woke up this morning and decided to have this absolutely terrible take.
 
Bo_Hazem said:
Looks insanely good, aside from models. What card you got?
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3080. Ultra preset + ultra RTX and DLSS turned on.

I agree. Game is amazing looking. Character models are a joke, but some of the materials used for clothing looks so, so, so DAMN good. Take a look at shadowing / reflection on this hoodie:

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BONUS:

Also, the amount of detail put into some of these store displays is truly insane. I never seen anything like it in a videogame.

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GaviotaGrande said:
3080. Ultra preset + ultra RTX and DLSS turned on.

I agree. Game is amazing looking. Character models are a joke, but some of the materials used for clothing looks so, so, so DAMN good. Take a look at shadowing / reflection on this hoodie:

pIeDKmc.jpg
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Looks wonderful indeed! Might consider upgrading to the newer cards for that extra juice. :messenger_ok:
 
Turns out my limit for listening to someone rattle on about reflections is 15 minutes. Super in-depth knowledge but fucking hell, didn't think the whole video was just about one effect. Zzz
 
Forgot to say that the fabric looks amazing with those mini self shadowing details. Quite promising for what's coming next!
 
Looking forward to the console vs PC comparison and fully expect people to say he is lying about the settings the console versions use.
 
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I'm surprised by how good this looks. Early peeks at the game seemed quite mediocre. Is it next-gen? Probably not. Is it a suitable evolution for the new tech? Absolutely.

The only thing that sucks is that this really cool looking open world, with so much effort put into it, is going to be bolted to an Ubisoft game. Despite it being one of the better tech showcases at launch, I can't see myself ever playing this.
 
Next gen won't arrive until there's devs with a firm grasp of the new architecture and techniques involved. Once that happens, melting of the eyeballs will commence! On a side note, that Watch Dogs footage looks awful ☹️
 
Why does the game look so good on screenshots and so not impressive in motion?
RTX effects are very good, but character models and details look average at best.

Ray tracing aside RDR 2 on PC looks better than this and I wouldn't even consider it particularly close.
 
Don't rely on any of his performance numbers. By testing in the benchmark & static scenes he pretty much is getting nothing but worthless data. The real hit in this game comes from traversing the world, where the CPU gets slaughtered & necessarily that bottlenecks the GPU hard too. Any performance numbers that aren't examined in motion are 100% useless.

Also DX12 is bugged with performance near water for some setups so I'd recommend sticking to DX11. And ofc, never touch extra details setting.

Game looks great & is a lot of fun, but has plenty of issues too. Overall worth playing through on a sub to Ubisoft+ and you get to dip your toes in Valhalla too, soon, so you can be properly sick of England. :P
 
Alienware said:
Why does the game look so good on screenshots and so not impressive in motion?
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If you're watching a low bitrate YouTube video it will look like a mess. There's simply too much going on and there's too much detail for a YouTube video to process it. I guarantee you the game looks much more impressive in motion than on screenshots. I'm playing on 65 inch OLED with HDR. It's jaw-dropping at times.

Alienware said:
RTX effects are very good, but character models and details look average at best.
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Other than character models, everything is amazing. I'm especially impressed by the level of micro detail and number of object on every street corner. RTX is top-notch, especially at night.

Alienware said:
Ray tracing aside RDR 2 on PC looks better than this and I wouldn't even consider it particularly close.
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Different setting, hard to compare. I would say RDR 2 is more consistent.

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Some additional thoughts: foliage (trees) could be better. Skyboxes at dusk/dawn look like dog-shit. Must be glitched.

One more shot to highlight that amazing night-time RTX lighting:

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Few day-time driving shots. I'm surprised how great handling feels. Definitely the best in the series and one of the best for an open-world game.

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