Ubisoft Explains Why Watch Dogs On PC Had Hidden Graphic Options

[KINGofCRA5H]

The dev team is completely dedicated to getting the most out of each platform, so the notion that we would actively downgrade quality is contrary to everything we've set out to achieve. We test and optimize our games for each platform on which they're released, striving for the best possible quality. The PC version does indeed contain some old, unused render settings that were deactivated for a variety of reasons, including possible impacts on visual fidelity, stability, performance and overall gameplay quality. Modders are usually creative and passionate players, and while we appreciate their enthusiasm, the mod in question (which uses those old settings) subjectively enhances the game's visual fidelity in certain situations but also can have various negative impacts. Those could range from performance issues, to difficulty in reading the environment in order to appreciate the gameplay, to potentially making the game less enjoyable or even unstable.

Thanks for playing Watch Dogs and stay safe on the mean streets of Chicago.

-The Watch Dogs Team

http://watchdogs.ubi.com/watchdogs/en-us/news/index.aspx#

Hack me if old.

 

[LiK]

Should've just made them optional toggles. PC gamers like to fuck around with the settings.

 

[Aretak]

What a load of mealy-mouthed bullshit.

 

[bigboss370]

wasn't this assumed already?

 

[ChawlieTheFair]

Anybody run into "problems reading the environment for gameplay"? Sounds like bollocks. Even if it's the case, why not iron out those problems?

 

[disappeared]

See guys! They had our best interests in mind!

 

[Vox Chaotica]

Didn't the mod actually *improve* performance, though? Unless I'm mistaken, of course.

 

[Scum]

 

[macewank]

aaaaaaaand everything they just said is a loaf of poo.

 

[cpp_is_king]

A fucking massive downgrade in visual fidelity is under no circumstances an acceptable tradeoff for performance parity across every fucking computer that's out there.

It's like they took the notion of minspec, and made it maxspec.

That's why options exist.

 

[Raptomex]

What else was removed before release? The game looked worse every time you saw it. Didn't Ubi try some shady shit at a PR event to get better reviews for this?

 

[10k]

Problems reading the environment is the new "female animations are a lot of work".

 

[bigboss370]

Anybody run into "problems reading the environment for gameplay"? Sounds like bollocks. Even if it's the case, why not iron out those problems?

i can see how in some cases players can miss hacking opportunites in the environment, i dunno.

But i can understand that since they didn't have resources or time ot optimize for those extra features, they dropped them. I thought this was a regular occurrence in gaming development?

 

[zychi]

Anybody run into "problems reading the environment for gameplay"? Sounds like bollocks. Even if it's the case, why not iron out those problems?

on console, yup. typical ubisoft bullshit. 8 months ago it was with ac4 and far cry 3 and in 6 months everyone will forget this happened and purchase new AC or FC4 that will not be optimized and probably run like trash on pc. the cycle never ends.

 

[Jintor]

Didn't the mod actually *improve* performance, though? Unless I'm mistaken, of course.

Well, there could be a giant memory leak or something that builds up over time. Who knows tho

 

[GuitarAtomik]

That's pretty much what I expected. The bolded is pretty funny though:

Modders are usually creative and passionate players, and while we appreciate their enthusiasm, the mod in question (which uses those old settings) subjectively enhances the game's visual fidelity in certain situations but also can have various negative impacts.

Granted, the added fog doesn't necessarily make it look "better" but most of the added effects I've seen (wet streets, shadows created by headlights) objectively enhance the visual fidelity.

 

[Portugeezer]

Didn't the mod actually *improve* performance, though? Unless I'm mistaken, of course.

No, it was pretty much the same (which is to say not very good), but some areas run worse with the mod. (according to TotalBiscuit's video anyway)

 

[blastprocessor]

So having heaps of DOF is gameplay enhancing and people are complaining they hid this? From the shots I've seen it looks like shit.

 

[Saintguine]

What a non-answer.

Ily Ubisoft.

 

[RedAssedApe]

obviously would have melted your pc. ubisoft saved you hundreds of dollars. be grateful

 

[reptilescorpio]

difficulty in reading the environment in order to appreciate the gameplay

el oh el

Good one Ubi

 

[CassidyIzABeast]

Its good to know that Ubisoft cares about stability and performance so much. I guess that's why their latest patch removed the mod and reportedly made the framerate worse.

 

[TangibleDream]

http://watchdogs.ubi.com/watchdogs/en-us/news/index.aspx#

Hack me if old.

What a crock of shit.

 

[SketchTheArtist]

Problems reading the environment is the new "female animations are a lot of work".

When the depth of field kicks in 4 feet from the player, like in a lot of ''Awesomely good'' pics, yes, it's hard to read what's in front of you.

 

[ss_lemonade]

Are they still saying they didn't downgrade the game's visuals?

 

[Tesseract]

nobody is buying that shit, ubi. holy cow.

 

[Currygan]

The dev team is completely dedicated to getting the most out of each platform

 

[reptilescorpio]

Didn't the mod actually *improve* performance, though? Unless I'm mistaken, of course.

Yeah reduced the stuttering for a lot of people.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

I really cannot stand Ubisoft anymore.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

...I'm not seeing what's unreasonable or untrue about their comments? If they honestly felt that the graphical effects in question were causing an unacceptable amount of issues, and that there was no time or budget available to try and rework or fix them (or that "fix" might simply have just been turning off the graphical effects), then that's what any software developer would do.

I mean, Ubisoft's history of PC ports is... hit or miss, to say the least (which makes the part about getting the most of out each platform a bit funny), but I don't see anything malicious here.

 

[BPoole]

If it's subjective, then why not let people enable the settings in game and let them decide for themselves?

 

[Haines]

I guess they don't really need to save face when y'all just buy there games anyways.

I mean howany downgrade threads were there and how many of those posters still bought it lol.

I never thought even the reveal trailer looked interesting tho so meh

 

[Leatherworkstation]

At least they admitted the old settings look better (in some cases) which is more than I expected from them considering they've been saying there was no downgrade for the past God knows how long.

 

[DOWN]

What a load of mealy-mouthed bullshit.

Sorry, but them basically saying they felt those features weren't optimized well enough is pretty legit.

 

[Tablo]

 

[Stumpokapow]

As I said in the last thread on the subject of secret conspiracies, it was clear from day one that the cause here was neglect--the PC version of this game is at most the fifth or sixth most important SKU. It's not about deliberately worsening the product, it's about neglecting to invest resources to improve the product. They developed with a certain baseline level of effects, they toned them down to improve performance on the console SKUs, and then they chose not to finish development and testing and refining on what they already done. And as is normally the case, the final build contains cut or unused content. Many games even have playable, very near completion cut content. It happens.

The deception here is that they somehow got from "This is PC only, who cares" to "the dev team is completely dedicated to getting the most out of the platform". I am sure the dev team did their best given the resources and time constraints and the organizational nightmare of working on a game made by 8749 people across 271 teams in 181 countries. But it's pretty clear that knocking the PC version out of the park was not their priority. It's okay, but it's also something people should be aware of before purchasing.

I do think patching out something that was only accessible through a mod is pretty poor form. 99% of the players wouldn't have touched it and the 1% who would have would have done so with the understanding that if stuff broke, it was the mod, not the game.

 

[jediyoshi]

nobody is buying that shit, ubi. holy cow.

It's a lose lose, a lot more people would be complaining if the that exact mod's implementation of whatever was left, it's pretty broken gameplay wise.

Hell, they are all more broken, not giving them the benefit of the doubt is siding with their competency.

 

[rudieboy77]

Is reading the environment the same as it being filmic?

 

[GrizzNKev]

So having heaps of DOF is gameplay enhancing and people are complaining they hid this? From the shots I've seen it looks like shit.

A perfectly tweaked DoF can enhance the game's appearance by hiding LOD and pop-in while also not obstructing the gameplay. It's not perfect yet, but it's getting there.

The mod also adds bloom, which is too strong at the moment, as well as dynamic, shadow casting car headlights, higher rain density, improved particle lighting, and changed time of day settings. The overall package makes quite a difference.

 

[Pimpwerx]

What a load of mealy-mouthed bullshit.

No, it's the obvious explanation. A number of us mentioned exactly this. There were numerous comments about the mod giving people issues. It may look awesome in some spots and make others unplayable. Like the dof. The conspiracy theories are dumb. Games are made on a budget. There's never enough time or money to fit in everything. It's why game engines get better with patches. The extra time allows devs to get those extra features working. Show some appreciation for how hard it is to produce these titles. PEACE.

 

[Daingurse]

Hahaha, there's not a damn thing they can say to me, that will justify it. Should have been in the game as options.

 

[Adam Blue]

I agree that this seems honest and it makes sense to me. How would they be BS'ing this? It was delayed for a reason...probably needed more time. But this is what they settled with so the most amount of players can play without problem.

 

[null_]

I don't understand why these devs don't embrace the PC gamer and offer a simple screen for toggling options like this, assuming the engine can handle real time changes -- gotta be one of the simplest features to implement...

 

[Spongebob]

Problems reading the environment is the new "female animations are a lot of work".

huh? The DOF in the screens I've seen negatively impacts visibility.

 

[Handy Fake]

 

[Salsa]

difficulty in reading the environment in order to appreciate the gameplay

 

[Aretak]

Sorry, but them basically saying they felt those features weren't optimized well enough is pretty legit.

No, sorry, phrases like "subjectively enhances the game's visual fidelity in certain situations" and "potentially making the game less enjoyable" are just plain meaningless bullshit. If you want to believe their lame excuses about performance and stability (despite the fact that people using the mod have reported BETTER performance than without it), that's your business. But I do have a bridge to sell, if you're interested...

 

[GuitarAtomik]

Its good to know that Ubisoft cares about stability and performance so much. I guess that's why their latest patch removed the mod and reportedly made the framerate worse.

Oh! Is that true? Did they completely remove the hidden options somehow or does the mod just need to be updated to work with the new version?

 

[BurnOutBrighter]

If it's subjective, then why not let people enable the settings in game and let them decide for themselves?

Would you knowingly release software with settings that could cause system instability?

As for the OP, I think we need to cut down on the conspiracy theories. They had some fancy render settings that they probably didn't have time to test on the vast, vast range of hardware specs available.

Yes bokeh DOF and fog is nice, but it's useless when you can't see the game for the effects. That's why the DOF is mostly reserved for cutscenes and when you turn on your profiler.

 

[Quadraphonic]

By all accounts it had negative negative performance impacts.

Translation: It made shit faster and prettier.