Assassin's Creed Syndicate

Clukos

Bloodborne 2 when?
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The PC version unlocks in just a few hours, i had mine preloaded and used a crack to test the port early, some first impressions. Let's get this out of the way first, performance on my end is much better than Unity, frame pacing is way more consistent and the overall menus + controls are x2-x3 times as responsive. I made a picture that includes all graphical options (including a vram meter for your GPU):

acssettings6du04.jpg

To start what I've been testing initially, Environment Quality is the most CPU reliant option out of these available, don't put it too high if you don't have CPU power to spare. Textures Quality doesn't seem to affect my GPU but it may be different for other GPUs. Shadows Quality is the single most expensive GPU effect other than AA, up to High everything is ok, PCSS is affecting performance a lot and PCSS Ultra is killing your GPU (don't turn either if you don't have 980ti/Titan X/Fury). AA, well everything apart from FXAA hurts performance a lot (deferred rendering + MSAA don't go well together), every other option includes FXAA (it's either FXAA+MSAA or TXAA+FXAA). Ambient Occlusion is another big change visually but it hurts performance less than Shadows, SSAO is typical SSAO with HBAO+ and HBAO+ Ultra looking better(i am able to sustain 60 fps with HBAO+ Ultra on a single 970).

Comparison between the three options(click and swap between them):
SSAO
HBAO+
HBAO+ Ultra

I am very surprised by how easy it was to hit a solid 60 on my system without day 1 patch nor Nvidia drivers specific for the game. I've been running Environment Quality Very High, FXAA, and High shadows with everything else maxed and i am able to hit a solid 60 (something that i tried to do with Fallout 4 and wasn't able to). The port, at least on my end, seems like a very good effort and the game looks quite good most of the time. From what I've heard already it seems like it's a better game than Unity as well. Now i am just waiting for the game to unlock on Uplay and i'll report any improvement, if any, with the day 1 patch and Nvidia drivers.

 
No shadows for NPCs at night, meaning no shadows originated from light sources other than the sun.
Assassin's Creed: Watchdogs ?
 
Ok, can confirm after playing a few hours. Port is much better than the Fallout 4 port on my system, very stable, nice graphics and solid performance. PCSS seems like it's broken (but it looks great) but other than that it's a very solid release :smile:

Incredibly responsive menus as well, such an improvement over Unity in that regard. I really like what i played.

Edit: Occlusion setting differences:
occlusion-gif-31ju4c.gif

http://abload.de/img/occlusion-gif-1yrubu.gif
http://abload.de/img/occlusion-gif-2zfuod.gif

Shadow Setting differences:
shadows-gif-273udp.gif

http://abload.de/img/shadows-gif-12auwg.gif
 
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Yes, it'll be nice when AO becomes a thing of the past once we can get universally better global illumination in games.

AO adds some nice contrast, but often doesn't reflect lighting conditions correctly giving things a very off kilter look. Especially if there's any dynamic lighting going on. I generally turn off AO nowadays.

Like in that picture that Clukos this is so good, there's a lot of areas that get shadowed by AO that shouldn't be shadowed.

Like in that gif that Clukos thinks is so good, there are plenty of shadowing added by AO that is completely out of place in relation to the lighting in the scene.

It's a cludge that can look good sometimes, but I'll be happy when there's no longer a need for it. Unfortunately it's still cheaper than doing proper lighting with light bounces, so it'll be here for a while.

Regards,
SB
 
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Glad i can enjoy non-realistic shading then, Syndicate without AO looks like ass in comparison :smile:
 
SSAO is definitely not ideal, but I'm yet to find a game that looks better off without it. ( with the exception of the really shitty implementations, like FarCry 3 for exemple )
Whatever happened to directional SSAO anyway. That would be a big improvement already, reducing a lot of the over-shadowing in well lit places...
 
In some scenes from what I've seen the Ultra HBAO looks absolutely incredible. Sure it's not realistic but we're simply not there yet. I do wish they'd implement a directional component like Cryengine has.
 
HBAO+ Ultra is definitely not "realistic" but it does look incredible most of the time. Some examples:
23189011906_3d85428114_o.jpg

22847143899_9c9545202b_o.jpg

22919217360_09cf770577_o.jpg

22587993494_27a89a30d1_o.jpg

22848493649_2a1b71f18e_o.jpg
 
I got the feeling that HBAO should be just set a bit lower.. it seems overshoot.. creating an artifical cartoon style.
 
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