NVIDIA Enhancing Ubisoft PC Games

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NVIDIA’s GameWorks Team says it is working closely with Ubisoft to enhance upcoming Windows games. Blue's News has the complete rundown.

NVIDIA’s GameWorks technology includes TXAA antialiasing, which provides Hollywood-levels of smooth animation, soft shadows, HBAO+ (horizon-based ambient occlusion), advanced DX11 tessellation, and NVIDIA PhysX technology.
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I didn't think it was possible for Ubisoft to make even more broken/crippled PC games... apparently I was wrong :p

Oh well... I don't buy Ubi anyway
 
I wonder how much Nvidia paid Ubisoft to become an Nvidia dev house. I mean I realize that there isn't a lot of competition in the GPU space anymore but I would like there to be at least some and Nvidia seems pretty intent on putting a stop to it so long as the game developers will let them.
 
Paying developers to gimp the game for the competition will end up dead like Tegra THD titles on Android.
 
mi7chy said:
Paying developers to gimp the game for the competition will end up dead like Tegra THD titles on Android.
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*Hugs his Tegra Note 7*

Say what you want, this is single handedly the best tablet you can buy, hell the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 gets LOWER scores than the Note 7

I was going to buy a Tronsmart Vega s89 to replace my old set top box, but it was going to cost me $160, then I found out about the Tegra Note 7, which gets higher performance, is a portable tablet I can hook up to the TV, and was only $40 more

So yeah, once in a while companies can put out super kick ass products
 
"Totally can only be done with our graphics cards guys lalalala" :eek:
*changes a number, gets flawless non-framecrunching AO, perfectly stable game* :cool:
 
Aren't developers sort of shooting themselves in the foot by using this type of tech (GameWorks)?

I mean, for high-end discreet GPU's, I imagine that AMD and nVidia have to be somewhat close as far as market-share goes, depending on which chart you look at and which quarter obviously.

So if half of a publishers potential customers knows said publishers game with run like shit on their systems (compared to another GPU maker), wont that leave a bad taste in the mouths of gamers? Besides pissing off customers... they're also limiting the amount of people that would buy the game in the first place I'd think.

It seems like a great deal for nVidia, but not so much for publishers/developers
 
Dwango said:
I wonder how much Nvidia paid Ubisoft to become an Nvidia dev house.
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Assuming its even true, it's probably a lot less than AMD paid EA to become a Mantle dev house.
 
dr.stevil said:
Aren't developers sort of shooting themselves in the foot by using this type of tech (GameWorks)?
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There's already been some controversy brewing over this. Short version is this is seen as a way to torpedo AMD's optimization efforts since it locks them off from seeing what Nvidia's code is doing and can affect performance on non-Nvidia hardware in unforeseen ways. Whether you're a fan of AMD or Nvidia, this is kind of playing dirty and harms standards as a whole. It reminds me of old Win9x games that wouldn't run on XP or above because the hacks to get more performance were so nonstandard, compatibility got heavily sacrificed.
 
dr.stevil said:
I mean, for high-end discreet GPU's, I imagine that AMD and nVidia have to be somewhat close as far as market-share goes, depending on which chart you look at and which quarter obviously.
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If you really think AMD and NV are "somewhat close" in marketshare - high end GPU's or otherwise, I'd like to see which charts you're looking at.

Steam:
0Yxe4NG.png
 
the funny thing here is gameworks doesnt matter all the consoles have amd inside all amd needs to do is make the dev push the patches form the console game to the pc one. nvidia's tactics and programs mean shit when amd is power all the consoles
 
maxius said:
the funny thing here is gameworks doesnt matter all the consoles have amd inside all amd needs to do is make the dev push the patches form the console game to the pc one. nvidia's tactics and programs mean shit when amd is power all the consoles
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There's still lots nvidia could potentially do. The console versions don't use DX as on PCs. With gameworks nvidia can hide and dictate how DX is implemented at the engine level.

Unless that game is also released for Mantle, nvidia is calling ALL the shots on gameworks titles.

I would not be surprised AT ALL to see a clause saying the developer cannot release a Mantle version of a gameworks game. Even if that would require very little effort and time from the developer.
 
Nvidia is working with Ubisoft to make games run like rubbish on everyone's systems. The user reviews on steam are pretty hilarious. I realize that's not a very scientific metric, but maybe instead of helping Ubisoft 'enhance' their games, nvidia could focus on making them suck less.
 
maxius said:
the funny thing here is gameworks doesnt matter all the consoles have amd inside all amd needs to do is make the dev push the patches form the console game to the pc one. nvidia's tactics and programs mean shit when amd is power all the consoles
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The problem is AMD APU's in the two new consoles are little more than a marketing bulletpoint for AMD, and ultimately a red herring. To AMD's credit, the marketing worked, since a lot of people really believe that AMD APU's in the consoles is a magic bullet that buys them more relevance and technical leverage in the discrete GPU space. There's pretty much no crossover, and no magic driver or API that's going to be worth a pinch of shit that suddenly makes the GPU perform better.

Back on topic, I have a really hard time feeling sorry for AMD because NVidia’s still able to work out exclusive partnership deals, at a time when AMD is trying to intentionally push API-level fracturization on the PC market. If AMD would learn to write drivers that were worth a damn, the lack of partnership wouldn’t be nearly as big a hurdle for them.
 
I prefer Nvidia video cards for lots of other reasons, but has there been any successful implementations of TXAA yet? As in, not blurring the hell out of textures?
 
evilsofa said:
I prefer Nvidia video cards for lots of other reasons, but has there been any successful implementations of TXAA yet? As in, not blurring the hell out of textures?
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No.....

I've looked at all the games with TXAA support, and I haven't seen one game yet where I can recommend to enable TXAA.

It's good in theory, but not in practice.
 
It's about time nvidia started working with developers.
 
Brent_Justice said:
No.....

I've looked at all the games with TXAA support, and I haven't seen one game yet where I can recommend to enable TXAA.

It's good in theory, but not in practice.
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It's crazy that they can't make it work, especially with SMAA TX solutions exist and are totally sweet.
 
DPI said:
If you really think AMD and NV are "somewhat close" in marketshare - high end GPU's or otherwise, I'd like to see which charts you're looking at.

Steam:
0Yxe4NG.png
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In actual market share AMD is actually ahead of Nvidia but Intel still pounds the shit out of both of them.

AMD may not be doing so hot in the enthusiast market but they are doing great in the OEM market with those APUs being all over the place.
 
Disposed said:
In actual market share AMD is actually ahead of Nvidia but Intel still pounds the shit out of both of them.

AMD may not be doing so hot in the enthusiast market but they are doing great in the OEM market with those APUs being all over the place.
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Chart5.PNG


http://jonpeddie.com/news/comments/gpu-shipments-marketwatch-q1-2014-charts-and-images/

In Q4 2013, it was AMD 20.7%, Nvidia 16.3%, Intel 62.9%.

So Nvidia went up 0.26%, and AMD went down 4.04%. Could that big of a drop be attributed entirely to bitcoin's temporary but extreme inflation of AMD video card prices?
 
As if I needed more reason to skip all Ubisoft games hah
 
dgz said:
As if I needed more reason to skip all Ubisoft games hah
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As if I needed more reason to BUY all Ubisoft games hah :D. Love TXAA, love HBAO+, and love PhysX, all of 'em make for some awesome visuals when used in games. As usual AMD results in the basic experience for games and competes primarily on price, hence why most gamers use nVidia at this point as someone posted a chart of above for *DISCRETE* video cards.
 
GoldenTiger said:
As if I needed more reason to BUY all Ubisoft games hah :D. Love TXAA, love HBAO+, and love PhysX, all of 'em make for some awesome visuals when used in games. As usual AMD results in the basic experience for games and competes primarily on price, hence why most gamers use nVidia at this point as someone posted a chart of above for *DISCRETE* video cards.
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lol
 
I run a 780, but no matter how much optimization Nvidia puts into an Ubisoft game, I won't buy one. I don't care that Ubisoft went away from always-on DRM years ago. Ubisoft sucks for PC gamers, and they aren't getting any of my money ever again.

Yes, I will miss out on some potentially good titles, but that's OK with me because I have approximately 40283084 other titles in my Steam backlog which I can play and will enjoy.
 
mi7chy said:
Paying developers to gimp the game for the competition will end up dead like Tegra THD titles on Android.
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Just like AMD did? :p

Funny how Ubisoft shifted so quickly. From Far Cry 3 and Blood Dragon with AMD to Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell with Nvidia.
 
DPI said:
If you really think AMD and NV are "somewhat close" in marketshare - high end GPU's or otherwise, I'd like to see which charts you're looking at.

Steam:
0Yxe4NG.png
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They're out there and they all have conflicting information regarding install base, but that's debating semantics. My point still remains even with the steam hardware survey you posted. The devs are purposely using an API that will screw approx 47.5% of the people running steam.

It's not like nVidia is giving them money to better optimize for nVidia hardware, like it always used to be (Physx, 3Dvision, etc)... they're actually locking out their competitors from being able to effectively update drivers for those titles. If AMD starts playing the same shenanigans, we'll start seeing "GPU exclusive" titles which is just bad for the consumer IMO.
 
Thuleman said:
I run a 780, but no matter how much optimization Nvidia puts into an Ubisoft game, I won't buy one. I don't care that Ubisoft went away from always-on DRM years ago. Ubisoft sucks for PC gamers, and they aren't getting any of my money ever again.

Yes, I will miss out on some potentially good titles, but that's OK with me because I have approximately 40283084 other titles in my Steam backlog which I can play and will enjoy.
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You have over 40 million games?


Neckbeard basement guy
 
Dwango said:
I wonder how much Nvidia paid Ubisoft to become an Nvidia dev house. I mean I realize that there isn't a lot of competition in the GPU space anymore but I would like there to be at least some and Nvidia seems pretty intent on putting a stop to it so long as the game developers will let them.
Click to expand...

They have to make a living somehow, since they didn't want to go low for the consoles bid, doing other peoples homework appears to be their way for the future.
 
DPI said:
The problem is AMD APU's in the two new consoles are little more than a marketing bulletpoint for AMD, and ultimately a red herring. To AMD's credit, the marketing worked, since a lot of people really believe that AMD APU's in the consoles is a magic bullet that buys them more relevance and technical leverage in the discrete GPU space. There's pretty much no crossover, and no magic driver or API that's going to be worth a pinch of shit that suddenly makes the GPU perform better.
Click to expand...

Nailed it. We saw the same thing with Xbox 360 games ported to PC. Nvidia's GPU's just ran them better, especially in the beginning (GeForce 8800 GTX vs Radeon HD-2900).
 
I've been using AMD/ATi since x1900 days and for years their drivers have worked fine, the “AMD drivers sux” argument is pointless and weak and is a bunch of BS propagated by chair-keyboard interface error individuals, and outright liars. The API fracturing people speak of seems (to me) to possibly be a longer run at AMD trying to get out of being dictated to by entities like MS on what features their next silicon should hold via DX versions and the performance of their chips not being showcased fully because MS gates DX with things like DX versions and what Windows they can run on. The bigger picture of Mantle has yet to be seen or what it will mean for gamers 5+ years from now. While Nvidia is busy trolling everyone with Gameworks thinly veiled performance degradation garbage, AMD is at least TRYING to push the envelope on performance and features.
 
klljm said:
I've been using AMD/ATi since x1900 days and for years their drivers have worked fine, the “AMD drivers sux” argument is pointless and weak and is a bunch of BS propagated by chair-keyboard interface error individuals, and outright liars. The API fracturing people speak of seems (to me) to possibly be a longer run at AMD trying to get out of being dictated to by entities like MS on what features their next silicon should hold via DX versions and the performance of their chips not being showcased fully because MS gates DX with things like DX versions and what Windows they can run on. The bigger picture of Mantle has yet to be seen or what it will mean for gamers 5+ years from now. While Nvidia is busy trolling everyone with Gameworks thinly veiled performance degradation garbage, AMD is at least TRYING to push the envelope on performance and features.
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Read your post again it's laughably horrid.

"Been exclusively using one brand for years but let me tell you how things are by comparison"

And you even insult people for pointing out AMD graphics drivers are simply not as good.

I use both brands and gave a mixed house abd can tell you the nvidia drivers and software is significantly better then the catalyst garbage center.
 
Disposed said:
Read your post again it's laughably horrid.

"Been exclusively using one brand for years but let me tell you how things are by comparison"

And you even insult people for pointing out AMD graphics drivers are simply not as good.

I use both brands and gave a mixed house abd can tell you the nvidia drivers and software is significantly better then the catalyst garbage center.
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Actually I've used both brands, without exception I was an Nvidia user up until the 9700 Pro came out, and there was no personal attack intended, simply pointing out the incredulous claims of some individuals that AMD drivers are guaranteed to fail. I have used Nvidia on multiple machines at work and AMD at home. Our IT department cannot get our Geforce cards to consistently to play nice for our 3rd monitors on some machines, but the machines with AMD work fine. Go fish.
 
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