Watch Dogs PC System Reqs. - Next-Gen Is Here?

Huh, I must the odd one out here where the game played basically as advertised out the box. With everything at Ultra and using SMAA I get around 45-60FPS depending on where I am and how hectic the scene is. I definitely notice some jerkiness especially when frames are down, but nowhere near as bad as people mention in this thread. Driving is actually pretty smooth for the most part (graphics wise), but dat steering :/

Oh and I tried playing around with the SLI compatibility bits, both actually gave worse frames than with the default Watch Dogs bits I'm thinking I must be doing something wrong lol

 

I might go back and see what things are like without compatibility bits again now

 

also let us know which settings u use?

 

Nah .. I just tried the standard Nvidia profile and it runs like complete a$$.. at least for me.

I'm sticking to this for sure.

 

I max everything out. Fxaa and high shadows and it plays fine, I'm at 2011mb of vram usage but stuttering is common. It feels like optimization stutter more then hardware . No crashes due to low memory though like some people and I only have 2 gb vram. 11 to 12 gb of ram is used when playing and I have 16

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

 

Not to be that guy but if its stuttering it's hardly 'plays fine' bro Dandan no? Compatibility bits mate..compatibility bits

 

Putting it on lower settings, even medium doesn't fix the problem. Which means to me it plays fine relative to how it's supposed to be playing with the current optimization and drivers. Even during review videos it's stuttering. So for now I suppose that's how it's supposed to be until they fix it.

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

 

11-12 gb usage for a game is pretty ridiculous. Seems that RAM usage is a clear sign this game was barely optimised for PC hardware.

 

Not if you can fix it yourself. Sure they've made a mess of it. My point is that Comparability bits gets rid of a lot of the inherit stuttering, especially noticeable in SLI. It won't magically let you max everything out but it sure cleans up the mess.The difference is night a day for me.

 

At ~2:00, how did the car repair itself?

 

OK will try the SLI compatibility bits again when I get home today, those were the exact settings I used going by TBoneSan's screenshot but we'll see. vRAM usage maxes out at 3.6-3.7GB according to HWInfo, so it's definitely on the heavy side when using ultra texture.

And yeah agreed on the optimization part. I get around the same frames, maybe higher in some places in Sleeping Dogs with all settings maxed out, but 50 FPS in Sleeping Dogs still felt smooth, where as 50 FPS in Watch Dogs I can definitely notice some stutter. Overall still not too bad and definitely playable, just not butter smooth.

Oh and TBoneSan, how did you get OSD to work in this game? I pretty much followed Fox's guide to setting up the OSD and it works in every single game but Watch Dogs, what the hell

P.S. Should probably mention I'm using 780M SLI for others who are curious
P.P.S. I can draw so many similarities between Watch Dogs and Sleeping Dogs it's not even funny

 

You should try Sleeping Dogs again. I recently tried it after all the driver updates (up to 337.50) and I was getting 100+fps a lot (albeit on high and not extreme anti aliasing, but in the past "extreme" wasn't ever a 60fps hit)

 

It just worked for me. Have you installed the newer version of RivaTuner that has 64bit support?

Side note - if you're going to use v-sync use it with the NCP rather than in game.

 

Ah no I'm still on one of the ancient 32bit versions of RivaTuner. Hopefully that'll fix the problem.

Oh and funny story. When I hit "Install" after popping in the install disc, it asked me if I wanted to uninstall Watch Dogs. I was like "dafuq?" but decided to hit yes anyway just in case it was some weird bug. Well turns out it uninstalled FarCry 3 Blood Dragon instead. Absolutely speechless.

P.P.P.S. I really hate the save system in Watch Dogs. What's up with only 1 save slot?

 

FYI you don't need to put anything for "SLI compatibility bits" because it's for DX9 and OpenGL only and Watch Dogs is a DX10/11 game so it's not gonna use it anyway. (I believe it's already grayed out by default in the Watch Dogs game profile.) The SLI profiles for DX10/11 games are at "SLI compatibility bits (Dx1x)" and this is where you replace the Watch Dogs value with the Far Cry 3 one.

 

Also, the GPUs don't heat up anywhere near as much as some of the other AAA titles (Far Cry 3, Crysis series, Sleeping Dogs). Even though vRAM usage can peak at 3.6GB and GPU is almost always at 99% usage, the temps never go above 75C, and usually hover in the low 70s. This is in contrast to the other games I mentioned above where the GPUs would peak around 85C and stay in the low 80s during continuous gaming.

Not that lower temps is a bad thing, but kinda makes me wonder if the performance issues are due to not fully utilizing the GPU's power.

 

so according to IGN there might have been a stealth patch that was released over the weekend.

anyone noticed a difference over the weekend?

 

Nevermind. I was probably thinking of the day 1 patch that got pushed out. Basically UPlay wanted to install a 100MB update before letting me play Watch Dogs.

Played around with the SLI bits, default still appears to be best for whatever reason. Got OSD working by updating to the newest version of Afterburner.

 

someone needs to make the trenchcoats that aiden wears and sell them

 

have you seen dead rising 3 pc requirements?minimum gtx 570????and recommended gtx 670?thats not normal

 

goddam this game is addicting. I can understand why some of you go on 14 hour gaming sessions lol. But yeah even just 6 hours my head starts hurting and my eyeballs feel like they're being gouged out

 

Lol I agree. This game is addicting as heck.. damn thing is keeping my up to early hours in the morning

 

The physics in this game can only be described as LOL

- A Fiat-like subcompact can push an armored truck back a good 20 meters if ramming at full speed
- A cement truck can send any non-heavy vehicle literally doing barrel rolls across the higway when crashed into side on
- Armored trucks take about 3-4 grenades to destroy, even if you aim for the engine
- Fall from a distance of about 20 meters and you die, but if you sit in a car and fall the same distance you're ok (and so is the car)

 

Is it only me or when you are driving there is severe aliasing and jaggedness in watch dogs?
it's pretty impossible to turn on some MSAA type of AA provided the game is already so taxing on systems.

 

Yeah the power lines among other things are pretty bad without AA.

I sacrificed a few settings so I could run TXAA 2x.

 

Enjoying the grease goggles?

 

Soooooooooo...

Make sure you unlock the Destroyer and Piledriver weapons ASAP. The Destroyer is effective even against helicopters, and 2 shots is all it takes for the chopper to retreat (it doesn't get destroyed, but it flies out). The Piledriver will take down even an Enforcer at close distance if you can land all 6 shots at near point blank range.

 

2 rounds per mag on the Destroyer is really awkward.

 

Which is why it's not a general purpose weapon and should not be used as much. Even the description mentions it being an anti-material rifle, so it's best used against cars or choppers really. Oh and Enforcers too if you feel like taking them down from a distance.

 

Still no patch for performance issues ?

 

I'm on Act V and one mission away from beating the game, thought I'd share some tricks for beating certain missions that I had some problems with (obvious spoilers below). Pardon me if you already know or have beat the game.

Spoiler

Act IV Mission 4: The Defalt Condition
Had a lot of trouble staying on Defalt's tail since his car is wicked fast (it's got even better acceleration and top speed than the Papavero!). But there's a much easier way to do this: there's a steam pipe pretty much right in front of Defalt's car. As soon as he gets in, pay attention to the left side of your screen, for a split second you'll hear the "neutralize buzz" and see the "Q neutralize" sign when an enemy/cop is near an environmental object that can be hacked to destroy them. It will literally appear for less than half a second, so you have to time it right. Might take a while before you hit the Q button (or whatever your hack button is) just right but it can be done. Took me about 5 tries so it's not too bad. Easier to just mash the Q button as soon as you hear that characteristic buzz.

The steam pipe will disable Defalt's car but not destroy it. So just grab your favorite car and leisurely stroll over and download all the data while Defalt is basically a sitting duck.

Act IV Mission 5: Little Sister
Pretty sure this is a bug but it works to my advantage. You come to part where you have to guide Nicky to the getaway car without being caught. Interestingly the game actually lets you quit using the camera and roam around during that part, so you can basically just go around and gun down every guard! I did just that, and as soon as the last guard fell, Nicky automatically ran towards the car, and as a bonus I automatically completed the next part of the mission, which was to take out every guard and escape the water treatment plant.

Act IV: Mission 7-8: No Turning Back
The last part where you have to escape the police is tough as balls, but can be made so much easier by 2 things: disabling the chopper (hacking skill), and using blackouts. What I found is that if you have the disable helicopter for 30 seconds skill, disabling the helicopter a second time actually causes it to retreat and never show up again. But this only happens if you stay on the roof and watch/listen to the pilot saying he's retreating due to sustained damage. Once the chopper is gone, run to the lift on your left, hide and while halfway down on your ride, activate the blackout. This will buy you about 10 seconds where no cops can see you. Quickly jump in a taxi and drive as fast as you can away from the search area.

Alternatively, jump into a boat and drive to the map boundary, where the search radius effectively ends.

 

if you're doing the shell game and you want to beat it there's a quick way of doing it: pause the game. once the dealer has done shuffling the cups and asks which cup the ball is in, hit the pause button and you should be able to see a faint circle in one of the cups.

 

^yeah found that by accident when I had to pause for a bathroom break. I was like "what am I seeing is that OMG PROFIT TROLLOLOLOLOLOL"

I'd like to think it's a bug but part of me believes it might've been deliberate to jive with the hacking theme.

 

apparently you can also use focus to watch the shuffling.

 

gotta try that sometime then

too bad the transparency thing doesn't work at the poker table

 

i had to follow a youtube vid just to get through 10 levels of the chess puzzles cos i don't play chess.

 

Really? Don't the pieces show red squares telling you where they can land on each move? I suppose knowing how each piece moves might help slightly but honestly it came down to pattern recognition for me.

BTW, the game is worth playing just for the Spider Tank Digital Trip IMO. I'd never thought shumps could be this much fun.

Act IV is way too short btw, plowed through it in a little under 3 hours. By contrast Act II took me pretty much an entire weekend to push through (granted it is the longest act with 15 missions).

 

Do you guys know when the PC patch comes/came out? Because my frame rate has improved the last couple days but then again I was overclocking my PC....

 

Finished the game.

Spoiler

You get a choice of shooting Maurice or letting him go at the end. A bit disappointed that you get the same ending regardless and nothing really changes except for a few extra lines if you let him walk. On the one hand I appreciate the devs not trying to enforce morality, but I was kinda hoping something bad would happen if you shot Maurice, like cops come busting down the door or something. I probably sound crazy, but if you collect all the burner phones and listen to Maurice's audio logs before the final ending, his story really is extremely tragic, and he actually tried not to kill Aiden Pearce when he saw his niece in the car. Honestly he did what he could under the circumstances, and I really think the devs should've put in a "lose condition" or whatever if the player insisted on shooting Maurice. (although you could probably argue he might be better off dead since he's so damaged at the end of the whole ordeal) While we're at it, might as well spill all the beans:

Spoiler

The second hacker during the Merlaut job was Iraq, you kill him at the end of Act III (hence the name of the progression reward One Down, One to Go). Lucky Quinn hired him as the gun. Turns out it was all a huge misunderstanding -- Quinn thought Pearce wanted the murder of Rose Washington by Mayor Rushmore caught on tape, so Quinn went after him. Clara was also hired by Quinn, which is how Pearce was discovered and tracked down in the first place after the Merlaut job went south. She's killed at the end of Act IV. Quinn dies of an artificial heart attack after you hack his pacemaker. Damien is gunned down by Aiden in the final mission. Nicky and Jacks are safe and have left town.

Spoiler

DUMBLEDORE DIES

 

Spoiler

No, not Dumbledore! Wait, who's Dumbledore?!?

 

you choose between shooting the fool or sparing his life. me: i shot the bugger...even though there's no mass effect style consequence which would have made it a bit more interesting and they should let you import your character into the new game like mass effect did.

 

...and thus your journey to the dark side is complete

 

So, watching some of the end credits videos on Youtube, it seems that if you complete certain investigations, you do get some extra bits. I finished the human trafficking case and shut down the ring, and in the short end credits where you're shown various new reports, there was an extra segment on the arrest of the ringleader.

Good thing I kept some older save files, tempted to go back and finish all the investigations before closing off act V and see if I get any extras.

 

Anyone knows anything about this? saw this today

Watch Dogs E3 2012/2013 graphical effects re-added to the game | KitGuru

seems like a modder found some disabled graphics effects which people were complaining about as 'graphics downgrade from E3'

After hours testing... Watch Dogs (E3 Bloom effect working) - Guru3D.com Forums

screenshots look amazing

 

yeap its totally amazing

 

In the words of KitGuru:

Perhaps so they can come out with a patch like who knows when and then pat themselves on the back LOL

 

that looks amazing, but i can barely run the game as it is. i imagine i would get 15 fps with the mod.

 

Not directed to anyone in particular, but:

IMHO play the game for its gameplay, not the eyecandy. I get that everybody wants Crysis looking graphics, and that's totally fine, but if the graphics in Watch Dogs (which aren't "bad" by any stretch) is stopping you from playing the game, you might want to rethink why you bought the game in the first place. I still play the original Half Life which is now more than 15 years old. The graphics are absolutely "terrible" by today's standards, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying the game.

 

It says the mod improves performance and stuttering too?

 

I'm definitely trying that out, when some of the wrinkles get ironed out.

It's amazing that Ubisoft would deactivate the graphics like this.