When Watch Dogs first debuted at E3 in 2012, the game looked good. Damn good, on a visual level. Fast forward to 2014, and the current build seems to have dropped a few notches on the graphical level. Unless you’re playing on PC that is.
If you’re rocking a new Nvidia card in your rig, chances are that you may be getting the bulk of the shiny visual improvements that the game sports. Here’s the latest video from Ubisoft, detailing the HBAO Plus technology that gives the game a staggering amount of detail.
One of the technologies that allowed us to achieve this level of quality is an Nvidia technique called HBAO Plus, which stands for Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion”,” lead PC engineer Paul Vlasie said in the video.
HBAO Plus improves on existing techniques to add richer, more detailed shadows around objects that occlude rays of light. HBAO Plus is faster, more efficient and significantly better when compared to previous techniques.
To address smaller details and increase the visual quality of Watch Dogs, we also used Nvidia’s TXAA technology. TXAA is a new, cinematic style anti-aliasing technique designed specifically to reduce temporal aliasing like curling and flickering that you may sometimes see in motion when you are playing a game.
While there is movement on the screen, TXC will reduce the visual noise of flickering across game elements, like fences, cables, grass or trees. These exclusive technologies are one of the many tools that allowed us to create an immersive and beautiful version of Watch Dogs.
Don’t expect consoles versions to sport these small details, even though PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions will still look like a leap above the current-gen releases. Ubisoft says that current videos of the game have used footage from console versions, while the original look at Watch Dogs at E3 2012 was pulled from PC.
Watch Dogs is (finally) out on May 27. Hopefully, I’ll be able to run the game with my Voodoo 3000 graphics accelerator card.
Last Updated: April 11, 2014
Umar's Sin
April 11, 2014 at 07:50
If there is one thing I would’ve like from Watch Dogs…is that the entire game had to be at night and it had to always be raining…God damn that game looks Amazeballs at night. Dat rain and shadow effects…..
Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!
April 11, 2014 at 08:04
That looks absolutely incredible
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 11, 2014 at 08:10
lol @ alt text
VampyreSquirrel
April 11, 2014 at 08:16
LOL indeed.
Those are the little “easter eggs” around the Lagz site that I look for 😛
Jedi JJ
April 11, 2014 at 08:15
Nvidia is ruining my gaming life
Mossel
April 11, 2014 at 08:24
Why? My 560ti is still running like a beast!
Jedi JJ
April 11, 2014 at 08:26
Mine keeps crashing my games then says “Graphics card has stopped responding”
None of the support forums have been much help since they all say it’s because the card is under too much strain. It even happens when I play FTL. So that’s obviously not it.
Tried setting the power management last night, but haven’t had a chance to test it yet. It’s a real headache. Haven’t been able to play for two days now, since it keeps crashing.
Mossel
April 11, 2014 at 08:31
Have you tried testing the gpu with stress tests? What’s the warranty for these cards? Because I stress tested mine and it came out flawless.
Jedi JJ
April 11, 2014 at 08:34
Think it’s two years. So if it’s hardware issues I’m still safe. Will do a stress test the weekend, haven’t actually thought of that. I’ve always been using NVidia and this is my first problem.
Mossel
April 11, 2014 at 08:42
Yeah strange, haven’t had problems with nVidia yet. Also, is you case properly cooled? Try cleaning the card aswell, dust can cause it to overheat.
Jedi JJ
April 11, 2014 at 08:49
I was actually wondering about the cooling, but it seems fine. Cleaned it about a month ago, but worth doing it again.
MakeItLegal
April 11, 2014 at 09:14
Agreed dust factor , if it was working for so long then I would clean the case properly , got to a garage with you case , use that air pump they have and whoosh the dust away from u tower , just put some distance btw u and tower , else drivers ???
Jedi JJ
April 11, 2014 at 10:16
Thanks. Will give that a try. I also thought it was the drivers. But I’m not sure anymore. It’s almost as if the card works better, the longer I leave my pc on.
MakeItLegal
April 11, 2014 at 11:01
I don’t know enough to comment as I am only dipping my feet into this after a long time of being away from this all … But that’s akward that it runs better after longer , I suspect drivers would be the cause , perhaps if u can revert back to drivers when the system was more stable perhaps then by process of elimination u can either rule out drivers or rule them in
Jedi JJ
April 11, 2014 at 11:14
Sounds like a plan. I thought it might be a process on my pc startup, but I’m just going to try everything now and see if it fixes the problem
MakeItLegal
April 11, 2014 at 11:31
Hopefully not all at once , try one thin at a time , difficult and time consuming I know , but it’s a good way to eliminate problems one by one
Jedi JJ
April 11, 2014 at 11:38
Haha. Yes. Don’t want to give up on the card just yet.
Rags
April 11, 2014 at 08:48
Too much power drain on the rail? PSU powerful enough?
Jedi JJ
April 11, 2014 at 08:50
PSU definitely fine. I can run a car with that beast.
VampyreSquirrel
April 11, 2014 at 08:33
I’ve had that twice before with nVidia cards, and once with AMD… it’s normally the driver that stops responding because it’s unable to communicate with the card, which causes it to time out and kicks you out of your game.
Current issue is with my laptop at home, the graphics card is actually dead and causing blue screens and those errors.
there are 2 possible things that you need to do
1. you’ll need to delete the drivers completely and re-install…
2. your card is faulty and needs to be taken in for repairs or needs to be replaced.
Jedi JJ
April 11, 2014 at 08:35
I actually formatted my entire pc the last time that happened (just because I raged out a bit). So it’s not the drivers. Recently I’ve been completely cleaning up my old drivers before I put new ones on, because I thought it was software issues.
VampyreSquirrel
April 11, 2014 at 08:38
Chances are high that it’s a hardware issue then.
Jedi JJ
April 11, 2014 at 08:39
I was fearing that. Luckily it’s still under warranty. I’ll check if the power management changes makes a difference, I read somewhere that it could cause the problem. Otherwise I’ll have to take it in. *sigh
FoxOneZA
April 11, 2014 at 09:36
Which OS are you running?
Jedi JJ
April 11, 2014 at 10:14
Windows 7 Ultimate.
FoxOneZA
April 11, 2014 at 12:23
Could be an overheating issue. Such an odd problem. Is it a Gigabyte?
Jedi JJ
April 11, 2014 at 14:23
That’s a good question. *goes to find old invoice on email*
MSi
MakeItLegal
April 11, 2014 at 09:12
Eish man I know that feeling. ( pc actin up ) hopefully my pc gets back from the dr today , and working
ElimiNathan
April 11, 2014 at 09:48
Sounds like your card is nearing the end of its life to be honest…
Jedi JJ
April 11, 2014 at 10:14
Sadly it’s only a year and a half old.
Jedi JJ
April 11, 2014 at 08:24
That Voodoo 3000 was such a legend.
FreddyBear
April 11, 2014 at 09:08
And really big….back when everybody else had TNT2’s.
Alex Hicks
April 11, 2014 at 09:13
I think I had a voodoo banshee – one of those old PCI cards that had a very basic SLI type configuration – it would enhance your existing card. Man that ting was legendary for about 2 years.
Alien Emperor Trevor
April 11, 2014 at 09:59
I had one of those, and the Voodoo Rush.
Hondsepop
April 11, 2014 at 08:31
B.E.A. utifull
darren evans
April 11, 2014 at 08:44
Doesn’t look as good as 2012 e3 gameplay
CrasH
April 11, 2014 at 09:00
Suck it ATI fanboys
ElimiNathan
April 11, 2014 at 09:49
We will suck it while Nvidia sucks your money out the bank for half the performance
CrasH
April 11, 2014 at 09:52
Well i guess its easy to get higher frame rate when you only render the bare minimal…
ElimiNathan
April 11, 2014 at 09:56
Ye in 1 or 2 games I could care less about
CrasH
April 11, 2014 at 10:03
And in future games that you will care less about even more…
Hamrammr
April 11, 2014 at 10:22
I’ll suck it this round, however Nvidia is going to do the most sucking this gen.
CrasH
April 11, 2014 at 10:34
Maybe just due to consoles having all ATI/AMD tech but then again phones, tablets, some high end PC’s and reseach servers will use Nvidia tech, especially considering that Nvidia already have a moblie GPU that can basically run most of the current games, not at extreme resolutions with everything enabled, but this basically opens the ability to can have more powerfull tablets in a year that the current consoles are.
But if your a bitcoin miner or password cracker, ATI is much faster with…
MakeItLegal
April 11, 2014 at 09:17
After seeing this , and having a proper new build to stress out , I might actually make this a month one purchase ( will wait for first patch and hear if people havin problems at all ) simply cause this looks epic , and thankfully that dam uplay only needed for activation ! Boom in the game again
Wyzak
April 11, 2014 at 09:29
BOOM, graphical downgrade argument defused for the storm in a teacup that it was.
Maxiviper117
April 11, 2014 at 10:50
UltimateNinjaPandaDudeGuy
April 11, 2014 at 12:09
I am getting the excitement back for this game! The fact that GTA hasn’t even hinted at a PC release helps a lot too, but then again it seems Watch Dogs SP will be awesome which is a GREAT deciding factor for me!
npsacobra
April 11, 2014 at 20:56
Apparently this isn’t in-game footage:
http://www.meatspin.com