Assassins Creed IV: Black Flags

This seems to make my GPU run hotter than any other game out there. Seems to run well enough with everything maxed out and 4xTXAA.

 

For anyone who's interested, here are my SweetFX (v1.3) settings. It adds a little sharpness (for TXAA), color and contrast to soften the default washed-out contrast and make it look richer while still maintaining the sun-drenched look of the game. In-game brightness is set to 6. You will need to adjust the Curves setting to match your driver-side/monitor brightness and contrast settings.

Spoiler

/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ Choose effects /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/

// Set to 1 for ON or 0 for OFF
#define USE_SMAA_ANTIALIASING 0 //[0 or 1] SMAA Anti-aliasing : Smoothens jagged lines.
#define USE_LUMASHARPEN 1 //[0 or 1] LumaSharpen : Also sharpens the antialiased edges which makes them less smooth - I'm working on fixing that.
#define USE_BLOOM 0 //[0 or 1] Bloom : Makes bright lights bleed their light into their surroundings (relatively high performance cost)
#define USE_HDR 0 //[0 or 1] HDR : Not actual HDR - It just tries to mimic an HDR look (relatively high performance cost)
#define USE_TECHNICOLOR 0 //[0 or 1] TECHNICOLOR : Attempts to mimic the look of an old movie using the Technicolor three-strip color process (Techicolor Process 4)
#define USE_DPX 0 //[0 or 1] Cineon DPX : Should make the image look like it's been converted to DXP Cineon - basically it's another movie-like look similar to technicolor.
#define USE_LIFTGAMMAGAIN 0 //[0 or 1] Lift Gamma Gain : Adjust brightness and color of shadows, midtones and highlights (avoids clipping)
#define USE_TONEMAP 0 //[0 or 1] Tonemap : Adjust gamma, exposure, saturation, bleach and defog. (may cause clipping)
#define USE_VIBRANCE 1 //[0 or 1] Vibrance : Intelligently saturates (or desaturates if you use negative values) the pixels depending on their original saturation.
#define USE_CURVES 1 //[0 or 1] Curves : Contrast adjustments using S-curves.
#define USE_SEPIA 0 //[0 or 1] Sepia : Sepia tones the image.
#define USE_VIGNETTE 0 //[0 or 1] Vignette : Darkens the edges of the image to make it look more like it was shot with a camera lens. May cause banding artifacts.
#define USE_DITHER 0 //[0 or 1] Dither : Applies dithering to simulate more colors than your monitor can display. This lessens banding artifacts (mostly caused by Vignette)
#define USE_SPLITSCREEN 0 //[0 or 1] Splitscreen : Enables the before-and-after splitscreen comparison mode.


/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ SMAA Anti-aliasing settings /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/

#define SMAA_THRESHOLD 0.05 // [0.05 to 0.20] Edge detection threshold
#define SMAA_MAX_SEARCH_STEPS 64 // [0 to 98] Determines the radius SMAA will search for aliased edges
#define SMAA_MAX_SEARCH_STEPS_DIAG 16 // [0 to 16] Determines the radius SMAA will search for diagonal aliased edges
#define SMAA_CORNER_ROUNDING 0 // [0 to 100] Determines the percent of antialiasing to apply to corners.

// -- Advanced SMAA settings --
#define COLOR_EDGE_DETECTION 1 // [0 or 1] 1 Enables color edge detection (slower but slightly more acurate) - 0 uses luma edge detection (faster)
#define SMAA_DIRECTX9_LINEAR_BLEND 0 // [0 or 1] Using DX9 HARDWARE? (software version doesn't matter) if so this needs to be 1 - If not, leave it at 0.


/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ LumaSharpen settings /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/
// -- Sharpening --
#define sharp_strength 0.30 // [0.10 to 3.00] Strength of the sharpening
#define sharp_clamp 0.035 // [0.000 to 1.000] Limits maximum amount of sharpening a pixel recieves - Default is 0.035

// -- Advanced sharpening settings --
#define pattern 2 // [1|2|3|4] Choose a sample pattern. 1 = Fast, 2 = Normal, 3 = Wider, 4 = Pyramid shaped.
#define offset_bias 1.0 // [0.0 to 6.0] Offset bias adjusts the radius of the sampling pattern.
// I designed the pattern for offset_bias 1.0, but feel free to experiment.

// -- Debug sharpening settings --
#define show_sharpen 0 // [0 or 1] Visualize the strength of the sharpen (multiplied by 4 to see it better)


/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ Bloom settings /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define BloomThreshold 20.25 //[0.00 to 50.00] Threshold for what is a bright light (that causes bloom) and what isn't.
#define BloomPower 1.446 //[0.0000 to 8.0000] Strength of the bloom
#define BloomWidth 0.0142 //[0.0000 to 1.0000] Width of the bloom


/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ HDR settings /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define HDRPower 0.99 //[0.0 to 8.0] Strangely lowering this makes the image brighter
#define radius2 0.87 //[0.0 to 8.0] Raising this seems to make the effect stronger and also brighter


/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ TECHNICOLOR settings /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define TechniAmount 0.11 //[0.0 to 1.0]
#define TechniPower 2.8 //[0.0 to 8.0]
#define redNegativeAmount 0.88 //[0.0 to 1.0]
#define greenNegativeAmount 0.88 //[0.0 to 1.0]
#define blueNegativeAmount 0.88 //[0.0 to 1.0]


/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ Cineon DPX settings /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define Red 8.0 //[1.0 to 15.0]
#define Green 8.0 //[1.0 to 15.0]
#define Blue 8.0 //[1.0 to 15.0]

#define ColorGamma 2.5 //[0.1 to 2.5] Adjusts the colorfulness of the effect in a manner similar to Vibrance. 1.0 is neutral.
#define DPXSaturation 3.0 //[0.0 to 8.0] Adjust saturation of the effect. 1.0 is neutral.

#define RedC 0.36 //[0.6 to 0.2]
#define GreenC 0.36 //[0.6 to 0.2]
#define BlueC 0.34 //[0.6 to 0.2]

#define Blend 0.2 //[0.0 to 0.1] How strong the effect should be.


/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ Lift Gamma Gain settings /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define RGB_Lift float3(1.000, 1.000, 1.000) //[0.000 to 2.000] Adjust shadows for Red, Green and Blue
#define RGB_Gamma float3(1.000, 1.000, 1.000) //[0.000 to 2.000] Adjust midtones for Red, Green and Blue
#define RGB_Gain float3(1.000, 1.000, 1.000) //[0.000 to 2.000] Adjust highlights for Red, Green and Blue


/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ Tonemap settings /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define Gamma 1.0 //[0.00 to 2.00] Adjust midtones

#define Exposure 0.00 //[-1.00 to 1.00] Adjust exposure

#define Saturation 0.00 //[-1.00 to 1.00] Adjust saturation

#define Bleach 0.00 //[0.00 to 1.00] Brightens the shadows and fades the colors

#define Defog 0.000 //[0.00 to 1.00] How much of the color tint to remove
#define FogColor float3(0.00, 0.00, 2.55) //[0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00] What color to remove - default is blue


/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ Vibrance settings /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define Vibrance 0.10 //[-1.0 to 1.0] Intelligently saturates (or desaturates if you use negative values) the pixels depending on their original saturation.


/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ Curves settings /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define Curves_contrast 0.20 //[-1.0 to 1.0] The amount of contrast you want

// -- Advanced curve settings --
#define Curves_formula 7 //[1|2|3|4|5|6|7] The constrast s-curve you want to use.


/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ Sepia settings /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define ColorTone float3(1.40, 1.10, 0.90) //[0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00, 0.00 to 1.00] What color to tint the image
#define GreyPower 0.11 //[0.0 to 1.0] How much desaturate the image before tinting it
#define SepiaPower 0.58 //[0.0 to 1.0] How much to tint the image



/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ Vignette settings /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define VignetteRadius 1.00 //[-1.00 to 3.00] lower values = stronger radial effect from center
#define VignetteAmount -1.00 //[-2.00 to 1.00] Strength of black. -2.00 = Max Black, 1.00 = Max White.
#define VignetteSlope 8 //[1 to 16] How far away from the center the change should start to really grow strong (odd numbers cause a larger fps drop than even numbers)
#define VignetteCenter float2(0.500, 0.500) //[0.00 to 1.00] Center of effect.


/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ Dither settings /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/
//No settings yet, beyond switching it on or off in the top section.

//Note that the checkerboard pattern used by Dither, makes an image harder to compress.
//This can make your screenshots and video recordings take up more space.


/*-----------------------------------------------------------.
/ Splitscreen settings /
'-----------------------------------------------------------*/
#define splitscreen_mode 3 //[1|2|3|4|5] 1 = Vertical 50/50 split, 2 = Vertical 25/50/25 split, 3 = Vertical 50/50 angled split, 4 = Horizontal 50/50 split, 5 = Horizontal 25/50/25 split

 

Wish they would fix the 100% core0 bug. Oh wellz the game is the most fun I've had with an AC game since AC2 (and that's one of my favorite games of all time).

 

I am at 79% now...... I am currently in a jungle where I have to chock indians out without killing them from hiding spots.....

 

Nothing Is True mission crashes every time I try to start it. I can't progress!

EDIT:
Started working.

 

I'm really enjoying it too, imo it has way better exploration and puzzles than tomb raider and the sailing is fantastic and has a nice epic feel to it.
the combat is a lot of fun and I dunno it somehow all manages to bond together in a very unique way (for ex. taking over other ships and the like /the quickfire pistols /harpooning etc.).

 

This game is absolutely brilliant, but despite the supposedly next gen features, you can still tell this game was made primarily for the last gen consoles.

Like Far Cry 3, the memory management in this game is hyper optimized for the memory deficient 360 and PS3, as you can tell by how much system memory it uses; under 700MBs which is astounding!

Even on my machine with 16GB of DDR3 2400 and 4GB of VRAM on my GTX 770s, object and detail pop in can still be glaring at times. Especially when Edward is running through a city or something..

I really hope Watch Dogs isn't like this, although it uses a brand new engine. I hope that engine will be geared towards the next gen consoles and high end PCs than AC IV..

Maybe that's why Ubisoft delayed the game till later this year, so they could make it a true next gen game..

 

just invested in the collectibles pack, I was thinking it would ruin the game somewhat but I don't think so now.
Found the Kidd and now I'm taking on my first coastal fortress, after I got the resources pack it helped get the ship in shape quicktime and with the technology pack I can max the ship out without needing to do any chores first. so yeah with the collectibles and my previous similar dlc purchase of the activities pack I'm good to go, i'll get this fortress down then upgrade my pistols. I'm using the Toledo swords and the death vessel.

 

Thanx guys, i went for a EVGA GTX 780 SC(the one with the Titan cooler).

 

It took 2x 780 Ti Classifieds with a 680 Classified dedicated to physx to make this game run absolutely fabulous. uke2:

Ubisoft, I am disappoint

 

At least you're not rubbing it in people's faces that it's running fine for you

 

There's still fps dips here and there, but nothing like it was when I had my 2 680 Classifieds in SLI and a 650 Ti dedicated to physx.

 

Ughh .. dips on those specs!

 

cpu one core hogger.

 

Yup.

 

grats on uber setup.

 

3 cards... sandwitched?

 

~62 FPS cap is annoying. Makes adaptive v-sync impossible to use on my 75 Hz display. Also the in game v-sync is crap, only double buffered so it is best to use D3DOverrider for v-sync and triple buffering instead. Still not optimal though. 62 FPS doesn't look smooth because it does not match the refresh rate.

 

I can max everything except for physx, I leave it off. (as with any other physx game I've played the hit on frames is not worth the effects it brings to the game. ) Some FPS drops still but for the most part it looks and runs pretty well.