Watch Dogs 2

[Jupiter]

Watch Dogs 2 Graphics And Performance Guide: http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/watch-dogs-2-graphics-and-performance-guide


This is a GPU melting game with a lot of high end features. I dont know one game which has an effect like the ray marched volumetric fog. Especially not in this quality.

However, this PC exclusiv effect comes not without costs

Spoiler

Gamersyde version: http://www.gamersyde.com/news_watch_dogs_2_nvidia_pc_trailer-18574_en.html


What disturbs me that there is no good AA apart from TXAA. This is particularly expensive in high resolutions.

In my opinion, it exceeds even Battlefield 1 relatively easy on a technical level (which has no high end settings at all). Watch Dogs 2 could be the best graphics game of the year. But it will have no object density like The Division.

Like Rainbow Six and some PlayStation 4 Pro titles Watch Dogs 2 also has something like checkerboard rendering. In pictures it looks good but in motion it flickers like it does in Reinbow Six or PlayStation Pro titles. I am not a big fan of this technique but it helps in performance.


I found the predecessor mediocre but that seems to be much better. This time it's a bit crazy and similar to the GTA games. The human environment in which the character moves can not be liked by a person like me.


EDIT: Benchmarks

Techpowerup: https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Performance_Analysis/Watch_Dogs_2/4.html

GPU ad CPU - Guru3D: http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/watch_dog_2_pc_graphics_performance_benchmark_review,6.html

PCGameshardware: http://www.pcgameshardware.de/Watch-Dogs-2-Spiel-55550/Specials/Test-Review-Benchmark-1214553/

 

[Clukos]

The new TXAA used in WD2 is quite something. It costs way too much perf but it's the only way to eliminate sub pixel shimmering. I really quite like it, and finally Nvidia realized that gaussian blur wasn't really a good choice for their AA.

For Watch Dogs 2 we've upgraded TXAA to a new version, referred to internally as "TXAA 3.0". Compared to the TXAA seen in games previously, the new version used here in Watch Dogs 2 switches from a Gaussian blur to sample filtering, vastly reducing the blurring that was clearly visible at 1920x1080. Furthermore, TXAA 3.0 increases maximum quality from 4x to 8x, and introduces some other secret sauce that further improves the quality of its edge and temporal anti-aliasing.

And of course some secret sauce! As for the fog, I've played about 4-5 hours and still haven't encountered any fog like that yet, maybe it's bugged?

 

[Jupiter]

That's good to hear. However, it would still need a respectable AA without multisampling. At least, there is a TXAA option with only 2*MSAA.

If the person from the NVidia Guide found these ray marched fogs they should sometimes arise in the game. ^^

 

[digitalwanderer]

Fuck this shit!

https://www.techpowerup.com/228257/...monitors-systems-potentially-prevents-modding

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Fuck this shit!

You have to love the irony of such a countermeasure being baked into a game where the protagonist is lauded for hacking systems.

 

[Clukos]

Fuck this shit!

https://www.techpowerup.com/228257/...monitors-systems-potentially-prevents-modding

I understand where you are coming from but online is a pretty integral part of the game. I'm actually having fun playing my game and random online events happening around me. Modding and glitching the game could potentially ruin that. Also, isn't the game using Denuvo? I thought Denuvo is cock-blocking modding on its own. And now it makes sense to me why Fallout 4 and Skyrim SE don't use Denuvo

 

[digitalwanderer]

I don't like games where online is integral, just a personal thing since I never have time to game online since I always need a pause button. That and this things protection is nasty and invasive, according to the TOS it could do a lot more than just make sure you're not cheating.

 

[swaaye]

Is this game incredibly more enjoyable the the original? Ubisoft Open World Formula In The City With GTA Game Mechanics And Hacking wasn't so great for me last time..... They hyped the shit out of that game too. Remember the talk about wind simulation for Chicago? lol ok.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I remember it never running very well no matter what hardware I ran it on, that's what I remember about Watch Dogs.

 

[orangpelupa]

I don't like games where online is integral, just a personal thing since I never have time to game online since I always need a pause button. That and this things protection is nasty and invasive, according to the TOS it could do a lot more than just make sure you're not cheating.

isnt TOS always invasive and breaking many privacy and consumer protection laws?

 

[swaaye]

I remember it never running very well no matter what hardware I ran it on, that's what I remember about Watch Dogs.

Yeah the driving in particular stuttered a lot.

 

[Clukos]

Is this game incredibly more enjoyable the the original? Ubisoft Open World Formula In The City With GTA Game Mechanics And Hacking wasn't so great for me last time..... They hyped the shit out of that game too. Remember the talk about wind simulation for Chicago? lol ok.

It is better than the original and the typical ubisoft open world title, at least i didn't have to climb a tower so far

I'm sure the fog is bugged btw, haven't seen anything like the trailer so far after 8 hours of playing.

Edit:

Fog On

Fog Off

Some more

Fog On: https://abload.de/img/watchdogs211.30.2016-2jskm.png
Fog Off: https://abload.de/img/watchdogs211.30.2016-0fs5m.png

Fog On: https://abload.de/img/watchdogs211.30.2016-g5sam.png
Fog Off: https://abload.de/img/watchdogs211.30.2016-pisrv.png

What's more, i'm losing about 5-10 fps on average while having fog on so i really don't know what's going on there. It's safe to say to turn it off for free performance till they fix it. Another broken/unoptimized setting is the screen space reflections. I'm actually getting SSR on surfaces even having it turned off and i'm getting like +20 fps in performance, pretty sure you can turn off SSR and turn on HTFS and get the same performance you got with SSR on very high or ultra.

Edit #2: Screenshot with SSR turned "off": https://abload.de/img/desktop11.30.2016-13.xqsdy.png

 

[Malo]

Does that special fog have any specific requirements, like Pascal+? That's fairly common for Nvidia effects implementations.

 

[Clukos]

Does that special fog have any specific requirements, like Pascal+? That's fairly common for Nvidia effects implementations.

It's not an nvidia specific setting though.

 

[milk]

I watched gameplay, and BY GOD these hipedy hip young dude-with-tude I-already-was-a-hacker-before-it-was-cool caricatures of actual human beings are obnoxious. I generaly find ubisoft's worlds specially cringy and silly, but this reaches new heights. It fits my general stereotypical view of french that they are terribly unfashionable.
I feel like It's so annoying I would not endure playing the game. Can you guys get by the cutscenes and dialogue without throwing your screen out the window?

 

[pharma]

I think you should be getting the "San Francisco" fog.
https://developer.nvidia.com/watch-...-improved-lighting-and-antialiasing-gameworks

 

[Clukos]

I think you should be getting the "San Francisco" fog.
https://developer.nvidia.com/watch-...-improved-lighting-and-antialiasing-gameworks

Should is the correct word here, not getting any ray marched fog.

I watched gameplay, and BY GOD these hipedy hip young dude-with-tude I-already-was-a-hacker-before-it-was-cool caricatures of actual human beings are obnoxious. I generaly find ubisoft's worlds specially cringy and silly, but this reaches new heights. It fits my general stereotypical view of french that they are terribly unfashionable.
I feel like It's so annoying I would not endure playing the game. Can you guys get by the cutscenes and dialogue without throwing your screen out the window?

It's weird, i thought i'd hate it myself watching some videos but since almost everything is cringey in the world of WD2 it kinda makes sense. In many ways it reminds me of Saints Row, story and characters all whacky and crazy/weird but the gameplay loop is fun so you keep playing.

 

[pharma]

San Francisco Fog
Whatever stting you play on, San Francisco can occasionally be steeped in fog. Turning up the San Francisco Fog setting does however provide more realistic volumetric fog which swirls and has differing densities in different areas.

http://www.game-debate.com/news/218...breakdown-and-most-important-graphics-options

 

[Malo]

It's not an nvidia specific setting though.

Maybe the days you're looking there isn't any fog? It's not as if San Francisco bay is constantly enveloped in it.

 

[Jupiter]

I can not test it because I want to keep the game for the christmas vacation. Once I have taken a quick look on a colleagues PC.