Game graphics settings definitions

[Deleted]

So I'm trying to sort my settings for Watch dogs and it has all of these settings but i'm not sure what they mean, so could somebody please give me a hand?
Ambient occlusion =
Depth of field =
Shader =
Anti - Aliasing =
Also for ambient occulsion what do the settings mean such as HBAO and for Anti-Aliasing what does TXAA, etc mean?

[Wilian]

Depth of field is the retarded effect that tries to simulate focus (things at forefront are sharp while anything on backround is blurry)

[Evilmaniac]

Honestly you'd be best asking the steam forums for settings, but since you didn't tell us what graphics card your using it's hard to tell you what to put anything. On a side note HBAO+ and TXAA are nvidia only graphic options. AMD cards aren't built to use those settings. HBAO is just a better version of SSAO which tries to make the interaction of light and shadow a little more realistic rather than having light on this part of an object and having a completely dark shadow beside that area when lighting should obviously be making the place a little bit brighter than that. TXAA is just a more advanced form of AA I really don't know how to make it simple.

[Exit0sus]

Ambient occlusion simulates an effect of light bounce, making occluded (less exposed) areas of the world darker. It's usually very subtle.
Depth of field blurs objects based on how far they are from your focal point - this usually means blurring things in the background.
A shader is sort of like the instructions for how something should be rendered. I don't own Watch Dogs, but I assume this will just control the overall quality of the graphics.
Anti-aliasing reduced the aliasing effect (jagged edges) on models, smoothing them out.

HBAO, TXAA, etc are names of the various techniques used (e.g. HBAO is Horizon-Based Ambient Occlusion, SSAO is Screen-Space Ambient Occlusion). They'll provide slightly different effects with varying performance hits. I doubt any will be flat-out better than the others though.

[Deleted]

Honestly you'd be best asking the steam forums for settings, but since you didn't tell us what graphics card your using it's hard to tell you what to put anything. On a side note HBAO+ and TXAA are nvidia only graphic options. AMD cards aren't built to use those settings. HBAO is just a better version of SSAO which tries to make the interaction of light and shadow a little more realistic rather than having light on this part of an object and having a completely dark shadow beside that area when lighting should obviously be making the place a little bit brighter than that. TXAA is just a more advanced form of AA I really don't know how to make it simple.

I have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 Twin Frozr GPU and with the Watch Dogs graphics could somebody please give me a hand on how to get the max performance out of my rig please? It seems to stutter from time to time on full ultra and high settings (I'm using the next gen graphics mod if that affects performance) is Watch Dogs really demanding graphics wise or is the next gen graphics mod demanding?

[Dezerte]

I play WD on 1920x1080@Medium+(Slightly higher than Medium preset & TheWorse fix) with my 760, granted I have a weak processor on that PC (i3-4130).

Still stutters now and then, but that seems to be an issue with the game itself (the stutter will be there even on low settings). If you're receiving lots of stutter it may be something else though.

[Evilmaniac]

I have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 Twin Frozr GPU and with the Watch Dogs graphics could somebody please give me a hand on how to get the max performance out of my rig please? It seems to stutter from time to time on full ultra and high settings (I'm using the next gen graphics mod if that affects performance) is Watch Dogs really demanding graphics wise or is the next gen graphics mod demanding?

It's not so much demanding as it is just badly optimized. To be honest I'd just pick the settings you are least likely to notice or care about and just turn them down a notch.

[isntyourname123]

You can find much of what you want to know on Hardocp
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2014/...w#.U6b1UfldVzp

[Hubbl3]

Depth of field is the retarded effect that tries to simulate focus (things at forefront are sharp while anything on backround is blurry)

One of the best ways to break immersion in a game is forced focus, imo ^_^

The human eye doesn't work like that!!!

[Biggles Worth]

I have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 Twin Frozr GPU and with the Watch Dogs graphics could somebody please give me a hand on how to get the max performance out of my rig please? It seems to stutter from time to time on full ultra and high settings (I'm using the next gen graphics mod if that affects performance) is Watch Dogs really demanding graphics wise or is the next gen graphics mod demanding?

Most of the issues are with the game, not your rig. Update your video drivers and hope they optimize the game better which I doubt they will.

[Terahertz]

One of the best ways to break immersion in a game is forced focus, imo ^_^

The human eye doesn't work like that!!!

Agreed. I don't get how some people are so horny about Depth of Field effects. The only way it could ever work for me is if there were glasses that could detect where I'm currently looking at and then applies the depth of field effect lol

[Orange Joe]

Honestly you'd be best asking the steam forums for settings, but since you didn't tell us what graphics card your using it's hard to tell you what to put anything. On a side note HBAO+ and TXAA are nvidia only graphic options. AMD cards aren't built to use those settings. HBAO is just a better version of SSAO which tries to make the interaction of light and shadow a little more realistic rather than having light on this part of an object and having a completely dark shadow beside that area when lighting should obviously be making the place a little bit brighter than that. TXAA is just a more advanced form of AA I really don't know how to make it simple.

I think he is asking what the mean, not what to set them at.

[Dezerte]

I like the distant DoF though, because I'd rather watch a blurry horizon than low-res/blocky textures.

[May90]

So I'm trying to sort my settings for Watch dogs and it has all of these settings but i'm not sure what they mean, so could somebody please give me a hand?
Ambient occlusion =
Depth of field =
Shader =
Anti - Aliasing =
Also for ambient occulsion what do the settings mean such as HBAO and for Anti-Aliasing what does TXAA, etc mean?

Ambient Occlusion - improves lighting by adding reflections from some surfaces and their diffusion, etc. Personally I've never seen much of a difference in terms of picture quality with this parameter, but it tends to kill performance like crazy.

Depth of Field - focus effect: what cinematics focuses on is clear, everything else is blurry. I think it works great with some games and terrible with others. For example, I adore this effect in Mass Effect, but in SWTOR it gives me dizziness. It has some impact on performance, but not that big, IMO.

Shader - basically level of rendering. Higher shader version renders more things and more detailed, but at a huge performance cost.

Anti-Aliasing - smoothing of the edges. Must have effect. Even with older graphics cards in most games you will want to set it to, at least, 8x for picture to not have horrible "teeth" instead of lines.

About HBAO I have no idea, and TXAA is, like FXAA, a very cheap way to do anti-aliasing: basically it doesn't do it for the original 3D image and just works as a post-processing effect for 2D image on your screen. As a result, it has very little performance impact, but it also doesn't really improve aliasing. For a cheap technique, you will want to use FXAA, but, still, MSAA 8x or better is just a must in any RPG/FPS game, IMO.