A lot of gamers have been wondering whether The Division has been downgraded. And while we did provide some comparison screenshots a couple of days ago, we were unable to talk about some stuff that needed to be showcased via a video. Well, thankfully YouTube’s ‘Candyland’ has released a comparison video between the game’s closed beta build and its E3 2013/2014 demos.
As we can see, there have been some changes to the actual game. For starters, the dynamic material shaders have been scaled back. While in the tech demo they were used in good effect to show the environmental differences, in the actual game that effect is not used to its fullest extend.
The same can be said about the game’s dynamic global illumination lighting system. While it is still present (as can be seen by the smoke effects), it’s been scaled back. For example, the real-time bounce lighting from completely dynamic light sources (like the flashing lights from cars) is not as advanced as it was in the E3 2013/2014 demos (this can be clearly seen at 3:13).
The biggest downgrade, however, comes from its procedural destruction system. It appears that this system has been severely downgraded. In the E3 2013 demo, the damage system appeared to be procedural in every way. In the closed beta build, however, it feels more like what we get from most games. It’s still great, however it’s not as advanced and mind-blowing as it was in the E3 2013 demo.
All in all, The Division has been downgraded (or scaled back if you prefer) from its original state. While most of the features that were showcased are still present, they have been scaled back and they are not as advanced as they were in the E3 2013 demo.
And before people start cursing Massive Entertainment, even with this downgrade, The Division is easily one of the best looking games out there. And yes, this downgrade is not as bad as the one that surrounded Watch_Dogs (or even The Witcher 3).
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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If they already did the work… why not just leave in there for future consoles/PCs.
They put as much effort in at early stages to show but they have the suits pressuring them to make sure it runs well on consoles and hits a certain standard at 900p or whatever. The XBOX ONE is so underpowered they have to direct toward that or we get the Tomb Raider Definitive Edition problem, PS4 runs and looks way better. They cant have that gap. I respect the devs in that how close they can squeeze out while having to push to consoles. A lot of stuff can change in a year. As long as consoles exist, closed hardware, we will always get downgrades. And even then, that demo was unoptimized and probably BARELY running on a beast machine. I think ubisoft got a lot of flak for watch dogs. Look they made that demo BEFORE current gen console specs were announced. Of course it was downgraded, even more so considering last gen releases too. Sadly, that is just the world we live in at the moment. Closed Hardware will always be a limitation in itself. I give them even more props for adding graphical options in the console builds. Even with the downgrade, the textures are some of the best ive ever seen, the detail. the tiny boxes and newspaper adds are completely legible. The phone boxes actually have the box art as the display. the laptop keys are modeled. Its absolutely amazing the level of detail. As an indie texture artist myself, that takes A LOT of time to make EACH induvidual piece of props like that and not to mention the models and level design that took. Sadly you cant have most items using 2048 or 4096 textures. Youre lucky if you can use 1024. The leather in the game was insane. Even if low res textures, they are crazy in detail. Sadly when in development you have to reallocate resource power and make compromises. Once virtual texturing and photogrammery (megascans) take off this wont be a problem. Also realtime global illumination is VERY taxing. Think about how every frame and movement it has to re calculate every object in the scene. In a single player game thats hard enough, but an open world multiplayer game? Thats pretty advanced stuff.
A delayed game will eventually be good, a bad game will always be bad.
You’re full of it. The PS4 is marginally more powerful then the X1 (overall) which is why most all of the time games are pretty much identical on both systems. You need to go frame by frame to see the differences anyway. There is hardly a discernable difference between 900p and 1080p and games that run at 720p on X1 and 1080p on PS4 are down to lazy development. Even with Tomb Raider the PS4 wasn’t powerful enough to come even close to locking 60fps ( more like 50fps) and the X1 was capped at 30fps because it likely could only sustain around 42-45fps ( not major differences). To say that devs are dumbing down games for the sake of the X1 is simply not true. They are dumbing down games for the lack of power for BOTH consoles. Neither are powerhouses.
“Marginally” isn’t exactly correct though. Sure neither are power houses but the extra power that the PS4 has over the X1 in GPU power is like half of another X1. Something like two extra Xbox 360’s. Ubisoft even showed that the computational power of the GPU in the PS4 is TWICE that of the X1’s.
So yeah, neither is special but the try and downplay the PS4 as if it’s just a tad/unnoticeable more powerful is just being dishonest.
They didn’t. It was just a small area with tons of details, maxed out visuals, running on a monster rig. Basically, like a promotional CGI trailer, same as Watch Dogs. I don’t think downgrade is even a proper word here, since we never saw the actual game with these visuals.
And they didn’t downgrade it for consoles, simply because a 400$ machine could never run E3 build. When they showed the trailer, they already knew these visuals won’t be in the release version.
That’s not entirely true though. Yes the demos they showed were glorified and all that but it was the fact that Ubisoft and the developers kept constantly saying “This is what the game looks like” and “there isn’t going to be any downgrading” that really made people think that it was going to look that way. When you have everyone constantly saying it will why would you expect different?
But that’s what I’m saying, no? They did that glorified almost-CGI demo to mislead people into thinking that it will be a better game. They’re doing that for many years.
I was just explaining why these visuals weren’t in the final version. They’re simply never suppose to be.
The features are there but the lighting, models and general detail have all been downgraded. The E3 trailer has a lot of depth to the environment which is probably because of the global illumination they used with a lot more bounces and light probes everywhere. Rise of the Tomb Raider has similar issues, you can see where they have cut back on lighting to the point where it looks flat.
With that resolution….
1080p, it’s just a cropped area.
Cropped and zoomed i guess,,,
It’s not zoomed at all, just cropped from the original 1080p image.
The game has some issues.
Call me crazy people, but Crysis 3 looks way better than this game.
Yes it still looks better than most of the games currently available.
Absolutely loving rottd, the graphics look really good at times. Hbao+ actually makes a noticeable difference in this game.
I wish Division doesn’t get cracked if that’s what it means for Ubish*t to stop releasing unfinished/unpolished games for fans that are going to buy them anyway. The rest of us really appreciate a nice polished game.
It’s an online game. And even if there’s a single player campaign, I think it won’t be as extensive as people want it to be
Yeah but you’ve read the article about the darkzone. This game will saturate real quick.
Don’t make out it is just Ubisoft everyone is releasing games like that now. I can think of only a handfull of triple A titles that were released in a good state.
Even the Witcher 3 by Project Red who fans seem to respect was released with major issues on all formats and took months to sort out.
All this bias towards Ubisoft gets on my nerves they are no worse than anyone else out there.
They are pretty bad if you take into consideration Unity. Don’t get me started on the pre-orders on that crap. I for one for instance did Not ask for a refund for batman after what WB it was their first mistake with the batman series. As for the worst company out there, Bethesda takes the cake. Worse ever company. As For CD Projekt, hats off, they are by far the only company that actually gives a fk. Haven’t seen so many updates since MKX, which still crashes after 4 fights.
Ubitroll strikes again, and also don’t forget for play this game you need to stay connected (if works) at that cancer of Udon’tplay.
There is nothing wrong with Uplay, infact most would agree that it has improved significantly over the past few years. Although, personally I have never had a single issue with it in all my years of gaming.
You can’t polish a turd. It’s useless for everyone except Ubisoft, and that’s why it needs to go.
Beta looked dated and was repetitive after 30 mins. Played about 2 or 3 hours and i had repetitive dreams all night because of this game. It usually take alot for a game to do that.
Nor Witcher 3 had such a horrible downgrade…not saying that it will be a good game..I bet it wont!
#GoVegan
#Steam
Well it’s not THAT much of a downgrade. Check those SweetFX 4k screenshots in another post and it’s quite crisp and beautiful!
There is something wrong if you need 4K screenshots with sweet FX to get barely near their bullsh*t E3 gameplay trailer. Plus the place in the E3 video is not in the final game, funny isn’t, you can’t directly compare and they probably know it, just like the day and night changes in other comparisons.
No, if you know what you’re talking about it IS “THAT” much of a downgrade. From the amount of geometry and clutter to the lighting to the reflections, etc…game has taken a step or two back in every way possible.
Have you played the beta ? The game is still beautiful.
Did I say the game looked bad? No, simply that to say it isn’t that much of a downgrade is just outright false.It was a pretty massive downgrade over all in all areas.
It’s your point of view. you’re entitled to it. We have different perspective hence the downgrade affects us differently. So yea i don’t see it as a HUGE downgrade like you say but there’s a downgrade.
At least with Watch Dogs they could tweak it, theworse mod made it look fantastic.
This is new age of deception, very intelligently and deceptively downgraded games by those greedy companies..then they say “no look we didn’t do any downgrading..”..
Clearly had they showed it looking how it ended up (now) back at E3 there would have been no hype for it, so yeah it’s dishonest and taken gamers/consumers for idiots. This is why we need to be vocal about this BS they pull. If they show something and gain all the goodwill and hype for it, they better deliver it, otherwise it’s essentially an entirely different product that is surfing along on the positive vibes of something that was never intended. That’s almost fraudulent isn’t it? Because many will have pre-ordered or believed it would look like that then not look at any news again (spoilers).
UBi are a pack of C***s for doing this, repeatedly with their games. Game looks dull as f**k now anyway. Had it retained the original beauty I may have been interested as a fan of NYC.
Haha all the people here who was crying about deleted features. Can’t wait for March!
It’s not crying you moron it’s all of us being pissed off about constantly being lied too. If you don’t care that’s your problem.
Yes downgrades are annoying but let’s be realistic.
How many of you could really have expected to run this game if it looked as good as it did in the preview build? At least 70% of comments about games seem to be from 970 users and they will be lucky if they can run the game on high at 1080p and maintain 60fps.
I have 2 980ti in Sli and I expect they will struggle to get anywhere near 60fps at 4k with the game maxed out.
I’m getting tired of this logic. If you can’t run it today, you will run it tomorrow. Tweak the visual settings for your own hardware, that’s why they are for, no? Leave some kind of “Insane” settings for future generations.
“It’s good, but can it run Crysis?” ;D
Pascal wants a word with you…
Not really sure what your point is in saying that.
As I previously stated 970 seems to be the most common card level and couldn’t run the game at that level.
The Pascal cards are not even out yet and won’t be for some time. Besides it will probably be the usual 10 to 15 fps more. therefore I will wait for the following years cards when it might be worth upgrading again.
Ubisoft trying to make the consoles artificially catch up with high end PC’s.
Well, to be fair, Siege did get a High-Resolution Texture Pack Post-Launch.
It’s not really confirmed, or even expected at this point, considering the (supposed) size & scope of Division, but it could be part of the plan, theoretically.
They realized that it would take a 980ti to push highest settings while maintaining 60 fps, so they cutted back on some stuff J/K. But seriously though, I think this comparison video isn’t really fair and here’s why:
Ok 4 good examples:
1. The reflection comparison – He compares the reflection in a waterpuddle to a wet surface, realistically the puddle would give more detailed reflections than a wet surface just like displayed here.
2. The dynamic shader system was compared to the one showcased in the SnowDrop tech demo, of course they were gonna exaggerate the effect in the techdemo to better show off the technique. I also think it looks scaled back because in his video there is only a brief light snowfall over the extent of a short period, thus not generating enough snow. And on the contrary the SnowDrop tech demo, the shader effect is most likely controlled by a slider from minimum to its maximum, that’s why it looks like it do. If a weather would appear in the beta with several hours of heavy snowfall, I have no doubt the effect would look similar eventually.
3. The procedural breaking system is still great. Everything showed to be braking on the car in the 2013 reveal actually breaks the same way in the Beta. Windows, tires, headlights/backlights, mirrors even sirens. I also happened to see that regular benches has like 50 breakpoints of its wood, that’s amazing. Concrete, brick-walls, hell even random clothes hanging around breaks procedurally.
4. About 3.13 lighting. I think the problem here lies within the model of the wall, it’s not blocking the lights correctly, I don’t think it has anything to do with the dynamic shadow casting system. Also, he misinterprets the “Global illumination system”, he shows a lightsource hanging and dangling where there are no colored walls/objects for the light to bounce off to.
My two cents.
Also the Youtube video quality is rubbish, the game will look a lot better on our screens.
Blatant video… Obviously the visuals are much better in the PC/Ultra version. But he is right about animations and textures, they look about the same on both platforms. I think he is wrong about the particle system though, he only compared indoors. He did not compare the volumetric fog outside or the interactive smoke sources either with subsurface scattering is applied for the PC version. Furthermore he didn’t compare the particles outside like snow etc, or Depth of field, he also forgot about Anti-aliasing and the supersampling setting the PC has. And he didn’t mention the Parallax Mapping. And the lack of HBAO+ on PS4 is just very evident, the AO on PS4 is a lightweighter in comparison. And he also forgets about 4K, it’s gonna crush the 1080p visuals. nVidia is gonna set a new standard with their Pascal lineup to easily counter the 4K resolution demands. It’s just a matter of time when people are gonna play on 4K OLED displays at 120hz sh*tting all over any console struggling at 30fps in 1080p.
Clearly had they showed it looking how it ended up (now) back at E3 there would have been no hype for it, so yeah it’s dishonest and taken gamers/consumers for idiots. This is why we need to be vocal about this BS they pull. If they show something and gain all the goodwill and hype for it, they better deliver it, otherwise it’s essentially an entirely different product that is surfing along on the positive vibes of something that was never intended. That’s almost fraudulent isn’t it? Because many will have pre-ordered or believed it would look like that then not look at any news again (spoilers).
UBi are a pack of C***s for doing this, repeatedly with their games. Game looks dull as f**k now anyway. Had it retained the original beauty I may have been interested as a fan of NYC.
Oh and while I’m a PC gamer first (with a fast rig) I also have a PS4 which is great for what it is (And for the exclusives) but it’s just wrong that they should hold back the potential of the PC version to suit the accepted lesser power levels of the consoles. What a bunch of lefty cowards.
“Its not like the Watch Dogs downgrade”
Sure it is, if not worse. Watch_Dogs was really only missing a few effects from the E3 showings which were easily enabled on the PC version (which actually didn’t look/work that well outside of showcasing) where as The Division is missing things like global illumination, advanced physics (like the billboard blowing up from the tablet app video) or the more detailed car destruction, etc), reduced ground clutter, reduced lighting effects, plus more.
I mean, it still looks VERY impressive, no doubt, but I certainly think the level of downgrade is larger than Watch_dogs ever was.