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The Crew locked to 30FPS on PC

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Unlike PC users, console gamers are at the mercy of the developers and their optimization choices when it comes to framerates. With PC’s being more powerful and customizable, this issue doesn’t usually exist. But then again, when was the last time Ubisoft did something right for PC?

Weeks after Ubisoft claimed that they wanted to rebuild their relationship with the PC gaming community, they’ve gone and broken one of the cardinal rules. The Crew, an open-world MMO racer which is set to hit shelves later this year, is coming to PC, Xbox One and PS4. Ubisoft has locked the framerate to 30FPS for not only the console versions, but PC as well.

It’s not an option, it’s just a locked feature. That’s what one player found this week during the closed PC beta, having to edit some game files in order to eventually unlock the framerate. After posting the fix on a Ubisoft forum, A Ubisoft community manager confirmed that the game was locked to 30FPS on PC, and that messing with the game’s binary files could lead to instability.

Having a game’s framerate locked on PC is not uncommon, although there are many cases where some never go higher than 60FPS. That’s usually the case for lazy console ports, but having a title locked as low as 30FPS is almost unheard of – though the same limit was placed on EA’s latest Need for Speed.  It’s more proof that Ubisoft isn’t really dedicated to the PC versions of their titles, something which the PC community has been complaining about for years.

There’s still some time to go until launch, but if Ubisoft is already defending their decision I don’t see this changing at all.

Last Updated: August 26, 2014

68 Comments

  1. 30fps or 60fps. No biggie as long as the freaking game is enjoyable and fun.

    Reply

    • Rags

      August 26, 2014 at 09:46

      No fast paced racer is fun at 30 fps.

      Reply

      • Matewis Jubilai

        August 26, 2014 at 09:48

        I’d rather say, the 30fps – 60fps gap is especially large for fast paced racers. Come to think of it, most games really….

        Reply

        • Johan du Preez

          August 26, 2014 at 09:53

          You are 100% correct but hey they want to justify it to make it seem fine. Its ok il skip the crew and play my other games at over 120fps.

          Reply

          • SojournZA

            August 26, 2014 at 10:23

            Please let me know what setup you have and what games you play that you get over 120 fps on

          • Uberutang

            August 26, 2014 at 10:25

            Dude my 2011 build PC still runs some games way over 120fps.

          • SojournZA

            August 26, 2014 at 10:35

            running at 640×480 doesnt count, 🙂

          • Uberutang

            August 26, 2014 at 10:39

            LOL never! I downsample to get 2560×1440 on my 1920×1080 screen 🙂

          • Johan du Preez

            August 26, 2014 at 13:32

            I have i7-2700k at 4.9GHZ. 16GB DDR 1666, 2x 256GB SSD, 2x AMD 7970 Crossfire, MSI Z77A-G45 Thunderbolt Mobo.

            I can run games at 4k over 60fps no problem.

            Battlefield 4 runs at 147FPS with 120% res scale on ultra with MSSA off on 1080p on a 64player map.

            The R9 280x is a repackaged 7970 with less power usage.

          • Mossel

            August 26, 2014 at 13:08

            Once you go 120fps you cant go back man! O_O

      • CypherGate

        August 26, 2014 at 09:48

        Fps doesnt really bother me so im fine with it. For example Split/second. That i enjoyed and was locked at 30fps. Some games suits 30fps and others 60fps. Like i prefer Forza at 60fps.

        Reply

      • Ded Pul

        August 26, 2014 at 16:56

        I played Split Second at 30fps. Tell me how is it not fast paced

        Reply

        • Rags

          August 26, 2014 at 23:04

          Perhaps you should read my comment again. I can play Quake 3 at 30fps too. That does not mean it will be fun, or at least very far from how fun it is at 125/250fps.

          Reply

  2. Admiral Chief Assassin

    August 26, 2014 at 09:40

    *sigh*

    Ubisoft, you have SUCH great promise, but such a crappy execution. I really hope you guys REALISE YOUR MISTAKES and that you get the love you should be getting.

    – Kill U(no)Play
    – PROPERLY TEST games on PC before you release
    – Use PROPER CONTROLS when doing so as well
    – Profit and receive love again

    While I’m all going ape on making ridiculous demands, how about a government that is NOT corrupt, cheap fuel and a 10 step guide to understanding women, as well as a machine that turns farts into fuel directly

    Reply

    • MakeItLegal

      August 26, 2014 at 10:20

      Yes

      Reply

    • Jaded_Reprobate

      August 26, 2014 at 10:22

      there is a 10 step guide to understanding women…

      step 1.1000054550065 clearly states: Though shalt never understand women

      Reply

    • Rinceable

      August 26, 2014 at 13:30

      And the Oculus?

      Reply

  3. Matewis Jubilai

    August 26, 2014 at 09:40

    Wow that’s pretty pathetic

    Reply

  4. Xcalibersa

    August 26, 2014 at 09:44

    One mod and its changed

    Reply

    • Matewis Jubilai

      August 26, 2014 at 09:46

      Yep, just like the rubbished Simcity-can’t-play-offline thing. Somewhere some modder already went:

      Reply

      • Lag-Fighting Tactics

        August 27, 2014 at 06:00

        Lets all just buy it anyway and show our support.
        If we don’t complain about it, but instead praise this, they shouldn’t do it next time for single player games and trust us again as consumers.

        Reply

  5. Johan du Preez

    August 26, 2014 at 09:47

    Whahahahahaha here comes another Watch Dogs!!!

    Reply

    • Alex Hicks

      August 26, 2014 at 10:19

      I haven’t bought Watch Dogs … and I’m really quite sad about that – looks like it was an awesome game, story and gameplay wise; but a lazy PC port doesn’t deserve a buy does it.

      Or will buying only with massive discount send the same message?

      Reply

      • Jonah Cash

        August 26, 2014 at 11:28

        I really enjoyed Watch Dogs, but apparently Aiden wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea!!

        Reply

        • Johan du Preez

          August 26, 2014 at 11:32

          I have no issue with Aidan I have a massive issue with Ubisoft gimping the PC port not to make the consoles look bad.

          The game is something different and fun but the way Ubisoft handled it and shafted the master race is something to take note of.

          Its like being curb stomped and beaten up by someone but tomorrow when you wake up you go back to that person and give them money with a smile although with some missing teeth.

          Reply

      • Johan du Preez

        August 26, 2014 at 11:29

        Nah its perfectly fine Its worth getting it on a sale for sure. The game looks dated and if you fire it up next to Sleeping Dogs then the graphics are not on par at all and thats a 2012 game.

        The crew might be good and they might not go down the same route but for the love of god do not pre order. If it gets good reviews and if its a proper port then I will also buy it at full price.

        If not I will prob not bother.

        Reply

  6. Uberutang

    August 26, 2014 at 09:50

    And yet one more ubisoft game that I wont buy then.

    Reply

  7. Alien Emperor Trevor

    August 26, 2014 at 09:51

    Ag really whatever…

    Reply

    • Viking Of Science

      August 26, 2014 at 09:55

      My Sentiments exactly….

      Reply

  8. Sith JJ

    August 26, 2014 at 09:56

    When I found out it was going to be “locked” to Uplay I’d already made my decision not to buy.

    Reply

  9. Pieter Kruger

    August 26, 2014 at 09:57

    Just not on for a racing game sorry, Ubisoft get your shit together man!!

    Reply

  10. Viking Of Science

    August 26, 2014 at 10:01

    • Johan du Preez

      August 26, 2014 at 11:36

      Spot on!!

      Reply

  11. FoxOneZA

    August 26, 2014 at 10:01

    Pffft… it’s only locked at 30 FPS until you introduce the tilde key (~)

    Reply

  12. Sith JJ

    August 26, 2014 at 10:03

    I’m so tired of Ubisoft’s crap. At this rate they’re making EA look good.

    Reply

    • MakeItLegal

      August 26, 2014 at 10:21

      This ….

      Reply

    • Kromas of City17

      August 26, 2014 at 10:51

      After Watchdogs I started playing BF4 again. It really is not that bad.

      Reply

      • Sith JJ

        August 26, 2014 at 11:00

        I installed Origin recently. Still haven’t done anything on it (and won’t buy anything through it), but it’s a pretty big step for me.

        Reply

    • Matewis Jubilai

      August 26, 2014 at 10:52

      I dunno, Ubisoft would have to pull off a monumental king of kings dick move to trump what EA dared to do to Dungeon Keeper…

      Reply

  13. iAmWeasel

    August 26, 2014 at 10:05

    Master Race fail.

    Reply

    • MakeItLegal

      August 26, 2014 at 10:22

      We will hack it and have it running at 60fps 2 weeks after launch

      Reply

    • Sith JJ

      August 26, 2014 at 10:31

      I think it’s a bigger fail that the consoles have accepted that they usually only get 30fps 😉

      Reply

      • iAmWeasel

        August 26, 2014 at 12:29

        At least I didn’t pay 10k for a system which plays shitty gimped ports.

        Reply

        • Sith JJ

          August 26, 2014 at 12:46

          Haha. 10k. I wish.

          Reply

        • FoxOneZA

          August 26, 2014 at 12:52

          Hahaha! I paid half of that to run Crysis at 60fps.

          Reply

        • Mossel

          August 26, 2014 at 13:07

          And you paid R6.5k for a system that cant even play games at 1080p at 60fps…in 2014. And then the games cost R750 each.

          Reply

    • Spaffy

      August 26, 2014 at 11:27

      Oh? Is it 60fps on console then?

      Reply

      • iAmWeasel

        August 26, 2014 at 12:24

        No it will be 30fps as well, except no glitches and stuttering from shit port job.

        Reply

        • Spaffy

          August 26, 2014 at 12:39

          Another console port? Keep it then.
          Gatvol for inferior games ported from an inferior machine.

          Reply

        • Mossel

          August 26, 2014 at 13:02

          So then it’s not a master race fail, is it? It’s a developer fail.

          Reply

      • Johan du Preez

        August 26, 2014 at 18:34

        more like 30fps at 720p

        Reply

    • Truan Frames

      August 27, 2014 at 11:21

      its not really a master race fail, more of a developer failing, or rather trying to make the consoles not look as bad as they really are

      Reply

  14. Ryanza

    August 26, 2014 at 10:42

    The Crew a DRM racer. Do we really need a DRM racing game. I do not want Uplay and I will not buy games for Uplay. You know if Ubisoft just left the PC scene and take Uplay and fuck off. I wouldn’t miss them. Not like I’m buying any of their shit now.

    Don’t support DRM

    Reply

    • Sith JJ

      August 26, 2014 at 11:01

      Well, the point of The Crew is to be an MMO, so DRM is implied (and needed for it to work). That doesn’t bother me. But I don’t want an MMO, so The Crew isn’t for me.
      About Ubi leaving PC, that wouldn’t bother me either.

      Reply

      • Johan du Preez

        August 26, 2014 at 11:37

        +1

        Reply

  15. Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

    August 26, 2014 at 10:51

    That Ubisoftness….

    Reply

    • FoxOneZA

      August 26, 2014 at 12:53

      It’s like if Stasoft made games…

      Reply

  16. ZubSaber a.k.a Hans

    August 26, 2014 at 11:47

    I’ve tried being loyal due to Mr. Edward “awesome” Kenway. But now?
    You can find all the f**ks I give over on my Uplay profile.

    Reply

  17. Rinceable

    August 26, 2014 at 13:29

    Wow, I mean there is a place in the market for both consoles and PCs (sorry, I just like playing on a console more, you don’t like that you say Masterbater Race? Here’s how many fucks I give 0) but this is stupid. It’s bad enough they played with Watchdogs to offer the PC players a watered down mess of a game. If it can be done then do it for flips sake.

    Reply

  18. Charl van der Merwe

    August 26, 2014 at 14:46

    I saw the latest need for speed was also locked to 30 fps, and when it was hacked and the frames were unlocked and ran at 60 fps the game ran at twice the speed, so the game speed was actually programmatically linked to the FPS.Now here is another driving game that seems to be linked to the fps.

    Wonder what kind of technique this is, because it’s pretty lame.

    Reply

    • Sir Rants A Lot: On Pandora

      August 26, 2014 at 17:27

      It’s just various ways of implementing time stepping.

      Forcing a game to run at a fixed speed at a specific framerate is usually used on consoles so that if the FPS does drop the game slows down accordingly and thus will not seem to be slowing the FPS (So a smooth transition of timestepping instead of a jittery experience)

      The problem with this is that the game has to be coded with a target FPS in mind (on console 30FPS). On a PC this is a terrible idea because of the vast amount of systems in place.

      A gamer that can’t run the crew at 30FPS on a PC is going to have a very bad time because the game is going to run in a “slow-mo” kind of way. It’s going to feel sluggish.

      This is the worst time of timestepping implementation one can use on a PC and is further proof that Ubisoft has no real idea what coding should be for PC.

      Heck most devs don’t even use frame based timestepping. They use a delta timestep to determine how quickly an event must happen so that if your framerate drops, the game events still occur at the same speed as if the frames are higher. This is what most games use so that they can run from 10FPS (Usually the minimum delta timestep threshold) all the way to 120FPS+ without having the game “slow down” the timescaling.

      This method does implement more jitters and actual screen lag than a fixed timescale but is generally the better choice especially if you are going to be playing with other players.

      A fixed timescale will cause people to teleport on screen if their frames drop regardless of how good their net connection is because the timescale goes out of sync and so needs to be compensated for everywhere.

      Reply

  19. Brian Murphy

    August 26, 2014 at 19:23

    Once again, the PC community comes to the rescue and unfucks what Ubisoft and developers in general do to PC’s.

    ‘Might lead to instability’, right….because we all know that increasing FPS can lead to stability issues lol (obviously this is dependent upon hardware involved).

    Reply

  20. Willem Swanepoel

    August 26, 2014 at 19:54

    Every fucking time when Ubisoft releases a game the hacker community saves the PC. What the fuck is happening to the world.

    I mean, that I had to go to hack and crack sites to find a hacked DLL file so that I can play the ORIGINAL BOUGHT copy from Ubisoft … WHAT THE FUCK.

    AC3, AC4, Watch Dogs etc. really … really ….

    Its sad that I would rather buy EA games than Ubisoft after what EA did to us 😉

    Reply

  21. droodle

    August 27, 2014 at 11:46

    I just got into the beta and this game is basically unplayable for me. You can get away with 30fps in some games, but a high-speed arcade racer – not so much. The input lag is an absolute nightmare, feels like I’m driving a boat. The fact that even a single developer thinks it’s acceptable for a game like this to run at 30fps is a joke – the fact that multiple developers (Driveclub, Forza Horizon 2) seem to think so is just sad. Guys, when we’re racing at 140mph we don’t really tend to notice how many blades of grass there are or how aliased the leaves are on the trees as we speed past them. We do, however, notice when we smash into an obstacle because we failed to react before the window of input lag made avoiding it impossible.

    Reply

  22. Torguish

    August 28, 2014 at 14:57

    Funny thing; People in beta already changed by just switching 1 number from 30 -> 60. It’s on reddit:
    http://www.reddit.com/r/The_Crew/comments/2ba9iz/for_people_who_want_60_fps/

    lel…

    Reply

  23. nah

    August 28, 2014 at 16:27

    So the last few days I’ve been playing the game and it just feels like the game is running in slow motion sometimes. However if you take a look at this link, ubi said the final game will run at 60fps. http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/911974-Disappointing?s=a8a6058ea0ca1be017076896a7092587&p=10184062&viewfull=1#post10184062

    Reply

  24. 94DMP .

    August 30, 2014 at 23:01

    Nope.

    Reply

  25. Austint30

    December 31, 2014 at 02:57

    This game has a HORRIBLE way of handling framerates. If your computer goes below 30 fps or 60 fps it will make the game slow down. So if you set it to 30 fps and you get 15 fps, the game will be in slow motion at half the speed. THIS IS COMPLETELY UNFAIR TO PEOPLE WHO HAVE WEAKER PC’S. This means if 2 people race with the same exact car, the person with the better PC will win while the person with a lower framerate will LOSE! This needs to be fixed ASAP Ubisoft!

    Reply

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