Watch Dogs Secret PC Specific Code found!!!

[Killer_Rubber_Ducky]

NeoGaf reported on a hacker (the good kind) that was looking through the PC client code and found all the effects etc that were in the E3 2012 preview. They were all PC specific and were commented out with the comment above the section saying: 'This is PC Only, who cares.' It seems that the Devs wanted to prevent people from seeing the disparity between PCs and 'Next-gen' consoles with this game so, they nerfed the PC version to look like the next-gen systems.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=838538

 

[xenocide]

What a stupid move on Ubisoft's part...

 

[d1nky]

ive been playing this game for around a week now, its starting to drag!

may quit this game now tbh, but those mods make the game graphics look epic! I may just wait till i get a 290x or 780ti and then play with the modded textures!

well done ubisofrigginstupidandspoilgaming

 

[15th Warlock]

Looks nice, the bokeh greatly enhances the cinematic feeling

Unexpectedly the game runs better on my titans now, less stuttering... Weird

Thanks for the link

 

[THE_EGG]

I hope this becomes an official patch or the like. Something along the lines of the HD texture pack for Crysis 2.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Tried the "Fix" version of TheWorse mod. It was the only one that didn't cause extreme shadow texture flickering. I also felt the bloom, fog, smoke, DoF and even civilian density were too excessive.

The bloom has realistic light glow, just too much of it. In places where there's a lot of fluorescent lights on the ceiling it really has an exaggerated look and feel. When there's fog it washes out most of the color, and smoke effects are way overdone. Even bumping into things with a motorcycle causes big clouds of smoke.

At first the added civilian density seems nice, until one of those random muggers alerts what is now WAY more people to call the cops, which come after YOU of course. I wouldn't mind trying a very light version of this mod if each feature is adjustable somehow, but as is the only real benefit for me were the stutter and overall performance tweaks, headlight shadows, and I'd def be interested int he added camera angles too, esp close behind..

 

[RCoon]

Wow. Ubisoft sure did fuck up this time. I bet they go into lockdown silent mode, with zero comments allowed when approached by game journalists.
"We didn't include these things because we didn't test them and didn't have enough time because we were too busy LINING OUR POCKETS WITH PREORDER MOOLAH!"
Seriously, the game runs better with the mod enabled than not, and everything in game looks absolutely amazing (kinda like how the E3 demo looked). Shame the game is essentially a multipack of walkers crisps. Lots of flavours, very little concentrated effort into any of them. But hot damn, at least it looks super shiny now.

Or should I say, at least it looks "next-gen" now

Maybe all these features were locked to prepare for the imminent "Enhanced Edition" that they intend to add to the 17 different types of game packages you can buy now.

 

[RejZoR]

This is Ubisoft game, who cares. I wanted to buy this game just to wander around Chicago in amazing visualized environment, but after seeing how crappy it looks like, i didn't even bother.

 

[ne6togadno]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=116947106&postcount=1530

 

[RejZoR]

Good thing i never bought the damn thing and i still haven't broken a record of not buying or playing a single Ubisoft game since ages ago. FU Ubi and your ignorant attitude.

 

[AphexDreamer]

I actually think the performance hit on ultra came from the fact that they disabled many E3 options. Playing it with E3 setting has removed the major stuttering issue I was having and the game looks better.

 

[natr0n]

The controversy over the pc version of the game is more exciting than the game itself.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

I actually think the performance hit on ultra came from the fact that they disabled many E3 options. Playing it with E3 setting has removed the major stuttering issue I was having and the game looks better.

If by "Playing it with E3 setting" you mean TheWorse's mod, you aren't just playing it with higher than default settings, you're playing it with tweaks he made to reduce stutter and improve overall performance. It has nothing to do with E3 graphics settings.

I read a post of TheWorse's last night stating he is going on a 3 day vacation soon, but will be working with using a configurator he spoke of for this mod that is being developed by a co-modder. He's even saying now that DoF will be slider adjustable. He also mentioned making a build version before going on vacation that will have reduced bloom that many have requested.

I don't know why he doesn't just make a headlight shadow and performance only version until the configurator is done. There are obviously a lot of people complaining that the added effects are too excessive. I also don't get why people keep referring to them as the "E3 effects", because they never look as good. The bloom is so excessive it actually distorts the colors. The fog is so excessive it washes out all the color. The smoke is so excessive you see clouds of it just bumping a vehicle into something. Etc, etc, etc.

I'll end by saying I got the Season Pass goodies last night and played the Breakthrough, Signature Shot, and Palace missions, and only Palace was anywhere near exciting. I mainly got the season pass for the upcoming T-Bone campaign, which will hopefully be worthwhile.

 

[AphexDreamer]

Man I've been having so much fun online and doing side quests (has yet to gotten repetitive to me) that I have yet to beat the main story.

As far as I knew I thought he only enabled E3 settings. I wonder what he did exactly to help aid performance? And if he could fix it, why is it taking this long for Ubisoft to officially patch it in?

Something smells fishy here. Either he disabled some "visual enhancements" or Ubisoft intentionally tried to make PC's struggle on ultra where they shouldn't have to be.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

As far as I knew I thought he only enabled E3 settings. I wonder what he did exactly to help aid performance? And if he could fix it, why is it taking this long for Ubisoft to officially patch it in?

He didn't say specifically how he smoothed out the driving stutter, but I DID see him ask how to access the vehicle LOD settings. He had already had some success minimizing stuttering when he asked that, so one could assume he had adjusted LOD settings for the environment while driving somehow.

Ubi might be trying to find the least visually degrading method before deciding how to approach it, and of course doing it responsibly also means a lot of play testing for any possible bugs introduced, which is where TheWorse has not been very thorough.

In fact it was specifically due to bugs that he initially had 3 versions of the mod, only the "Fix" version of which did not have excessive shadow texture flickering for me. Even that version though resulted in unacceptable problems when I visited one safehouse, whereby everything suddenly looked like an extremely glowy photo negative. It was so bright and glowy I couldn't see anything, so uninstalled it.

I plan on waiting until he has a version with the configurator a co-modder is working on, but I'm skeptical whether even it will be bug tested. If nothing else it at least serves as a heads up to Ubi that A) headlight shadows could have been implemented day one on PC, and B) there ARE acceptable ways to improve performance on PC.

That said, I'm not blaming TheWorse, or any modder for that matter, for using the general public as beta testers for their mods. That makes a LOT more sense than big budget developers and publishers using us to beta test complete games they've spent 5 years developing after getting full price from us, and for obvious reasons.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Man I've been having so much fun online and doing side quests (has yet to gotten repetitive to me) that I have yet to beat the main story.

As far as I knew I thought he only enabled E3 settings. I wonder what he did exactly to help aid performance? And if he could fix it, why is it taking this long for Ubisoft to officially patch it in?

Something smells fishy here. Either he disabled some "visual enhancements" or Ubisoft intentionally tried to make PC's struggle on ultra where they shouldn't have to be.

He found a Lua Script that contained references to E3 (there's a screen shot that shows two) and enabled them. My guess is they were used exclusively for E3, disabled, and forgotten about.

It sounds like his mod does a lot more than that though. Ubisoft likely kept them disabled because they didn't have enough time to debug and do quality assurance on it before launching. That likely includes open issues with AMD and NVIDIA to fix bugs on their end that maybe couldn't get fixed before launch.

My hope is that the outcry from this will cause Ubisoft to go back and fix it. Presumably, they're going to use this engine again either in a sequel or other titles so it makes sense that they would try to iron out the kinks.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

They've probably never been extensively tested by Ubisoft but apparently work well enough.

"Well enough" is debatable, and the reason there have been SO many requests for versions of the mod with lower values on the effects. All of these types of effects really DO require extensive testing.

My guess is they had originally planned to extensively test, tweak and implement them, but when after playing the game they found several (described as 1000s) of things that needed polish from the way cars drive to the way missions play and much more, they no longer had time to do all that effects tweaking, even WITH the new launch date.

IMO that would have been fine if they'd just had mentioned it and stated it as a work in progress for an upcoming patch, but they've not said word one about it, which as we all know only creates controversy when the inevitable modder discovery happens.

All of this is aside from what in my opinion, and that of many others, is the most offensive and annoying problem day one, the horrible PC performance. At least they've acknowledged that and are working on a patch though.

I wouldn't really even have a problem with them insisting the game needed a lot of reworking had they done it more holistically. I'm sure what they're referring to as lackluster missions, car handling and other forms of lack of polish were necessary, but there are many times the game gives you the same old rehashed mission types when you expect a better end result from a special investigation series. Even DLC missions are pretty much structured the same. The PS4 exclusive content perhaps the worst offender.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I stand corrected then. Ubisoft axed it because it wasn't ready.

As I said, I expect this stuff to get fixed because Ubisoft invested too much money into the engine to only use it once. The question is whether or not they retroactively patch Watch Dogs. The only way I can see them justifying that is if there's a lot more DLC planned for it. If Ubisoft decides to cut and run, they'll save the improvements for the next game.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

I stand corrected then. Ubisoft axed it because it wasn't ready.

As I said, I expect this stuff to get fixed because Ubisoft invested too much money into the engine to only use it once. The question is whether or not they retroactively patch Watch Dogs. The only way I can see them justifying that is if there's a lot more DLC planned for it. If Ubisoft decides to cut and run, they'll save the improvements for the next game.

Well I honestly DO see a huge potential for more DLC, and not just same old missions types. They need to get more creative with them though and be more vocal about it. They're already at risk of players losing interest fast after the bad first impressions on performance and repetitiveness. Anything "extra" they charge for at this point is going to seem insulting to many though, esp after the first DLC being more repetition.

The upcoming T-Bone campaign, if it's a s good as many are hoping it will be, might just be what it takes to do proper damage control on the game's image. They better not take too long with it though. This summer is not going to be as dry title wise as last year, so they can't just sit on their laurels.

 

[Steevo]

The code was already in the game, but disabled, and it makes the game run smoother with it enabled, possibly meaning features were purposely taken out or disabled to reintroduction later as some special content. It just reaffirms how Ubisoft really feels about their customers, who cares if we can make a great game now, lets make a good enough game, and then try to sell features we already built into it later, either for money or PR.


In short, this shit is like customers buying and paying for a Ferrari, getting a Mustang and told its good enough, we will trade you up later for more money.

 

[AphexDreamer]

Patch incoming http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/892700-Watch-Dogs-Patch-(6-18-14)?p=10052409#post10052409
Sadly PC user still have to wait a few more days


MAJOR GAME FIXES
• Automatically reconstructed corrupted save files which prevented loading to go further than 90%. Some collectibles may remain unrecoverable.
• Fixed the issue preventing players from using hacks in game.

GAMEPLAY FIXES
• Fixed several mission-breaking bugs.
• Fixed minor mission and item-related issues.
• Fixed the issue that caused the empty weapon-wheel.

MULTIPLAYER FIXES
• Fixed several minor respawn issues.
• Fixed some connection and session joining issues.

PC SPECIFIC FIXES
• Fixed graphical glitches on Low & Medium settings.
• Fixed some crashes on SLI configurations.
• Implemented several performance improvements.
• Implemented a few control improvements.
• Fixed issues causing infinite messaging and timing-out when trying to access the Online Shop from the Extras Menu while Uplay is set to Offline mode.
• Fixed issues connecting to a Multiplayer game.
• Implemented several mouse modifications.
• Fixed “Drinking Game” control issue where wrong information was displayed when played with a gamepad.
• Fixed “Chess Game” control issue.
• Fixed bug where the invasion setting was never saved.
• Fixed graphical issues during cut scenes and cinematics.
• Fixed several graphical and texture bugs.
• Removed Vista OS check to prevent false positives.
• Added game version in main menu.

 

[Champ]

Why would anyone do this? I wonder what other games they've done this to. I mean, look at this. Damn near crysis graphics:

I wonger if game play can be improved

 

[mastrdrver]

Why would anyone do this? I wonder what other games they've done this to. I mean, look at this. Damn near crysis graphics:

I wonger if game play can be improved

Holy.......wow. I didn't know the game could look that good. If it ever looks like that without a mod, I'd definitely buy.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

The code was already in the game, but disabled, and it makes the game run smoother with it enabled...

Excuse me, but what exactly are you using to determine this? So far the only ones I've seen claim this are using a mod that again, includes stutter and overall performance fixes. Until performance and graphics mods are used separately, there's no way of knowing this.

@ Aphex,
Nice to know they've already got a set of release notes for the patch, but these are the only ones I'm interested in...

• Implemented several performance improvements.
• Implemented a few control improvements.
• Implemented several mouse modifications.
• Fixed several graphical and texture bugs.