Watch Dogs’ old render settings may deteriorate performance, Ubisoft says

Following a modder recently unlocking some graphical enhancements in the PC version of Watch Dogs, the development team has responded in a blog post stating that old render settings were deactivated due to possible deterioration of the gameplay experience.

"The PC version does indeed contain some old, unused render settings that were deactivated for a variety of reasons, including possible impacts on visual fidelity, stability, performance and overall gameplay quality," the post reads. "Modders are usually creative and passionate players, and while we appreciate their enthusiasm, the mod in question (which uses those old settings) subjectively enhances the game's visual fidelity in certain situations but also can have various negative impacts."

Earlier this week, a Watch Dogs tweak discovered by Guru3D forum user The Worse reverts the appearance of the current Windows PC version of the game to almost that of its original appearance at E3 2012. The Worse explained at the time that he came across the content when he was searching for fixes to the game's stuttering problems after its launch in its unpacker.

A recent video demonstrated the game's E3 2012 appearance versus its present day performance on PCs. The workaround restores some of the game's original E3 assets and its reflections, lighting, lens flares and weather effects are altered.

Watch Dogs launched May 27 for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. The Windows PC suffered connectivity and performance issues. To learn more about PC version's issues, check out our interview with Ubisoft head of digital Chris Early.