-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Digital Foundry: Latest Assassin's Creed Unity patch boosts performance
- Thread starter chadskin
- Start date
Pyramid head
Banned
If you've played any other games in the series, you're missing nothing anyway.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
Good grief, I didn't realize it was so bad.
Pretty much, if you've played one Assassins Creed, you've played them all. At least it runs better than 2 and brotherhood now, the latter of which constantly hangs for me on PS3. Guess nobody complained enough for it to get fixed.
Shame unity couldn't have ran like it does now when it launched, it's a great game.
Doc Morbid
Neo Member
You'll be missing the best AC game since 2 or Brotherhood, if you ask me.
It's a shame Ubisoft fucked this release up so badly, because the actual game is quite good and could have been a return to form for the Ass Creed series after a couple of weaker releases (AC3 was a total disaster, and Black Flag was a good pirate game but a shitty AC game). It was never going to convert anyone who disliked these games, but I don't think anything would at this point.
Summer Haze
Banned
What the hell are you even talking about?
It's 7:16AM on a Tuesday and you're already drunk.
It was obvious at launch but the extent of additional Optimization and further works level geometry to improve performance (which I still believe isn't satisfactory) just confirms this title wasn't ready and was shoved out anyway quality be dammed for holiday sales.
Glad it seems to have paid the price sales wise going by charts. There is a good game there but it's hidden under unfinished engine and design and possibly over-reaching what was achievable and it's better for the industry if companies like Ubi realize that's not acceptable.
Glad it seems to have paid the price sales wise going by charts. There is a good game there but it's hidden under unfinished engine and design and possibly over-reaching what was achievable and it's better for the industry if companies like Ubi realize that's not acceptable.
KratosEnergyDrink
Member
You can not simply exchange calculations from CPU to GPU. In many scenarios it would even slower than CPU calculations.
Both PS4 and XOne are obviously not ready for such high tech games. They can barely handle last gen Assassins Creed with some small visual improvements and a steady 30 FPS framerate. Someone really expected something like Unity to run smooth on these machines?
Don't now what Ubisoft was thinking when they designed AC Unity, Perhaps they expected better hardware for the new consoles.
That's a piss poor argument, we're aware there were games which ran even worse than Unity but you're completely forgetting that with new more powerful hardware comes higher expectations. Unity's performance on consoles is barely acceptable as it is.
The hardware is not necessarily to blame because this is Ubi's job to adapt their tech, their game design to the hardware they're developping on.
Having standards when it comes to framerate does not make you less of a gamer, it's hard to enjoy a game running really badly but that does not mean a dismally performing game can't be good as you've pointed out (SoC was great in spite of its horrible framerate).
That should not be the typical mindset though, 30fps is nothing to write home about but when it dips below that to such a degree it's a joke.
Things are not so rosy on PC either, Ubisoft games typically ask you to brute force more or less optimized games but sadly it works in my case : 50-60fps with the 347.09 drivers and my GTX 970/I7 4770K combo.
Should it run better than that ? Possibly but I'm not complaining.
Quick Mustard
Member
I sound like I've got an agenda here but again, no mention of the PS4 fan issue whilst in the menus.
I fear this may never be resolved, meaning I won't play it as I just don't trust the game to not do some long term damage.
I fear this may never be resolved, meaning I won't play it as I just don't trust the game to not do some long term damage.
Yeah because on pc, Unity is fps steady, right. So pc it's not ready too. Like Unity or Ubisoft were the best example how to push the graphic tech. Lol.
Summer Haze
Banned
Ummm...yes? We actually expected a current-gen game to run well after paying money for it. Crazy, I know!
If Ubisoft knew the consoles weren't powerful enough to run the game as they envisioned, then they should have done their jobs properly and made the necessary changes to make it run at least as well as their other recent titles. Blaming it entirely on the consoles like you are is ridiculous. This is a prime example of garbage game development.
My PC version is completely broken after 1.4.0. Freezes randomly for 1-2 seconds, sometimes even crashes. Fps is all over the place too. It was perfectly fine at 1.3.0. I shouldn't have upgraded
My PC version plays much better since the 1.4 patch. I run all max except High shadows and FXAA on a 980. Kinda wish I hadn't completed it already because it's way better now.
Denton
Member
Obligatory cherry-picked example.
The game definitely feels smoother overall, but that still sucks. Look at how consistently shitty the framerate is in those seconds.
This is incredible. The console CPUs are really dragging the performance down hard.
On my PC, which actually has a decent, midrange (although 5 years old) CPU, 2500K@4ghz, I never ever drop below 30fps, and that is in 1080p and mixture of high/ultra.
Where have they stated this is the last patch?
KillerMan91
Member
I don't know why though. Games generally ran a lot better during PS2 gen than for example last gen (PS2 had tons of 60 fps games). More power doesn't really translate to better performance when developers want games to have as much as eye candy as possible.
Summer Haze
Banned
Have Ubisoft said anything about why the latest patch will be the last? I mean...the game still runs pretty poorly, how can they just turn their backs on it so soon after launch? It makes no sense.
They have another AC game next year to work on...
That is true but in my case "higher expectations" meant steadier framerate than we've seen on PS3/360 and to a large extent mission accomplished. I was responding to the idea that terrible framerate on newly released consoles should be overlooked because some games performed even worse in 2005-2006.
Would you be okay if PS4/XBO multiplats ran as bad as some multiplats on 360/PS3 ? Probably not and rightly so, because those are modern machines and more straightforward than the elusive Cell or even the 360. Therefore better results (both IQ and fps wise) should be expected.
Complaining about framerate does not equal being a shallow individual who can't go past technical issues to appreciate a game for what it is, on the contrary it's just having standards. I wouldn't mock anyone for not buying Unity (which is a good AssCreed game) because the framerate isn't smooth enough.
Wow. 30 fps steady on pc. I'm shocked. I'm talking of 60 fps.
Alcoholikaust
Member
well he did get it for 20 bucks- (I got it for free)-and the hate is unjustified at that cost (free)- game at times is among the better looking of the Asscreeds- and PS4 games in general (dat lighting)
but whatever-
CPU usage is different from PC to consoles. It doesn't work like this. I'm pretty sure we've talked about this before.
Entirely possible that clock speed increases on consoles would translate to more performance(than on PC) due to not being draw call limited.
Summer Haze
Banned
Because it's like an assembling pipeline to them. Resources have to be allocated to other projects including AC:Victory otherwise other projects will be late like a domino effect.
For Unity they have done what they could,the game is now absolutely playable and quality is in line with thè previous games in the series, it won't be perfect but every game has its unfixed issues.
Yay! Settling for judder!
Ubi games are made to run at 30fps. Cap the game to 30fps and forget about the framerate.
If they've said that - haven't seen the link - then it'll be because the title is annualised, they damage is done for peak launch sales and they don't feel the ROI is there for further fixing Unity vs taking the hit and moving on to the next release with all hands.
Another element of huge games development teams is that given how front loaded sales are you quickly hit a point post launch where commercially it likely doesn't make sense to invest in the game any further performance/patch wise vs likely tail end sales.
Going to be interesting to see the implications on franchise management though. AC franchise took a hit from AC3 that I belive lowered sales of following titles and now this.
Summer Haze
Banned
It is? I was under the impression that it was buggier and ran worse than recent AC titles. Is this not true?
The damage is done. I may never again pre order an Assassin's Creed game. That's saying something because I love buying collector's edtions, and the only way to guarantee getting one. Fuck it. I'm so done pre ordering ubisoft titles. I'm definitely gonna wait until after the reviews from actual gamers when AC Victory is released to determine if it's even worth buying.
Summer Haze
Banned
This is so sad. I fucking hate this production-line approach to videogames.
Fuck it, I'm done with Ubisoft now. Completely.
And to think...I used to list Ubisoft along with Naughty Dog and Rockstar as one of my favourite developers.
Not after these 4 patches.It's absolutely in line with the 360/PS3 games. Black Flag on PS4 seems to be the most polished in the series at this point though.
Well, for all we know, there were downgrades made, just ones that are unnoticeable and should have been made before releasing. Optimizations, basically. Like texture LoD for distant objects. You'll never notice it, but if the game was running higher resolution texture maps for distant objects, you're using up performance for absolutely zero tangible visual gain. Dialing it back(downgrading it) can give you the exact same result but with better performance.
But yea, that's all theoretical and obviously if it was 'massively' downgraded, we'd have some noticeable changes.
Good news there I guess. I certainly thought 'refurbishment' would mean at least some minor downgrading.
Denton
Member
I am getting more than twice what the PS4 gets, at much better graphics and higher resolution. Good enough for me.
Lockjaw333
Member
The sad part is, I find the game extremely enjoyable. For me after the recent patch, its finally playable. I feel like the increase in performance was more than a mere 2-5fps on PS4. Something in the core engine of the game or something just feels smoother.
If this game was a locked 30fps, the rest of the game would get the praise it deserves. Its absolutely stunning in places, the lighting looks phenomenal and the 1:1 scale for architecture makes the world feel so much more believable. The amount of "stuff" going on in the city is nuts too, if you just walk through the city and listen to some of the convos and arguments, and NPC behaviors and whatnot its just really cool.
If this game was a locked 30fps, the rest of the game would get the praise it deserves. Its absolutely stunning in places, the lighting looks phenomenal and the 1:1 scale for architecture makes the world feel so much more believable. The amount of "stuff" going on in the city is nuts too, if you just walk through the city and listen to some of the convos and arguments, and NPC behaviors and whatnot its just really cool.
You're absolutely right. Black Flag console performance was an anomaly for the franchise that prided itself on questionable framerate.
Summer Haze
Banned
Considering how much better it looks than any of the 360/PS3 games?
shadowsdarknes
Member
I'd be willing to try the game now on PS4. But it would have to be 20 dollars.
Summer Haze
Banned
So lets give the garbage performance a pass because the visuals are nice?
We shouldn't be happy that a current-gen game is in-line with last-gen games in terms of performance just because it looks better. For fucks sake...the game dips into the low teens and has terrible pop-in after four patches. What the fuck? I don't care how good the graphics are, it's no excuse and just sounds like Ubisoft-apologist bullshit.
yes, most likely this and culling on geometry not seen being drawn, most likely the small improvements on the PC patch seen as well. Paired back in areas you cannot see well if at all.
wumster3000
Member
What are you talking about? Do you have a source for this statement?
Biggu Bosu
Banned
Guess I'm ready to play this game now