Watch_Dogs by Ubisoft

[Shifty Geezer]

This whole "downgrade" debate has been very interesting. For example, I haven't been able to notice any major differences but for some it's like e3 2012 and game we have now is like generation apart. I wonder why that is?

The initial internet arm waving was in response to leaked shots which were very shabby. That final release balances out a fair bit nicer than those shots. It's also probably the case that people somewhat misremember the original demos and the lighting wasn't particularly better in a lot of cases, but the setting was ideal to make best use of the engine.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

I wasn't aware of the original WD trailer using CGI. We certainly did not work on it in 2012.

I'll have to re-watch this footage tonight to verify.

 

[Ruiadas]

After rewatching the E3 footage I think it looks really close to in-game. It is clear they cherry picked a very good time of day and a very specific location to show off the visuals but nothing is that different than what I see in game (playing on PC at 4k with a high/ultra mix of settings). I think the 'downgrade' debate comes from the fact that this game can look very flat/bland during the day in various parts of the city and when you drive around there is a TON of pop-in that makes the overall experience feel less impressive than the E3 video.

For me the game itself is enjoyable so far. The driving physics can be a bit frustrating at times but aside from that I don't have any real complaints about the gameplay. The cover system and shooting mechanics work well together. I think the silenced pistol is OP as hell but zipping around taking out an entire area of dudes without being detected is really fun so I won't complain about that. I like things being OP in my favor every so often

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I think the silenced pistol is OP as hell but zipping around taking out an entire area of dudes without being detected is really fun so I won't complain about that. I like things being OP in my favor every so often

Amen. My first gang HQ I used nothing but hacking and the silenced pistol with focus, head shooting guys as they become isolated. To say the remaining few become more and more freaked out is an understatement and it was satisfying as hell.

I felt like Batman in Batman Begins when he's taking out all the guys in the Falconi's Warehouse

I still think the game does a poor job of introducing you to the mechanics, or really explaining what the ctOS bases, towers and other waypoints on the map do and the maps fills with distractions really soon. I felt a little lost initially but it was fun just to walk around so investigate things.

 

[ArcticCircle]

The initial internet arm waving was in response to leaked shots which were very shabby. That final release balances out a fair bit nicer than those shots. It's also probably the case that people somewhat misremember the original demos and the lighting wasn't particularly better in a lot of cases, but the setting was ideal to make best use of the engine.

I think this case would be great postmortem or study for next GDC. I hope Ubi (and other developers, modelers and artist if possible) look into it. I mean if there's such a simple way to fool many of the vocal forum denizens, then it's worth to study and replicate (in form of full game mod or tech demo). I've checked various boards today (after this DF article) and there are still many who claim there's huge difference. Interesting phenomenon indeed.

 

[orangpelupa]

and when compare WD with GTA IV + mods? its crazy how nice looking GTA IV is. Cmon modders! fix WD graphic before september

btw WD on my tablet runs in lower than 10 fps lol haha my tablet.. my poor 6watt tablet...

 

[L. Scofield]

You've selected images that include prebaked GI. They look more convincing. Doesn't disprove the lack of shadowing or AO in other parts of the game though which is what's causing people to grumble.

Prebaked GI? The TOD is dynamic Shifty.

Much of the video is pretty nice. There are clearly no dynamic street light shadows though, unlike the early demos.

All the "double" street lamps cast shadows, but only close to the player.

 

[pjbliverpool]

I think this case would be great postmortem or study for next GDC. I hope Ubi (and other developers, modelers and artist if possible) look into it. I mean if there's such a simple way to fool many of the vocal forum denizens, then it's worth to study and replicate (in form of full game mod or tech demo). I've checked various boards today (after this DF article) and there are still many who claim there's huge difference. Interesting phenomenon indeed.

Has anyone done a direct comparison of the exact same areas at the same times of day? If should be easy enough to do. I don't have the game myself otherwise I'd already be doing it but from the many video's I've watched I'm still seeing nothing that's as good as the original 2012 teaser.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Techspot's benchmarks:

http://www.techspot.com/review/827-watch-dogs-benchmarks/

It doesn't look like what they said about VRAM amount is true. The 3GB 780 Ti tops all ultra quality benchmarks up to 2560*1600, with the R9 290X being a very close second. Even the old GTX 580 with only 1,5GB is capable of maxing out the game in 1920*1200 Ultra settings at some rather comfortable 42 FPS.

The CPU demands are also not true to those ridiculous 9000-10000 passmark demands. A Haswell Core i3 or FX 6350 seem to be enough to put the game at well above 70 FPS.
The claim that it would need more than 2 cores isn't true either, since the game runs fine (50FPS) with a 3GHz Pentium G3220.

If the PS4 version is really just doing the equivalent of the PC's "High" mode at 900p and 30FPS, then it's a really mediocre result as far as optimizations go. Techspot's benchmark at 1680*1050 High show that even a R5 250X (discrete Cape Verde - 10 CUs @ 1GHz, 16 ROPs, 1GB RAM at 72GB/s) could do about the same if faced with the PS4's 1600*900 resolution.




For the PC, the game seems to look and perform about the same as your everyday PS360 port from 2012. Only exception would be the water from AC4 from what I've seen.
What are the chances for Ubisoft dumbing down the game across the board to avoid making the PS360 versions look horrible.?

 

[HMBR]

my sandy bridge i3 is performing pretty poorly in this game, like low 20s while driving trough some areas, even with LOD on medium, you need a sandy bridge i5 or similar (overclocked 8 core FX) to run the game well I think, but the Passmark recommendation is useless for sure.


techspot reviews is not very good, they didn't choose the test scene very well and are using older drivers,

other sites are doing a better job,

but while the game can look great at times (I was driving around at night with some rain, really great), as the GTA 4 vs it youtube video shows, its not as good as GTA 4 in some areas, driving, the car physics is far less enjoyable, damage is pretty poor, the car is like a tank...

 

[DavidGraham]

Has anyone done a direct comparison of the exact same areas at the same times of day?

Yeah I did, here.

It doesn't look like what they said about VRAM amount is true.

But they didn't activate any kind of real AA, activating MSAA puts the pressure back on the memory.

The CPU demands are also not true to those ridiculous 9000-10000 passmark demands. A Haswell Core i3 or FX 6350 seem to be enough to put the game at well above 70 FPS.
The claim that it would need more than 2 cores isn't true either, since the game runs fine (50FPS) with a 3GHz Pentium G3220.

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/watch-dogs-test-gpu.html

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Prebaked GI? The TOD is dynamic Shifty.

It'll be shifting through precalculated light sets. The GI can't be fully dynamic because it's not being applied in places where it should be. How do you develop a lighting engine that uses the scene geometry to calculate surface illumination which ignores some scene geometry? If it is fully dynamic GI, there are some significant bugs!

 

[HMBR]

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/watch-dogs-test-gpu.html

this test is not capturing well how heavy the game is for the CPU, as I said my i3 is running easily at low 20s, while they show a minimum of 41, that's because their test is not covering the more CPU dependent areas of the game

see this:

even the faster i3 3240 (ivy bridge cores, 300Mhz more) is going as low as 18, much closer to what I'm seeing here.

also Pentium is not worth even trying to play the game, it's sandy bridge i5 and higher or nothing basically to have a good experience on the PC,

 

[orangpelupa]

watch dogs killing uplay server?

http://uplay.ubi.com/
has up down for more than 2 hours lol

EDIT:
haha even the ctOS mobile app is stuck in connecting/logging in

 

[swaaye]

I'm playing on a 4.3GHz 3570k with my old unlocked overcloked 2gb 6950 with Cat 14.6. At night when lightning flashes the frame rate just dies. Otherwise it runs well enough. Temporal SMAA is super.

Uplay was having login problems when I played. It took many tries to get in. The game download saturated my 50mbps cable tho. I also had no delay activating the serial number.

The open world definitely has GTA vibes. Driving is weird perhaps because the scale of the world seems too small and also slow. I havent done any campaign missions yet.

 

[L. Scofield]

It'll be shifting through precalculated light sets. The GI can't be fully dynamic because it's not being applied in places where it should be. How do you develop a lighting engine that uses the scene geometry to calculate surface illumination which ignores some scene geometry? If it is fully dynamic GI, there are some significant bugs!

It depends on the distribution of the light probes. For small details like a house porch to be taken into account you would need many more probes, but memory in these systems isn't unlimited.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Isn't that a heavily modded version of GTA IV?

Thats vanilla GTA IV from what i see. Has no EnB mod or anything.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I'm really liking this game. Last night I was just walking down a street in The Wards (a rundown part of the city) and could see through the window of a coffee shop that it was being robbed by a guy with a shotgun. I sneak in through the door, when guy turns around to face me which earns him a baton across the face. My kind of justice

My reputation is with citizens is pretty good now that almost nobody calls the cops when I pull out a weapon

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Just played GTA V after a long time, first time since I got my ps4 actually.....and......Chicago looks so fake compared to Los Santos ! Every turn is picture perfect and scenic and interesting in Los Santos ! A 1080p60fps version would be lovely !

The only reason WD can compete with GTA is because of its hacking-stealth gameplay. Even with its last gen gfx, as an open world city, R* owns WD. WD is not even in competition there!

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I agree, nobody nails a lived-in city like Rockstar. But now I've now been spoilt by WD letting me approach encounters any way I like. I've read a number of reports that most gamers never complete games, never even get part 25/30% and I think this could be improved by giving gamers more freedom, particularly in open world games.

As much as I enjoyed playing GTA V, I took a break half-way through because I wanted to do something other than drive and shoot people. Drop in a bit a stealth and introduce a new gameplay option and change up the pace according to the user's preference.

GTA San Andreas had stealth, I really hope Rockstar bring it back to the franchise