Yesterday, the PS4 version of Assassin’s Creed: Unity received a huge 2GB update. This highly anticipated update for Ubisoft’s open world game was meant to fix its performance issues, however it seems that the patch did more – or should we say removed more – than that.
For starters, we can confirm – after witnessing with our own eyes – some really broken reflections. After upgrading the game to the latest version in PS4, there were some flickering reflections in Arno’s house. Not only that, but those reflections seemed of a lower quality than those we enjoyed before patching the game.
To top it all, Reddit’s member ‘Derekro’ has shared some comparison images between the unpatched and the patched versions of Assassin’s Creed: Unity.
As we can clearly see, there are huge lighting differences between them.
For the time being, we are marking this story as a rumor until we hear back from more people about the visuals of the PS4 version post patch. Moreover, the PC patch is not live yet, therefore we don’t know whether this is happening only on the PS4 version or not. We also don’t know whether this is caused by a bug, and if so whether it will be fixed via a future update.
What we do know, however, is that there is a noticeable difference in the whole lighting system between these versions. For example, notice the lack of bouncing lights on those pillars in the second comparison, or the lack of environmental lighting next to the rocks (left of the second image, under the candles).
Still, take everything with a huge grain of salt – at least for now. As we’ve already said, this could be caused by a bug after all, meaning that the lighting difference may not be intentional. And if that’s a bug, were other interior environments affected by it? And if so, will Ubisoft issue a hotfix?
UPDATE:
This appears to be a bug related to the game’s TOD settings and not a downgrade. Make sure to read our follow-up article about this lighting issue!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
Contact: Email
Ubisoft makes EA look good
Holy Crap. Ubisoft must think their customers are the dumbest people in the world. In order to increase performance we will just downgrade the visuals until the hardware can handle it. I personally will never buy a Ubisoft product again. Wouldn’t even waste my bandwidth to download.
“Ubisoft must think their customers are the dumbest people in the world.”
Well, most of them are on consoles, on pc everyone bashes them.
HAHAAHAhaha really Ubisoft? This gotta be the year of Ubisoft. They just keep dropping those kinds of bombs on us, and we keep getting shocked. The end of the year is not even here yet.. do you guys think there’s still time for more fails? 🙂
Keep digging Ubi, keep digging
Tbh, they can’t go any lower.. i mean surely.. they can but damn. 🙂
wait till the crew comes out.
Well sure.. but i actually still got faith in that studio. They usually make good PC games. We will see i guess. If the crew fails, i will have zero hopes for the next Ubisoft game!
Well I played the beta on pc, and I was not impressed. Further insult to injury there is soooooo much microtransactions in this game, that it pretty much is a f2p game with a full price tag….
Thats horrible ;/
I’m speechless
…and people still continue buying they’re piece of a*s games,and with that supporting these money wh**es to make more junk.It will never stop until Ubishite go bankrupt and be done with s**t company.
* Ebolasoft.
lol
LOL!!! WHAT AN EPIC FAIL!! I am soooooo done with this company.
great!, guess that means we won’t see any more of your constant whinging, do us a favor, get your pitchfork waving friends to join you, cheers pal
you must be new at ubisoft.
They got a longer list of bs than ea at this point.
I’m tired of this sh**t!
“Relax, a Patch is on the way”!!!!
Like I said.. ACU was never a Downgrade… And people still crying because they had to downgrade to make the game run better with the limitation of both current console hardware and limitations of DX11 on PC. I swear if gamers cried in the arcades as much as they do on the net when I was a kid/teen they would of been taken outside and got their A’s kicked 🙂
this is the generation of entitled gamer, to be fair to them they were promised a lot this gen, sadly this modern generation are not very wise or switched on and believe 90% of what they are told, they’d rather listen to niki minge than The Wonder Years speaks volumes.
yes we are “entittled” to get the milked recycled dumbed down sequel to a long running milked franchise filled with dlc with a insane budget and development time….to actually fcking work when its released and not wait for patches.
When has a console game…FORGET ABOUT PC…. a console game, gone through the mess that unity and masterchief collection have?
But hey the dlc is worked before the game even comes out, forget about fixing the game you are selling, more will buy the game, who cares about making it work?
But this is completely different, I get your point but it doesn’t apply here really. Also the internet is a place were people can discuss and tell their opinions easily, there wasn’t a similar place back then. Why would anyone shout at the arcade machine itself?
Limitation of DX11, haha. It’s more like they just can’t program sh*t. Not a single game suffered from it yet, only AC:Unity, which isn’t even graphically impressive (baked shadows, no day/night cycle, etc.).
Partially It is limitation of DX + fact that PC has no unified memory. those two facts seems to cause problems on PC ports in current gen. Both could be easily fixed though! MANTLE offers 10* higher draw calls limit and HSA could fix the rest. Unfortunately for rest PCs there have to be hardworking optimization which we cannot see here anyway.
geeeez really you gotta mention HSA? you some kinda AMD shill or what? lmao… Mantle I can understand but HSA!?!?! you freaking kidding me it’s vaporware at best.
Not sure exactly what shadows are baked but there are plenty of real-time shadows in the game ,they go away as expected when it’s cloudy and come back again when the Sun is out.
say’s the kid without a clue… the day/nigh cycle are still locked in the options… but you would know that if you owned the game. All I see out of you and Sean is a bunch of cry babies who don’t even own the game. And all Sean did was pirate it.
Yeah, didn’t you realise that when you actually tested the game yourself on that 750 TI you only brought for testing and teasing console owners
it had nothing to do with teasing console owners… are you just a bitter gamer? you go from one extreme to another…
OMG grandpa, I don’t even know what to say. You CAN change time of day, but it doesn’t work in some areas and the main missions.
It isn’t enables dynamic day/night cycle, and it will never do that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOMum-qW-iI
cry more kid. cry more.
Haha, such fail.
that’s all you net babies are good for these days… is saying Fail this and fail that.
oh no… so many “micro-stuttering” all over the whole scene… I knew it’s gonna have issues before I bought this game… lucky I haven’t… guess it’s gonna need a next gen GPU to eradicate this…
The game was downgraded long before release in order to run on consoles. Thats why it looks inconsistent as far as detail goes.
It was downgraded, take a lot at the PS4/XB1 on the top of the sync points, there is no Sun light or shadows on the ground. All they’re doing is removing lighting rather than optimise their p*ss poor code.
if you are speaking of the PS4/XB1 version boohoo… I am speaking of the PC version… You think those APU’s can even remotely handle a game like this…
Well they can and DX11 can’t.
No they can’t… Xbox1 does not even use a low lvl API like Mantle yet… Xbox1 does not even have it’s savior DX12 in it yet… And will not for a great while. BTW it’s thanksgiving so have a happy one.. I have to work today and tell all new guys what to do…
You’re clueless, console graphics APIs are like Mantle with no driver overhead. Sorry to bring you down to earth but spec for spec, a PC couldn’t even come close to a console, that’s just the way low level APIs work, it’s a fact ,why do you think AMD made Mantle in the first place?
hey dip! you are a punk kid who pirates games… and guess what punk… these new systems don’t use normal dev kits like previous consoles do. so please stfu. 🙂
1 you are clueless! That a fact.
2. New consoles Xbox1/PS4 use X86 arch just like a PC does. So their API’s have to be just as good as a PC’s and this proves that they are not even close to Mantle. Let alone what DX12 has to offer.
3! And this is the Good ONE! AMD made MANTLE to push their CPU’s BECAUSE THEY ARE FREAKING TRASH NEXT TO INTES.
Might want to learn something dude, Mantle helps any CPU bottleneck situation, it’s not down to AMD CPUs, Intel CPU benefit greatly, especially in SLI. Best thing you can do is stick with your X years of PC building and don’t think you have any more knowledge than that because clearly you don’t
I know wtf Mantle does. And I know why it was made. It was made to make their FX fail CPU’s catch up to intel’s for games as well as helping lower lvl gpu’s do better aka APU’s since in the future AMD plans on getting rid of discreet gpu’s for gaming PC’s.
Mantle was not made for gamer’s in mind. The only real gaming API that was made was freaking GLIDE until M$ saw it as a total threat.
Mantle does work but it offers nothing new to the table other then more drawcalls. If it was a gaming API it would carry on better/more effect’s then current DX can do
LMAO, Mantle is just a graphics API with minimal overhead unlike DX which is more than just a graphic API. You know, I just don’t understand where you’re getting your information from because it’s seriously outdated and confused.
GLIDE only supported 16bit colour with dither, Did you know that? Did you know that S3TC was the real innovation, while 3DFX tried to do their own texture format that died on arrival and Microsoft brought S3TC and called it DXTC, OpenGL has S3TC, 32bit texture formats, GLIDE didn’t really do nothing.
Glide was amazing for Quake and that’s what I remember
You said “AMD made MANTLE to push their CPU’s BECAUSE THEY ARE FREAKING TRASH NEXT TO INTES.”
Test System, BF4:
Core i7-390x, AMD Radeon R9 290x, running at 1080p with Ultra graphics settings
DX11 renderer: Minimum frame rate 42fps, average frame rate 78fps
Mantle renderer: Minimum frame rate 94fps, average frame rate 120fps
DX12 will have the same sort of benefits of Mantle, so like Mantle both AMD and Intel CPUs will benefit equally. Have you learned anything yet? Also, Mantle doesn’t require an OS upgrade.
i haven’t noticed any changes on the XB1 version
That’s because you don’t have the patch yet, genius.
i have had the patch numbnuts, both the PS4 and XB1 had patches out.
i have had the patch Einstein, both the PS4 and XB1 had patches out.
Ubilol: ‘guise we’re downgrading Unity but in return we give you another broken game from our innovative and prestigious catalog!!’
I’m still unsure how they can be having these kinds of problems on such a key franchise, the resources available to a series like this will far outstrip what about 80% of developers get to utilize
*ubisoft.
They always screw up,bugs, downgrades, disasters.
I liked the part they used a crack to fix rainbow six vegas 2.
Yeah, thats how optimization works, thats how peasants think that games on consoles are “optimized” you basicly run the games on lower settings and butcher features and throw them away.
Just like watchdogs.
The game runs better and the peasants think the console is powerfull or that they “optimized” it.
You should see how they “optimized” fear and witcher 2 on x360.
Bf3 was the most “optimized” at low pc settings on ps3 and x360.
The question is though will Ebolasoft, nerf the pc version as well?
Only they can be that stupid.
Update your Post
The reason why the lighting is diffent is because they are taken during different times of day
Moron, the game doesn’t even have time of day, it’s done by cut scenes.
The game has an option in the menus to adjust time of day
Either way this post proves just how ignorant you are of the situation
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=140622595&postcount=342
There is no downgrade, There is no bug,
Just one person who visted the same area when the game was in different times of day
Well that doesn’t reflect the rest of the game because the TOD only changes during missions. You start a mission the cut scene goes to night, it’s not like it happens in realtime like other AC games.
Both images have the same lighted torches. Yet, they don’t cast lighting after patch.
Is it just me or even pre-patch this game looks like crap. AC3 looked better even didn’t it?
Great that it affects consoles. Normally console gamers will just laugh at PC gamers with parity.
This is so relevant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K5Opymw0p0
these new consoles are a disaster, they really underpowered them and its hurting gaming in general
nope, the vocal majority of the gaming community is hurting gaming, they have turned into a bunch of whiny tards, if a blade of grass didn’t have the right textures people would complain. these “modern” gamers expect too much
who complained about a blade of grass texture? quit making crap up, your comments are assinine.
modern gamers are mad about unoptimized, buggy software being released well before it is ready.
the issues regarding these “rushed games” are blown way out of proportion, and people did actually debate and argue about grass foliage, we are just seeing the start of the self entitled gamer who must have everything now!, when do we want it!?…NOW!, nobody forces you to buy these rushed and incomplete games pal. listen to yourself, Ubisoft owes nobody anything, it is their decision to release an incomplete game, it is your choice to buy the incomplete game, just don’t moan about it after because you got a raw deal that nobody forced you to make. LOL
Look, you admit that it’s a “raw deal” that’s very interesting…
LOL it’s a video game dude, and most games with these “issues” are still playable, just not playable to the satisfaction of the entitled gamer, i for one am enjoying Assassins Creed Unity, i see none of the problems that these vocal individuals keep mentioning., i guess you could say i am easily pleased and don’t expect a toilet made out of solid gold for 49.99, that’s just me you know, i also sense a bit of fanboyism mixed in with these grievances LOL. in my opinion dude people are complaining over nothing. lots of complaining to fulfill lots of agendas. *takes tinfoil hat off, places it on the ground and shakes head*
These games are made with the idea of being AAA they might not be original, complex, challenging or even well thought out, but they are very polished, cinematic and immersive. This game howeve makes colonial marines look more functional.
I wouldnt mind if this was a small title focusing on gameplay but this is trying to be a freaking blockbuster and immersive and its a mess.
Yeah ps4 has better grass…and then they say we are the graphics whores!!!
Could you bend over any further to these corperations?
illl say it again MICROTRASNACTIONS….UNFINISHED GAMES….60 BUCKS…..HORRIBLE OPTIMIZATION…ON A CONSOLE
So it looks like they removed Global Illumination, LOL.
there is no such thing as global illumination on the consoles i think..
could be wrong
it’s baked GI, not realtime. You can have realtime GI just limit the amount of light bounces. PS4 has a powerful GPU so it shouldn’t be such an issue, even Crysis 2 and future Solider had GI.
futuer soldier on a console though looks like a ps2 game.
Just when I thought I have seen it all.
What will they do to the pc version i wonder
well my Assassins Creed Unity still looks great and plays great 😀
and my reasons why there are framerate issues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJB3aj8naq0&list=UUhV7FypIVIqm2IEh8q7WNpw
FXAA takes about 2 FPS, that’s nothing and what you expect from Post AA. MSAA well that’s a different matter for different reasons.
combine FXAA with huge NPC crowds in a massive sandbox world running on limited hardware, you can expect dips, sorry that is the truth, Ubisoft did a great job with this game…..did i mention it is on of the best looking games of 2014?
It’s still a post AA method where anti-aliasing is done after the image is rendered and it’s done “Fast” and “Approximate”.
“Ubisoft did a great job with this game”
OH COME ON!!!!!!
I facepalmed, ift that was a “great job” what is a “horrible job”
I dont even wanna know.
That’s just …………… Obvious damn that if a clear as day downgrade
Greetings from Dark Souls 2
Remember the days when kids used to just play and enjoy the f-ing game instead of worrying about how the light looked hitting a pillar? Gamers are nothing but a bunch of douche bag self entitled cry babies these days, just play the game kids and stop worrying if a rock doesn’t cast a shadow for f@%$ sake.
The irony of this post is astonishing.
Talk about a cry baby.
…the game doesnt work, it crashes, ti bugs up, it stutters it lags, it runs like crap and you call the people who cant play this broken mess that skyrockets your pc hardware usage and makes you dizzy with all the stuttering…”entitlement”
I also remember those days, but those days the game worked, they didnt sell a game that cant run properly due to GRAPHICZZ and next gen, i am sure everyone here would prefer to play a more complicated less graphically impressive game that is actually polished, like say dishonored than ubisafts latest abomination.
Watchdogs was a mess, it only got worse from there.
remember when you didnt need a phone to open a godamn chest?
I reckon they did the glitches and performance issues on purpose to detract from the fact that the game itself has barely improved on past editions. Lots of content has been cut or not improved upon at all.
– Same enemy AI (terrible, can’t even hear/see properly),
– even further combat technique cutbacks (not possible to fight guards with hidden blade or daggers or fists anymore + animations are all glitchy and repetitive),
– only three classes of weapons that all broadly feel the same (eg animation for a heavy axe kill is exactly the same as a heavy mace kill)
– they claim NPCs have been revamped (they haven’t, there are just more of them walking/standing around doing nothing),
– the combat has been simplified and guards now have pointless health bars
– missions are the same as ever (follow, find, kill)
Only positive aspects –
– slightly better graphics
– customised clothes (albeit very limited)
– you can now go inside buildings and climb down them easier
Did Ubi fire their QA staff or something? This release has been a hot mess. On the PC side they made a choice to release a game that most well specced PC’s just can’t play ! Blizzard would never do something like that.
I’m all for Agile as a software development methodology. But for retail games, shipping a minimum viable product and then using your customers as QA – that’s wrong and REALLY bad for a firms reputation in the long term.
They got too greedy with their cash cow and milked it to death
I know I’m in the minority here, but I enjoy the game and think it looks beautiful. It handles pretty rough at times with the frame rate, but most of the time I don’t notice it. I hated the NPCs in Watch Dogs. Such a stark contrast in fidelity between them and Aiden made the game almost unplayable to me. Really tough to stay immersed when your character looks real and everyone walking on the street looks like Muppets. I’m sure I can enjoy this game and the gamers that hate Ubisoft because of their unfinished work can be happy that this game isn’t as successful as Ubisoft would like because of their own failures.
But I also suffered thru BF4’s issues while enjoying the game. They eventually made it a playable game for everyone. I’m sure Ubi will do the same, its all a matter of what you’re willing to endure. To each his/her own.
Now that i understand what we call “optimization” you can’t really blame Ubisoft for having to scale back visuals (not trying to sound like a fan boy) but current gen consoles are no where as powerful as high spec pc’s its just that companies now a days are trying to expand their creativity but due to the limitations of the consoles it forces them to scale back what they originally wanted to deliver.