As you may already know, Watch_Dogs does not look anything like its E3 2012 tech demo. Naturally, PC modders are already trying to find ways to bring the final build closer to that awesome tech demo. And while modders won’t be able to add the missing graphical effects (like PhysX debris and smoke), they’ve already found ways to improve the visuals and bring the game’s lighting system as close to the E3 2012 build as possible.
First of all, we’ve got some interesting SweetFX mods from Dirty Dan and K-putt. In addition, we feel the need to also share the Realistic SweetFX mod for Watch_Dogs.
Our reader ‘Jonathan Gustafsson’ has also shared with us a video, showing off another SweetFX mod that aims to recreate the look of the E3 2012 build (those interested can download the SweetFX mod that Jonathan used from here).
Last but not least, Guru3D’s member ‘kadzait24’ has been tweaking the game’s XML file and has reported some interesting findings. According to kadzait24, his updated XML file improve’s Watch Dogs to the real “Ultra” Quality settings.
These new “Ultra” Quality settings sport:
-Better Physics
-Bloom
-Improved HDR
-Better Textures and mapping
-Better Rain and splashes quantity
-Improved Reflections in the water and for the cars
-Better Water, Vegetation and Geometry quality
-Improved LOD and FOV
-Better colors everywhere
-Better Shadows
-Better SSAO Quality
-Improved Lighting for the entire game
The modder has provided some before/after comparison shots that can be viewed here.
Those interested can download the mod from here. In order to install it, all you have to do is copy/paste the code in your GamerProfile.xml file, save it, and make it a ‘read only’ file.
Enjoy!
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.”
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Instead of improving the (downgraded) graphics, modders should try to find a way to fix this game’s bugs.
lol this is simple xml file editing, fixing this bugs in the code isnt really possible by users as the game doesnt really have any mod tools or support to change engine code. I wouldnt even really call this modding in the traditional sense.
At leas we know that the game can look tons better.
You don’t necessarily need the mod tools to fix bugs (see Gothic 3 for example) Tons of bugs fixed there.
That is true. Unfortunatly with anvilnext or disrupt engines, I don’t think there is much anyone can do to fix its bugs.
No. That’s what the devs should be doing. What’s wrong with you?
Didn’t you get the memo? Devs don’t give a shit now and let their customers to fix the games by themselves. Go play an Elder Scrolls game and get back to me.
Fix the damn performance.
The screenies of Kadzait were snapped at different times of day. Look at how the shadows are being cast. I don’t see the bloom or, better LOD or any other things on the list except the color which is more vibrant
“Lights that aren’t supposed to cast lights cast lights now”
Can you point out which shot you saw this please?
Correction for B) Lights that originally weren’t casting lights cast light now
2nd image comparison. Car’s red back lights
http://i.imgur.com/Q0MGxlQ.jpg
with or without this tweak the car’s back lights do omit light, when they push brakes…. which is what the car on the right is doing, while on the left it is moving.
This comparison can easily fool people.
Yeah … after examining it again and again, I noticed that some of the differences I saw may have been because of the lower gamma too. Looks placebo —,—
where to put them?
Documents > my games > Watch Dogs > [random string] folder. There’s only one file in there, and it’s the one you need to replace.
gameprofile? im lost this is the first time i moood a game
Still inferior to modded GTA IV which at least has shadow casting headlights
game has been out like 2 weeks bro.
He chose bad wording. The game’s lighting is even inferior to vanilla GTAIV’s system. The headlights cast dynamic shadows in that too.
key word “modded”
Headlights shadows in GTA IV exist in the original game engine.
Does anyone believe that we will be able to play WD at least this month? Even on High its an awful perfomance, stating that my GPU cant surpass its 95% use.
Fans does what Ubisoft don’t. 😛
wow people actually think this looks better than what we already have. you people are blind
I stopped reading the author’s thread after he said that his xml tweak enables dynamic lighting and that the lighting was static originally….
A huge amount of the lighting IS static only. There are actually a very small amount of Dynamic lighting in the game, most of which is turned on in the cutscenes.
Static lighting means baked lightmaps, which this game absolutely does not use…
I think what you mean is lights that do not cast shadows. These are not static, only the shadow casting has been switched off by the developers for performance reasons.
That being said, this mod does not enable any shadow casting whatsoever. it actually seems to break it, judging by the night shot comparison.
In the bottom video the bloom looks really bad. Get rid of that and it would look pretty amazing.
I’d love to see someone take comparison screenshots of regular Ultra vs. this mod in the same exact spot. Because, honestly, I’m not seeing how this is much different.
KADITZZZ, 3DG TE EXTRAÑA! (mentira)
His config is way too dark. He changed the following which doesn’t work good with the realistic sweetfx config:
NewBrightness=”1″ Contrast_v3=”1″ NewGammaRamp=”1.075″ GammaRampR=”1″ GammaRampG=”1″ GammaRampB=”1″
Also keep in mind that you need to lower WaterNextGenQuality to 1536 or you will get graphical bugs using Radeon cards.
Other than that, it looks gorgeous, pushes my 7950 to 25 fps in 2520×1575 :O Luckily am getting the R9 290 this Friday or Monday 🙂
Ah ha ha ha ha ha. They actually called the setting WaterNextGenQuality?!
It’s just me or this “mod” stop to work after you sleep in game and after any loading in online match mode, for example the load for hack or watch someone, also any time that you return to main menu or close the game, the xml is always changed to default. 🙁
K i dunno if modders read this but wharevuh ,i did this for you modders to go there and do a proper comparisson between E3 builds and your tweaks
http://i.imgur.com/jWmmmkQ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/yRC7liK.jpg
fix the download pls D:
Qué weá cochinos qls?!