Ubisoft: "It's Not True That We Don't Care About PC Optimization"

[Steven Bogos]

Ubisoft: "It's Not True That We Don't Care About PC Optimization"

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag associate producer says the PC is an important platform for Ubisoft.

There's an opinion out there that Ubisoft doesn't care about the PC ports of its games, evidenced by "poor optimization" of some of its titles. However, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag associate producer Sylvain Trottier says this simply isn't true, and the PC is an important platform for the company. "It's absolutely not true that we don't care about PC optimization," Trottier said in a blog post [http://blog.ubi.com/assassins-creed-iv-black-flag-pc-gold/]. "If we didn't care about PC optimization, then we would not have such a big team dedicated just to the PC version in Kiev."

"We are very proud of the PC version of Black Flag: the game runs well on low-end PCs, and lots of additional features were added for higher-end machines, allowing each and every customer to fully enjoy the experience on their PCs. Our partnership with Nvidia that saw our respective engineering teams work together to develop a highly optimized PC version also demonstrates our commitment to the platform."

"If you can see our game run at 4k resolution on PC, it's magical. It's beautiful," he added.

Trottier explained that when it comes time to optimize a game for all of its platforms, the PC is the one that they start with, not only for logistical reasons, but but because it was also the environment the engineers are most familiar with (especially in the early days of this next-generation of consoles).

He also praised the PS4 and Xbox One's decision to use a more PC-like architecture this time around, as his team can apply PC optimization techniques to the consoles. "If, say, the team finds a way to shave 50% off the GPU burden for a particular effect, they can then expect a roughly equivalent savings on both next-gen consoles, and they can be confident in their ability to apply those savings."

Source: Ubisoft Blog [http://blog.ubi.com/assassins-creed-iv-black-flag-pc-gold/]

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[Adzma]

Far Cry 3 would beg to differ...

 

[Drummodino]

Far Cry 3 would beg to differ...

What was wrong with Far Cry 3? I played it on PC and it was fine.

 

[Sight Unseen]

Far Cry 3 would beg to differ...

What was wrong with Far Cry 3? I played it on PC and it was fine.

I think that what he was referring to may not have been the optimization of the game so much as the quality of the port. The optimization of the game seems fine to me, the graphics are incredible and the game runs fine to me, but the inventory, crafting, and skill tree windows are absolute garbage on the PC. The shops are almost broken because it takes so long to buy or sell anything and crafting is way more cumbersome than it needed to be.

 

[razor343]

So let's see, they delay the game under the guise of wanting to optimize it properly, but still release an unoptimized game...Gee, I'm sure they're telling the truth. I'm sure the month long delay wasn't done so they could maximise their profits on consoles so that pirates would avoid the game. Harr-dee-harr.

 

[schtingah]

So what they're saying is that their PC ports aren't poor because they want them to be. I guess that means it must be because they're just too incompetent to do a good port?

 

[Covarr]

It's not that they don't care about PC, they just suck at it.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Drummodino]

Far Cry 3 would beg to differ...

What was wrong with Far Cry 3? I played it on PC and it was fine.

I think that what he was referring to may not have been the optimization of the game so much as the quality of the port. The optimization of the game seems fine to me, the graphics are incredible and the game runs fine to me, but the inventory, crafting, and skill tree windows are absolute garbage on the PC. The shops are almost broken because it takes so long to buy or sell anything and crafting is way more cumbersome than it needed to be.

Well I played it with a controller (I can't stand driving with k&m) so maybe that's why I didn't notice.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

So let's see, they delay the game under the guise of wanting to optimize it properly, but still release an unoptimized game...Gee, I'm sure they're telling the truth. I'm sure the month long delay wasn't done so they could maximise their profits on consoles so that pirates would avoid the game. Harr-dee-harr.

Or PC players wait a month a pirate it anyway feeling justified in doing so because "Ubisoft are being dicks to us by delaying everything."

Adding their crappy Uplay DRM atop of all versions of the game closes the 'Steam Sale' avenue as well.

 

[Revolutionary]

Far Cry 3 would beg to differ...

What was wrong with Far Cry 3? I played it on PC and it was fine.

I think that what he was referring to may not have been the optimization of the game so much as the quality of the port. The optimization of the game seems fine to me, the graphics are incredible and the game runs fine to me, but the inventory, crafting, and skill tree windows are absolute garbage on the PC. The shops are almost broken because it takes so long to buy or sell anything and crafting is way more cumbersome than it needed to be.

Well I played it with a controller (I can't stand driving with k&m) so maybe that's why I didn't notice.

It wasn't a problem with the controls, On launch (They've fixed it now, and by they I mean Nvidia and AMD) it performed like arse, even on high end systems. I can't express how horribly abysmal FC3 was on launch.
Also Uplay is generally a pack of dicks. And we have to wait for our ports much longer than Consoles.
Yeah Ubisoft is full of it.

 

[Yoshi4102]

Just because they say it, doesn't mean it's true.

 

[Grabehn]

"If you can see our game run at 4k resolution on PC, it's magical. It's beautiful," Yeah? And how does that changes that the game is implemented like shit? Or that games like AC run in the same engine, yet since Brotherhood they control worse and worse with keyboard and mouse? AND that Revelations needed more resources just because? Cuz it didn't look any nicer to me.

 

[Something Amyss]

So what they're saying is that their PC ports aren't poor because they want them to be. I guess that means it must be because they're just too incompetent to do a good port?

Honestly, I'm more prone to believe incompetence over malice in the first place.

But didn't they just say effectively the opposite a few days ago? I thought I even read it on The Escapist.

Edit: Because the lack of the 'a' in 'read' was annoying me.

 

[A-D.]

So what they're saying is that their PC ports aren't poor because they want them to be. I guess that means it must be because they're just too incompetent to do a good port?

Honestly, I'm more prone to believe incompetence over malice in the first place.

But didn't they just say effectively the opposite a few days ago? I thought I even red it on The Escapist.

They did, well one of their guys did anyway, wasnt a PR person. He basicly justified the comment that "optimizing on PC is not as important" or whatever the full quote was with saying that you can just get better hardware, like buy a new graphics card and stuff.

Yeah, Ubisoft are a bunch of dicks at this point, although if this is actually news its kinda worrisome. Most of their PC Releases are ports at best, usually pretty crappy ports as well. It is clear they dont care for the pc market as such to actually spend the time to develop for the system, they just make their console game and port it over and then maybe, if you're lucky, they patch it into a "okay" state.

 

[lacktheknack]

So what they're saying is that their PC ports aren't poor because they want them to be. I guess that means it must be because they're just too incompetent to do a good port?

Honestly, I'm more prone to believe incompetence over malice in the first place.

But didn't they just say effectively the opposite a few days ago? I thought I even read it on The Escapist.

Edit: Because the lack of the 'a' in 'read' was annoying me.

You did. Apparently, it was a misquote.

At any rate, this thread contains PRECISELY the reaction I thought it would. -___-

 

[Squilookle]

I'm still laughing at the fact 'offline split screen' was a feature on the back of the PC case for Driver San Francisco.

Sometimes I think they MUST be doing it on purpose...

 

[Something Amyss]

You did. Apparently, it was a misquote.

Source on the misquote? I haven't seen anything that directly states that. I've seen this, which looks more like PR ass-covering.

 

[lacktheknack]

You did. Apparently, it was a misquote.

Source on the misquote? I haven't seen anything that directly states that. I've seen this, which looks more like PR ass-covering.

<link=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.834605-AC4-developer-states-that-optimizing-a-PC-port-isnt-necessary#20422980>This post.

I don't really like Ubisoft very much anyways, so I don't have any strong feelings on their optimization statements.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

I think that what he was referring to may not have been the optimization of the game so much as the quality of the port. The optimization of the game seems fine to me, the graphics are incredible and the game runs fine to me, but the inventory, crafting, and skill tree windows are absolute garbage on the PC. The shops are almost broken because it takes so long to buy or sell anything and crafting is way more cumbersome than it needed to be.

This isn't so much an optimization issue than a UI design issue. Poor optimization would reflect as your GPU needing more cycles to take care of fairly simple tasks, and your CPU encountering unreasonable bottlenecks. I'm no software engineer, but speaking as someone who has a seven year-old PC, FarCry 3's menu system seemed to run fairly well.

It wasn't *designed* in the most ergonomic way imaginable and nor was it exactly fun to navigate, but it didn't feel explicitly broken. At least, not to me.

As far as Black Flag's optimization is concerned; I can run the game on an utterly sub-par system and generally maintain an FPS that's in the upper fifties at low settings. I'm not chomping at the bit to upgrade my rig just yet, so I'll probably hold on for a month or two before considering that it's time to hang up the ol' dual-core.

And yes, I'm well aware that Black Flag is officially stated as needing a *quad* core as a minimum - but feel free to look at my Steam history. I've been playing it, it runs well enough for me to tackle everything there is to tackle, and I don't have any particular negative complaints. Loving it, so far.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well to be honest they did optimize the game up to a point, up to the "30+FPS - medium settings - on hardware within 8 years", but the moment your aspirations go higher then that it's all brute force.

I won't exactly congratulate them on this job, especially since they optimize for one hardware manufacturer specifically, but it is a far better idea to make the game playable on all machines and then add all the thirsty eye candy then to have it as a priority and cut out half the user base.