A new Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag trailer focuses on the technology backing the title's launch on next-generation platforms.
Water and waves have always been difficult for games to properly render, but new technology like complex shaders and more powerful physics equations help the game realistically simulate the ocean both in shallow water and high seas, says associate producer Sylvain Trottier. "These technologies work together to create the most realistic virtual ocean you've ever seen."
Assassin's Creed 4 has new enhanced weather systems, and dynamic lighting means that things like fog and thousands of individual raindrops can be lit from multiple sources.
Not all of the next-generation enhancements are solely graphical; the ship-to-ship combat is enhanced by "dynamic navmesh" technology that provides paths for a high-climbing assassin to board an enemy ship from above.
Assassin's Creed 4 hits current-gen platforms late October with next-generation launches alongside the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
