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Watch_Dogs PC Performance Thread
- Thread starter VisceralBowl
- Start date
KaiserAlucard
Neo Member
It was pretty much useless yes.
Turning down reflections does not work for me.
For some it's fine, for others there's light stuttering, and for others more serious stuttering. Attempt to eliminate other causes first: install to SSD, try the pagefile workaround, see if different settings change things at all (you may be exceeding the VRAM target), etc etc etc
Cannon Goose
Member
Quoting from the bottom of the last page.
Do you have any other "overlay" software on? I mean like MSI afterburner? These programms clash and create problems when they are together in some situations.
Have only RP on and try it again. I am using sweetFX in the game via RP and thus can't monitor my temps via MSI Afterburner.
Hip Hop
Member
This video is ridiculous.
After playing Watch Dogs on PC, no way in hell is GTA IV near it. Sometimes I have to stop moving and just take a look around in Watch Dogs. The city and the detail work that went to it trumps GTA IV. Only thing that it can claim is the physics, that is about it.
It is installed to a SSD, I did try that "workaround", I am clearly not exceeding the amount of VRAM I have (very much so when running with high textures on a GTX680 4GB), I have even tried changing process priorities, nothing works!
Baloonatic
Member
Decided to just lock it at 30 due to the stuttering. Experimented with a bunch of different setting to get rid of it but no dice. Turning down texture or shadows etc. didn't help at all. At least this way I have every setting maxed and no stutter.
Objectively Bad Opinion
Member
This is going to be a stab in the dark, but have you tried with/without Temporal SMAA or motion blur?
Cannon Goose
Member
No other OSD programs are running alongside RP. I've closed everything that does some sort of "hooking" that I figured might be interfering with RP working properly but it still crashes Watch Dogs.
RP works perfectly fine with every other game I've tried.
Difference between Normal/High/Ultra textures is HUGE. Every step increase texture resolution x4. Most important, from what I've seen gameplay videos on youtube, xbox one and ps4 versions use mostly ultra textures for a lot of them.
I think there is an inherent problem in the engine for the moment running on pc on how it manage memory for textures. Normal (low) textures avoid stuttering in every computer, but there are reports of TItan users (6 GB) with stutter in high and ultra textures. That's a real problem. I guess if lack of proper texture compression or lack of enough levels of mipmap or something else is the problem. Surely a fast fix would be to create a new level of texture quality with a mix of low, high and ultra versions.
I think there is an inherent problem in the engine for the moment running on pc on how it manage memory for textures. Normal (low) textures avoid stuttering in every computer, but there are reports of TItan users (6 GB) with stutter in high and ultra textures. That's a real problem. I guess if lack of proper texture compression or lack of enough levels of mipmap or something else is the problem. Surely a fast fix would be to create a new level of texture quality with a mix of low, high and ultra versions.
Does not work.
Then I don't know, but hopefully you can solve it somewhat. If you have AMD kill ccc process and the alike on nvidia maybe? It propably won't help, but last measures, right?
turtlesbonanza
Member
I can't even get past the first loading screen. Tried online and offline, then verifying files, that didn't work.
Tried it again and now it's telling me I got another 2GB to download...so much for playing tonight.
In summary, the PC performance for me has been less than satisfactory.
Tried it again and now it's telling me I got another 2GB to download...so much for playing tonight.
In summary, the PC performance for me has been less than satisfactory.
Totally agree. High textures look absolutely terrible at times. Frankly they should rename texture settings to lowest/low/normal. Medium/high/ultra is misleading.
Sorry only came back to the thread today, this is on my PS4 and my PC as I double Dipped, the scene I compared was set-up at the begining mission, grabs below.
PS4
PC 1080 SMAA HBAO+(All Ultra aside Textures as Ram is 2GB 7870)
You can see the HBAO improvements, not massive and I never like the way it outlines against walls on characters/guns it makes it look like some cell shading, but look at the textures on the cabinet, tool box. sheet etc too see that the PS4 must have a Ultra or a combo thereof on the textures.
Lack of or really weak AF stands out on PS4 on flags on the wall though, its almost like not loaded
Objectively Bad Opinion
Member
JPG has ruined those images.
So I tried putting textures down to "medium" and it got rid of most of my stuttering, bar the fact that even on high textures I am only using 3 GB of my VRAM! (and there does not seem to be much bus activity reported by MSI afterburner).
There is no way a GTX 680 4GB should have problems running with those texture settings,
So clearly the engine is shitting it's pants somehow.
There is no way a GTX 680 4GB should have problems running with those texture settings,
So clearly the engine is shitting it's pants somehow.
It was a PNG grab but the hist converts too JPG, will source a better host, but you can see even from these the difference, look at the mark,crease top right of Aiden's jacket which is completely missing on PC from High.
Thank you for the comparisson. A was correct then, console versions are cleverly using a mix of textures. Ultra for mostly of them. Low for a few distant textures instead of lower mipmap of high version and Ultra for textures with text and ads.
I hope somebody can compile an unpaker tool for watch dogs. Dunia 3 version doesn't work because you need both .dat and .fat file for every pak.
CyberPunked
Member
I have [email protected], 3 Titan SLI setup and even for me it's stuttering like a mofo. Frustrating as hell.
The issue is SLI, not VRAM. Use one titan for now, you should be able to get 40fps+.
Betta Lines
Member
Can you explain what is 'crap' about the in-game v-sync? You seem to be talking about different things, as adamantypants is trying to run the game at 60, whereas schennmu is trying to lock it to 30.
GHG
Gold Member
The issue is, even people with just 1 Titan are getting stuttering problems. People are quick to blame SLI and VRAM limitations for the stuttering but neither seem to be the culprit.
Its something to do with the way the game engine loads in new areas/textures since the issue is only prevalent when driving.
I tried something similar but in the other direction. I started lowing resolution and AA but still keeping textures set to Ultra. VRAM usage obviously was going down as was maximum framerate going up but moving from area to area in the open world still caused stutter and lots of spiking in Afterburner on power, usage, FB and frame timing is all over the place. Still happened at 1280x720 with no AA and used roughly between 1.4-1.7gb of VRAM. Disabling SLI made the issues less noticeable but it's still there.
Funnily in the in-engine cutscenes, regardless if they take place outside or in, everything is fine with good parallel GPU usage across the board. Pretty much the same for playable self contained areas with only a few hiccups. It's when I get into the open world things start to go pear shaped, especially when going from area to area. Crossing the interconnecting bridges or areas with little geometry seem fine but built up areas are not fun for me at all.
CyberPunked
Member
I play Watch Dogs installed in a RAM disk so time access is not a problem. I have pagefile disabled in OS since I have 32 gb of RAM. I guess -disablepagefilecheck effect is placebo because is not a parameter than watch_dogs.exe seems to recognize. That parameter is exclusively for Dawn of War 2 games.
derExperte
Member
Are you sure you have AF activated on PC? Because the floor further back doesn't look it.
undercoverb0ss
Member
SLI should be working on a game that nvidia is pushing so hard as to bundle with their cards...
Deaf Spacker
Memb
Why did Ubisoft release the PC version of Watch_Dogs when it's obvious that there are severe problems with how it runs?
GHG
Gold Member
Why did BF4 get released?
Why did Skyrim PS3 get released?
These companies want that day 1 hype money.
Its not totally unplayable (thank god), it just requires some work arounds and a few patches.
Maybe the game is clearing old data using specific memory pointers to a specific gpu and sli needs to reallocate second/third/fourth gpu memory to match the first gpu with a delay. Only guessing.
undercoverb0ss
Member
If nvidia knew SLI was such a problem they should have pushed a profile that disables it like they have done in the past.
Eh, they look identical. It seems you have motion blur turned on ont he PC and it's softening the textures a bit, that's all.
That was exactly one of the scenes we tested. It looked the same... well, they looked the same at first, then we forced AF on Nvidia contorl panel (for the love of god do the same!) and then the PC version looked a lot better.
Here's a screen shot, textures high, everythign else ultra, TXAA.
cripterion
Member
That did the trick for me too. People with 2GB cards should settle for HIGH in shadows & textures settings. Not like you're losing that much.
Everything else set to their highest settings with TXAA x2 installed on an SSD (don't know if it does much) Enjoying the game like that, just wish I could find multiplayer games on pc...
Do a new test. After Aiden blocks the door using a bat there is a phone cabinet with a sticker. Compare that sticker ps4 versus pc high/ultra. I bet for ultra quality in ps4.
Got all the ports open? (9000-9005)
cripterion
Member
Yup, I can find hacking games quite easily, but I think I got invaded once since playing the game and haven't been able to find a single online decryption game.
Have done 3 online races and that was with just one person...
TheVampire
Banned
Tripple buffering is fucked in this game.
I cant get it to work.
So im either stuck with 30fps capped or my frame rate going from 30 straight up to 60 and then back down to 30.
Cant use D3Doverrider since it wont work with 64bit exe.
I cant get it to work.
So im either stuck with 30fps capped or my frame rate going from 30 straight up to 60 and then back down to 30.
Cant use D3Doverrider since it wont work with 64bit exe.
As I pointed out, the texturres ar einconsistent in BOTH. Sometimes a sticker looks better on PS4, then another times a mural looks better on PC.
Denton
Member
It is weird. For me when vsync is set to 1,it does not drop to 30 the second I get under 60,however it still drops framerate a lot compared to vsync being off, and definitely more than it should if triplebuffer worked as it should. I tweeted Jon Morin to ask his team to implement proper triplebuffer. It really sucks right now. And vsync off with tearing is ugly too.
xBladeM6x
Member
Somehow, I've managed to get a very smooth locked 30 FPS experience using these settings / hardware. (Decided to post this for anyone using cards as powerful as a 660 Ti or around it, so decent budget cards can have a quality experience)
i7-3770k - Stock
660 Ti
16 GB 1600 GHz
Resolution: 1920x1080
Window Mode: Fullscreen
Vsync: 2 Frames
GPU Max Buffered Frames: 1
Textures: High
Anti-Aliasing: TXAA x2
Level Of Detail: Ultra
Shadows: High
Reflections: Ultra
Ambient Occlusion: HBAO+ High
Motion Blur: Off
Depth Of Field: On
Water: Ultra
Shader: High
Specific NVIDIA Control Panel Setting:
Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
Texture Filtering: High Quality
Vsync: Adaptive (Half Refresh Rate)
Notes:
- Using the "Large Page Files" fix.
- XML console -> pc change even though I'm not sure that did anything.
- Also, TXAA seems to be the only stable AA for me to use, which is fine because it's my favorite type of AA anyways. The others seem to cause FPS suttering, whereas TXAA does not, so I suppose I hit the sweet spot for a solid 30 FPS experience, along with looking extremely good.
i7-3770k - Stock
660 Ti
16 GB 1600 GHz
Resolution: 1920x1080
Window Mode: Fullscreen
Vsync: 2 Frames
GPU Max Buffered Frames: 1
Textures: High
Anti-Aliasing: TXAA x2
Level Of Detail: Ultra
Shadows: High
Reflections: Ultra
Ambient Occlusion: HBAO+ High
Motion Blur: Off
Depth Of Field: On
Water: Ultra
Shader: High
Specific NVIDIA Control Panel Setting:
Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
Texture Filtering: High Quality
Vsync: Adaptive (Half Refresh Rate)
Notes:
- Using the "Large Page Files" fix.
- XML console -> pc change even though I'm not sure that did anything.
- Also, TXAA seems to be the only stable AA for me to use, which is fine because it's my favorite type of AA anyways. The others seem to cause FPS suttering, whereas TXAA does not, so I suppose I hit the sweet spot for a solid 30 FPS experience, along with looking extremely good.
While not as bad as Far Cry 3 Vsync is still pretty horrible in Watch_Dogs. Plus with the amount of stuttering I'm getting the added latency isn't doing me any favours at all. Thankfully having a 120hz monitor comes in dead handy and tearing isn't that noticeable so Vsync OFF!
Betta Lines
Member
Surely if you're using 2-frame v-sync, having the nvidia drivers set to adaptive v-sync half refresh is redundant?
cripterion
Member
Yup, I also get more stuttering with FXAA than with TXAA, go figure...
xBladeM6x
Member
It is, but it's because I initially didn't use the in game vsync, and every time I ALT+TAB'd out of the game, the "Adaptive" part of it would be like "Hey look, you're not getting vsync back until you restart the game", so I said fuck it and just turned the in game vsync back on.
No worries, will compare some more when I get home from work
I am sure I had it set in the ini before I did the shot but I will double check
