Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Developers
	Ubisoft Montreal
Windows	Ubisoft Ukraine
Publishers
	Ubisoft
Engines
	AnvilNext
Release dates
Windows	November 19, 2013
Reception
Metacritic	84
OpenCritic	85
IGDB	85
Taxonomy
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Open world, Stealth
Themes	Historical, Piracy
Vehicles	Naval/watercraft
Series	Assassin's Creed

General information

PC Report

Official forums

Assassin's Creed Wiki

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Amazon.com
GamersGate
		Deluxe Edition
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Origin
Steam
Ubisoft Store		Deluxe Edition. The edition is included with Ubisoft+.

All versions require Ubisoft Connect DRM.

Version differences

The Gold Edition is a complete edition containing the base game and all DLC. Only available in NA.

The Deluxe Edition includes Aveline DLC, The Castaway's Prize and Illustrious Pirates Pack.

Freedom Cry is available as both DLC and a standalone game.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Season Pass
Kraken Ship Pack	Season Pass exclusive.
Freedom Cry Pack	Also available as a standalone game.
The Castaway's Prize	Deluxe and Gold Edition exclusive.
Aveline DLC	Deluxe and Gold Edition exclusive.
Time saver: Resources Pack
Time saver: Collectibles Pack
Time saver: Activities Pack
Death Vessel Pack
Crusader & Florentine Pack
Time saver: Technology Pack
MP Character Pack: Blackbeard's Wrath
Illustrious Pirates Pack
Guild of Rogues

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

File removal[citation needed]
Go to the installation folder. Go into videos (for single player) or multi\videos (for multiplayer). Rename, delete or move these files: ubi_logo.bik TWIMTBP.bik abstergo_logo.bik ac4bf_logo.bik warning_disclaimer.bik warning_disclaimer.bik is in a subfolder that corresponds with the set language.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/242050/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<Ubisoft-Connect-folder>\savegames\<user-id>\273\ <Ubisoft-Connect-folder>\savegames\<user-id>\437\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/242050/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Origin
Steam Cloud
Ubisoft Connect		Uplay cloud synchronization was disabled sometime in 2013.

Video

Graphics settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Anamorphic 16:9; use Flawless Widescreen to remove letterboxing.
Multi-monitor			Anamorphic 16:9; use Flawless Widescreen. Or if using an AMD card just use Catalyst version 14.4
Ultra-widescreen			See the community page.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Use jim2point0's cheat table (requires Cheat Engine).
Windowed		See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		TXAA (Nvidia only), FXAA, SMAA (actually SMAA T2X) and MSAA/CSAA (also using FXAA).
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Double buffered. See FPS drops to 30 when Vsync is enabled for triple buffered v-sync.
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Frame rate is capped at 63 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Windowed

Run patcher
Download AC4 Window Mode Patcher. Copy it to the installation folder and launch it. Type y and press ↵ Enter to start patching.

Use WinExplorer[citation needed]
Download WinExplorer. Run game and choose a resolution of your choice. Alt+Tab ↹ to the desktop. Open WinExplorer and select AC4 from list of running programs. Head over to style tab and tick WS_DISABLED and WS_CHILD checkboxes. Notes You may want to further customize the window style with WS_THICKFRAME, WS_BORDER or WS_DLGFRAME options

Input

Controls settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Acceleration is enabled by default.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio settings.

General settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Sliders for music, effects and voices.
Surround sound		Autodetection up to 5.1 setups.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play
Online play		8

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		Use Helix Mod: Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag.
vorpX		G3D Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues unresolved

Mouse and keyboard do not work

Might be related to either Logitech or Steam Controller drivers, as the game improperly detects the input device.

Issues fixed

You can find various fixes in this Ubisoft Support FAQ

Ubisoft Community Technical Support

Missing Audio during combat (Freedom Cry DLC Pack)

Only applies to DLC Pack (standalone copy doesn't suffer from this issue), see Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry for details.

Crash when installed in a Storage Space

The game will refuse to run when installed on a drive which is managed by a Storage Space on Windows 8 and later.

Creating a junction to the folder "sounddata" to a non-Windows Storage Space drive seems to solve the problem[citation needed]

Installing the Game on a drive that is not a Storage Space will fix this issue[citation needed]

Game freezes on AMD GPUs

This issue first manifests upon starting a new file when the game freezes on a black screen with the 'saving' icon.

Avoid using MSAA or EQAA

The image freezes but the game still runs in the background

Sometimes the game might appear to be frozen, but you can still hear the sound and the HUD works.

Enabling "Volumetric Fog" and / or disabling "FXAA" fixes the issue[citation needed]
"Volumetric Fog" may cause artifacts on screen edges in-game, Use Driver AA instead if MSAA is being used.

FPS drops to 30 when Vsync is enabled

This is caused by lack of triple buffering in the game.

Use D3DOverrider to force triple buffering
Don't force VSync in D3DOverrider, only triple buffering. Enable VSync in game options (or force it in Nvidia control panel or Nvidia Inspector). If you're using SweetFX or another injector, this fix will not work. Use the workaround below.

Use RadeonPro to force triple buffering[citation needed]
Download and install RadeonPro. Launch RadeonPro. Add a profile pointing to AC4BFSP.exe or AC4BFMP.exe. Select the exe profile by clicking on it. Go to the tweaks tab leave vsync to driver default and check triple buffering. Notes Tested on Win8.1 with CFX 7970s.[citation needed]

Use Ctrl-Alt-Del workaround to force triple buffering[citation needed]
This method has only been tested on Windows 7 SP1 with an Nvidia graphics card and on Windows 10 with an AMD graphics card. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Click the cancel button to return to your desktop. Go back to the game by clicking its icon on the taskbar. Alt+Tab ↹ does NOT work. This workaround makes possible the use of SweetFX or other injectors with triple buffering.

Nvidia PhysX performance issues

Disable Shadowplay

Change process affinity
Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to open Task Manager. Go to the Details tab. Right click ac4bfsp.exe and select "Set affinity". Uncheck the last CPU core and hit OK. Go back to the same menu and re-enable it. Close Task Manager.

Nvidia PhysX on newer GPUs even after the above workaround

Remove old PhysX files
Install updated PhysX drivers Go to the <path-to-game> Delete or rename PhysX3_x86.dll, PhysX3Common_x86.dll, PhysX3Cooking_x86.dll, PhysX3Gpu_x86.dll, PhysXDevice.dll This will disable PhysX in the game. This can also be achieved by simply disabling PhysX in the in-game menu.

Nvidia broken PhysX on newer GPUs fix (Windows 7)

Install older PhysX driver
Uninstall any existing instance of PhysX from your computer. Install version 9.14 of PhysX. Earlier version are not supported, and later versions are broken. PhysX 9.14.0702

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Anti-cheat	PunkBuster	Used PunkBuster initially but was eventually removed.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Vista SP2	7 SP1, 8
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 2.6 GHz AMD Athlon II X4 620 2.6 GHz	Intel Core i5 2400S 2.5 GHz AMD Phenom II X4 940 @ 3.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	30 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 ATI Radeon HD 4870 512 MB of VRAM Shader model 4.0 support	Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 AMD Radeon HD 5850 1 GB of VRAM Shader model 5.0 support

Supported video cards include: Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or better, GT400, GT500, GT600, GT700 series or AMD Radeon HD4870 or better, HD5000, HD6000, HD7000 series.

Laptop graphics cards may work but are not officially supported.

Dual core processors will, despite the minimum requirements, most likely work. (only LGA1150/LGA1155 dual core processors will, under most circumstances, deliver a playable frame rate - LGA775/LGA1156 and AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1/FM2 dual core CPUs are unlikely to suffice due to significantly lower IPC)