NEWS
by Murray Lewis

Some clever-dick found Watch_Dogs E3 2012 graphics code


There's a bit of a hubbub going on over at the Guru3D forums, where a user called TheWorse has done some digging in the Watch_Dogs release binaries.
I'm a very obsessed person, with many things - mainly graphics. [...] This is the result of my obsession and [trying] to be like the greatest (iCEnhancer, MalDo, etc).
While poking around in the games files, he found and re-enabled code for the bloom effect last seen in the game's E3 demo back in 2012. Since then, he's managed to resurrect a whole host of axed features - with even more that have been found, and will be coming 'soon'.
Almost all of the shaders and improvements seen in 2012 and 2013 are still in the game files.

Some clever-dick found Watch_Dogs E3 2012 graphics code

More details and the download link can be found on the Guru3D forums]Guru3D forum thread.

The current feature list, some of which is not properly implemented yet:
  • 'E3 2012' bloom and lens flares
  • Dynamic shadows cast from headlights
  • Increased rain density
  • Increased pedestrian density
  • 'Bokeh' depth-of-field (DOF) effect
  • Performance/stuttering improvements
  • Level-of-detail (LOD) changes
  • Improved reflections
  • 3 new camera angles
Of particular interest to many gamers will be the performance improvements, with some reporting a drastically increased frame rate. No official reply as yet from Ubisoft, but many are questioning why this code was disabled before release.