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[Totobeni]

Ive Made a Compairison of the e3 footage and the v.7b mod.
i tried to made them a) sync as possible b) same time and duration and c) same movement! Enjoy

E3:

v.7b:

and a WebM: (not the e3 - but showing the mod)

http://a.pomf.se/unarqc.webm

After seeing this and other comparisons videos/photos I think they deliberately held back on the visuals (even Nvidia techs/PhysX effects look tuned down). maybe they did that so the sequel will look like a big improvement graphicly?

 

[arcoN]

Every time you turn the camera towards the lights of the cars:

hahahah yeah

Is it just me or is there something off about Aiden's height in the v.7b?

Its bcause i play on a 24" with 1920x1200 res. / i "cropped" it a little to have the same Aspect Ratio as the shown e3

 

[TopGun]

I might tweak the file to make the game look like the E3 version then. I'm only getting 1080p 30FPS normally, but I'm not sure how much more taxing on my system the game would be.

This game is frustratingly under optimized for PC compared to other games.

 

[EASTC0AST_GH05T]

for some reason this find is extremely funny to me

 

[Barricade_28]

I just a huge pile of respect for Ubisoft.

What a slap in the face to gamers. Wonder how much Sony paid Ubisoft for them to gimp the PC version?

 

[Skyzard]

http://a.pomf.se/rwrlgx.webm

 

[knirk]

I love how everyone (almost) is going bananas over this find and calling Ubi worse than EA.

 

[Faith]

I'm working with maldo in a configurator for the mod and it should include a slider so you can adjust the dof as you'd like to. Still this is pretty early to talk about but eventually.

On riday I'm going to a city not far from here to take a vacation, small one, 2-3 days only. So i'll make a release before that that will be just my personal preferences included for 0.8

The rest of the mod like configurator, options to choose etc will be added after I come back so please wait for me, I'll be arround anyways but I will not have my computer to test anything. I'll answer the questions I can and then go back to the modding.

Looking forward to it.

 

[hodgy100]

I just a huge pile of respect for Ubisoft.

What a slap in the face to gamers. Wonder how much Sony paid Ubisoft for them to gimp the PC version?

nothing, this is probably the result of just downgrading graphics to get it running on the consoles and then keeping that build for the pc version. it's pretty normal practice really....

 

[Setsuna]

Borderless treats the game as a window which means you're still on the desktop and don't have to alt tab to do anything else; as sometimes alt tabbing out of games can have wild effects when you return to the said game to include crashing.

unfortunately borderless is buggy with watch dogs

 

[Morphine_OD]

So which file has the "it's PC so who cares" comment?

What kind of file is it?
It looks like some C preprocessor stuff, but why would that kind of file be in the final game?




I read your post.

It's a texture filtering shader, high level shaders indeed look a lot like C. Does it answer your concerns?

 

[Putosaure]

Awesome, thanks.

This will be fun to play around with.

These screens are looking good

 

[Shaldome]

The pictures remind me of Anno 2070 in the picture mode with that strong DOF.

 

[Vlodril]

how do you install the patch files? just copy paste into the data win 64 folder?

 

[R_Deckard]

so are the stuttering/performance improvements actually real? That's all I really care about

No

 

[GHG]

No

Not true, this has significantly reduced any stuttering that i previously had while driving.

I would guess it depends on your setup and what settings you're trying to run still.

 

[Aranath]

I'm still getting loads of stuttering with Ultra textures on my 780.

 

[Morphine_OD]

so are the stuttering/performance improvements actually real? That's all I really care about

Depends on your setup. If you have less than 3gbs on your GPU, it's highly possible that the stuttering won't disappear completely. There is no magic in this mod, only mipmaps tweaking.

 

[MaLDo]

Depends on your setup. If you have less than 3gbs on your GPU, it's highly possible that the stuttering won't disappear completely. There is no magic in this mod, only mipmaps tweaking.

I don't have stuttering with ultra textures in 2 GB gpu using nomips version.

 

[R_Deckard]

Not true, this has significantly reduced any stuttering that i previously had while driving.

I would guess it depends on your setup and what settings you're trying to run still.

Are you running Textures at High or medium?

I have done side by side and with this mod in High Textures at night/rain with the bloom on I get WORSE performance and I still get the stutters, If I drop to medium textures it nearly goes completely but this is true of the standard unmodded version.

Have you done a frametest before/after?

 

[Morphine_OD]

I don't have stuttering with ultra textures in 2 GB gpu using nomips version.

Which AA do you have on?

 

[FlyingSaucer]

I don't understand. Why the whole game journalism's angle "mod add new visual effects" vs unlocking pre-existent, hidden effects ? Lip-service ? Avoiding any backslash from Ubi ?

 

[MaLDo]

Which AA do you have on?

SMAA and Temporal SMAA.

 

[bro1]

I don't understand. Why the whole game journalism's angle "mod add new visual effects" vs unlocking pre-existent, hidden effects ? Lip-service ? Avoiding any backslash from Ubi ?

Technically, you are modifying the code from the shipped final version.

I doubt that this is a ubi soft conspiracy, but rather a choice made by the development team that probably came Down to a cost benefit analysis around which features are good enough to ship.

 

[Skyzard]

This game is just too good looking!

http://a.pomf.se/gdxzmf.webm

http://a.pomf.se/txbylb.webm

http://a.pomf.se/uxqeho.webm

 

[danielcw]

It's a texture filtering shader, high level shaders indeed look a lot like C. Does it answer your concerns?

Which language is that (so I can look up the details)?
And is it normal to find this kind of files in that state?

 

[KojiKnight]

So which file has the "it's PC so who cares" comment?

What kind of file is it?
It looks like some C preprocessor stuff, but why would that kind of file be in the final game?

It was in a configuration file for some sort of shader/graphic effect. This one specifically was designed/built for PS360. The comment in question "It's PC so who cares" refers to the fact that the PS360 build completely lacks that effect, so it's literally them saying for anyone else who reads it "You can ignore this line because it's got nothing to do with us."

Since all versions of the game were being made in the same time, the notes from the PS360 version (and it's config files) made it into the PC version. It's not an uncommon occurrence (South Park: Stick of Truth off the top of my head, also had console specific configs in amongst the PC files). It was just left over data taken out of context to try and make Ubi look worse.

(edit) The complete file as posted from another gaf user so you can see it in context.

I took the liberity of reinstalling Watch Dogs and opening the shader.dat file.

In it's entirety; the contents of 'deferredambient.inc.fx'

#ifndef _SHADERS_DEFERREDAMBIENT_INC_FX_
#define _SHADERS_DEFERREDAMBIENT_INC_FX_
 
#include "Ambient.inc.fx"
 
[B]#if defined(XBOX360_TARGET) || defined(PS3_TARGET)[/B]
#define READ_3D_TEXTURES
#endif
 
#define PROBE_VOLUME_SIZE_Z 17
#define LINEARZSPACING 3.5f
 
float3 GetUnifiedVolumeUVW(in float3 worldSpacePosition, float baseZ)
{
// Figure out where we stand in the our 3x3 grid (128m per tile).
float2 distFromCenter = worldSpacePosition.xy - VolumeCentreGlobal.xy;
float2 uv = (distFromCenter / (256.0f / 23.0f * 120.0f)) + 0.5f;
 
// Since we have 24x24 probes, but we have 1 row/column of redundancy between
// tiles, we need to introduce a 1px offset for each tile as we move away
// from the center.
uv += round(distFromCenter / 256.0f) / 120.0f;
 
float w = saturate((worldSpacePosition.z - baseZ) / LINEARZSPACING / PROBE_VOLUME_SIZE_Z);
 
return float3(uv, w);
}
 
// [B]This is al ultra dumbed-down version of what there is in DeferredAmbient.fx,
// designed for rain light. Assumes normal pointing up and no floor correction.[/B]
float3 GetRainLightProbeAmbient( float3 worldSpacePos )
{
float3 volumeUVW = GetUnifiedVolumeUVW(worldSpacePos.xyz, CenterBaseZ);
 
float4 finalUVW4 = float4(volumeUVW, 0);
finalUVW4.z += (0.5f / PROBE_VOLUME_SIZE_Z);
 
#ifdef READ_3D_TEXTURES
#ifdef NOMAD_PLATFORM_XENON
[B]// On XBOX, since the texture filtering is good, we stick to
// 8-bit texture. [/B]We dont use gamma because this would require us
// to use one of the _AS_16 format the the shader becomes
// texture cache stall bound. We opt for a manual (non-gamma-correct)
// filtering using a sqrt() for encoding and x^2 for decoding.
float4 encodedUpperColor = tex3Dlod(BigProbeVolumeTextureUpperColor3D,finalUVW4);
float3 upperColor = (encodedUpperColor.rgb * encodedUpperColor.rgb) / (encodedUpperColor.a * RelightingMultiplier.y);
#else
float3 upperColor = tex3Dlod(BigProbeVolumeTextureUpperColor3D,finalUVW4).xyz;
#endif
#else
// [B]This is PC only, who cares.[/B]
float3 upperColor = DefaultProbeUpperColor;
#endif
 
return upperColor;
}
 
#endif // _SHADERS_DEFERREDAMBIENT_INC_FX_

I stand corrected; it's actually in there. Not that it matters, it seems this entire inc was targeted for PS3/360; so in context there's nothing wrong with the comment.

 

[bengraven]

So was this intentional deception on Ubisoft's part?

Part of their plan on selling a bs "mod" down the road disguised as dlc that improved the graphics?

Did they not want a huge gap between PC and consoles to not embarrass their masters at Sony and MIcrosoft?

Or was it simply because they didn't have time to properly test the settings?

 

[notoccupanther]

Ive Made a Compairison of the e3 footage and the v.7b mod.
i tried to made them a) sync as possible b) same time and duration and c) same movement! Enjoy

E3:

v.7b:

and a WebM: (not the e3 - but showing the mod)

http://a.pomf.se/unarqc.webm

It's a little bit too foggy no?

Spoiler

And Aiden has shrunk significantly in stature ... lol

 

[KojiKnight]

So was this intentional deception on Ubisoft's part?

Part of their plan on selling a bs "mod" down the road disguised as dlc that improved the graphics?

Did they not want a huge gap between PC and consoles to not embarrass their masters at Sony and MIcrosoft?

Or was it simply because they didn't have time to properly test the settings?

Simply put? We don't know. Something went on and these effects were disabled. Was it because they couldn't get them perfect before release? Was it because someone paid them on the side to "downgrade"? Was it to hold out effects for an "improved DLC" or later patch? All good questions, and probably ones we won't ever get real answers for. Ubi is taking a long time to respond to this, which means they are either trying to find a good PR angle, or they are just ignoring it and hoping it blows over.

 

[RK9039]

Awesome, thanks.

This will be fun to play around with.

Damn.

 

[FyreWulff]

Even if the comment was on it's own. PC isn't a damn religion and you'll see comments actually raking PC over the coals in PC exclusive projects. Developers don't write code with rated E for everyone comments.

 

[hodgy100]

Which language is that (so I can look up the details)?
And is it normal to find this kind of files in that state?

id assume its hlsl and yeah this is normal, shader code is compiled at run time on pc so that it works with different graphics cards.

 

[danielcw]

It was in a configuration file for some sort of shader/graphic effect.

[...]

(edit) The complete file as posted from another gaf user so you can see it in context.

Thank you very much.
So after some basic googling it looks to me like Ubisoft uses (or created) a dialect of DirectX HLSL.
I am still surprised this kind of file exists in the final game, at worst I would have expected an intermediate file. And I would have expected the console version to have precompiled shaders.

 

[danielcw]

id assume its hlsl and yeah this is normal, shader code is compiled at run time on pc so that it works with different graphics cards.

I always assumed, that the shaders are compiled to an intermediate language,
which is then compiled again on the player's machine.
The presence of comments and precompiler directives really surprised me.

 

[KojiKnight]

Thank you very much.
So after some basic googling it looks to me like Ubisoft uses (or created) a dialect of DirectX HLSL.
I am still surprised this kind of file exists in the final game, at worst I would have expected an intermediate file. And I would have expected the console version to have precompiled shaders.

There are a lot of reasons this could happen, it's not an uncommon thing to have uncompiled code end up in a final game either way.

 

[Akai__]

I'm still getting loads of stuttering with Ultra textures on my 780.

3GB VRAM or more? Because I get those too with my 3GB 780Ti.

Just drop it to High, because there is barely a difference anyways:

http://international.download.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/watch-dogs/watch-dogs-textures-comparison-1-ultra-vs-high.html

It's a little bit too foggy no?

Spoiler

And Aiden has shrunk significantly in stature ... lol

Nah, the aspect ratio makes it looks like Aiden is smaller.

 

[hodgy100]

I always assumed, that the shaders are compiled to an intermediate language,
which is then compiled again on the player's machine.
The presence of comments and precompiler directives really surprised me.

well to be fair they are in archives so they weren't intended to be easily accessed. the PC versions of FF 7 and 8 jsut have the raw .fx files floating around in their asset folders. they are un to mess with, a friend of mine made FF7 cell shaded

 

[Blak_Status]

I've tried to make a fair before and after comparison.

I've ensured that each clip is the identical time of day (observe shadow positions), and I've disabled the DOF to show what (or imo, how little) this mod actually does during the day:

http://a.pomf.se/ffxjtq.webm

The sequence is original followed by mod each time.

It seems to add a bit of fog and a bunch of bloom. In broad daylight, that means it does very little, making it look worse in some cases. In shadow however, the bright highlights are exaggerated by the bloom, as you can see in the part where Aiden is crossing the road, so it makes the lighting look a little more vibrant. This is more apparent at night, where the contrast is increased further. So it seems to be bloom and DOF that is fooling a lot of people into thinking this mod has unlocked 'E3 like' visuals. The only proper enhancement to my eyes is the headlights, in terms of lighting up raindrops and shadow casting (the latter of which wasn't even apparent in the E3 reveal). This alone makes the mod worthwhile, but the bloom is too much, as is the DOF. If they could be made more subtle that would be nice. But it's simply not the massive difference that some are suggesting in this thread. If people think it now looks great (like with Skyzard's webm), its because.... it always did.

Thank you. I agree. There is very little difference in broad daylight.

 

[scitek]

A few users say they have stuttering problems even with TheWorse modifications. So I made a quick STUTTERING TEST PATCH that uses the modifications from TheWorse too

https://mega.co.nz/#!aU8HECxA!IiiDbX11J2QM8RR6zFyU8bXKGjvrU6IBb049dy_QU-g


IMPORTANT - READ FIRST!
-----------------------------------------

-This is not a patch to play the game, it procuces a lot of texture aliasing
-This is a stuttering test for people that have stuttering using ultra textures
-It contains a compilation of Ultra textures without mipmaps used as High textures + TheWorse mod 0.7b


So, what's that?
A way to play with ultra textures in 2 GB and maybe less memory gpus. And a test for a possible better future patch.


How to test it:
1. Unrar the file and copy patch.dat and patch.fat into your watch dogs "data_win64" folder (make a backup if you already have a modded patch file)
2. Multigpu users, disable multigpu in your drivers (remember, this is only a test). Recommended to use Adaptative Vsync too.
3. Start the game
4. In the game options menu, select your native resolution, vsync off, max rendered frames = 2
5. Select HIGH TEXTURES!!!! (NOT ULTRA, you will see ultra textures using High texture option)
6. Players with 2 GB of VRAM, set high or medium shadows and reflections.
7. Resume game. You will see a lot of texture aliasing but the stuttering should be reduced.


Share the results. If that patch improves the stuttering for a few users, I will create textures with mipmaps for those that have more texture aliasing.

To uninstall the test patch, delete both patch.fat and patch.dat and restore your old modded patch files in case you had one mod before.

Looks like you've found the problem. The stuttering's practically gone, even with shadows and reflections on Ultra. I have a 2GB 670.

 

[Sodding_Gamer]

Still can't believe this. Has anyone from Ubisoft commented? I know IGN ran the story and was awaiting comments from Ubisoft but that's the last I heard of it.

 

[arcoN]

It's a little bit too foggy no?

Spoiler

And Aiden has shrunk significantly in stature ... lol

The Foggy is the Bloom ive got from the mod / because of the Aspect Ration ill do another gif with the 1920x1200 ratio to get him "normal" again

 

[scitek]

After trying Maldo's test patch, I don't want to play the game normally anymore lol. It's still really stuttery by comparison.

 

[dsk1210]

Looks like you've found the problem. The stuttering's practically gone, even with shadows and reflections on Ultra. I have a 2GB 670.

Downloading the patch now, going to test it out on a 780ti 3gb, will report back if the stuttering is improved/gone.

 

[ymmv]

It's a fucking disgrace when hackers/modders can fix the problem sooner than Ubisoft's own PC programmers. What a bunch of fools ...

 

[Skyzard]

http://a.pomf.se/tfcthv.webm

http://a.pomf.se/vclneu.webm

Some next-gen duck hunting (controller is basically a zapper):

http://a.pomf.se/dkyowa.webm

 

[scoobidoo112]

A. What are the chances of Ubisoft patching these features out of the game / blocking the mods / banning people from U-Play for modding the game files?

B. Has there been any official response yet?

 

[lmbotiva]

we should start tweeting ubisoft with the #itspconlywhocares, we need to make some noise man

 

[Akai__]

A. What are the chances of Ubisoft patching these features out of the game / blocking the mods / banning people from U-Play for modding the game files?

B. Has there been any official response yet?

A. There are rumours, about a 5GB patch comming, but we don't know, what it will include. Also, they would look even more ridiculous, if they ban people using those files, that are included in the game. Remember, it's not a mod. We are simply enabling, their settings.

B. Only a dumb PR statement, that the game wasn't downgraded. Still waiting for an other statement.

 

[chickdigger802]

A. What are the chances of Ubisoft patching these features out of the game / blocking the mods / banning people from U-Play for modding the game files?

B. Has there been any official response yet?

a) most of the stuff are built in pretty deep. Removing them would require actual work. if it was easy they wouldn't be in there in the first place. banning from u-play is doubtful, but they might treat the game as 'corrupt' and require fixing 'broken files' before you can play online.

b) nope.