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Assassin's Creed III

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This page is for the original release. For the remastered version, see Assassin's Creed III Remastered.

Assassin's Creed III
Assassin's Creed III cover
Developers
Ubisoft Montreal
Windows Ubisoft Ukraine
Publishers
Ubisoft
Akella
Engines
AnvilNext
Release dates
Windows November 20, 2012
Reception
Metacritic 80
IGDB 81
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, DLC
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Perspectives Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, Open world, Stealth
Vehicles Naval/watercraft
Themes Historical, North America
Series Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed III on HowLongToBeat
Assassin's Creed III on IGDB
Assassin's Creed III guide on StrategyWiki
Assassin's Creed III on MobyGames
Assassin's Creed III on Wikipedia
Assassin's Creed 2008
Assassin's Creed II 2010
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood 2011
Assassin's Creed: Revelations 2011
Assassin's Creed III 2012
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag 2013
Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD 2014
Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry 2014
Assassin's Creed: Pirates 2014
Assassin's Creed Unity 2014
Assassin's Creed Rogue 2015
Assassin's Creed Chronicles (series)
Assassin's Creed Syndicate 2015
Assassin's Creed Origins 2017
Discovery Tour (series)
Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2018
Assassin's Creed III Remastered 2019
Assassin's Creed III: Liberation Remastered 2019
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2020
Assassin's Creed Mirage 2023

Assassin's Creed III is a singleplayer and multiplayer third-person action, open world and stealth game in the Assassin's Creed series.

General information

Online services shut down on October 1, 2022. Some DLC enabled before this date remains accessible.[1]
Steam Community Discussions
Ubisoft Assassin's Creed General Discussion
Ubisoft Community Technical Support

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
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Windows
Amazon.co.uk (unavailable)
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Deluxe Edition also available.
Windows
GamersGate (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Deluxe Edition was also available.
Windows
Green Man Gaming (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Deluxe Edition was also available.
Windows
Humble Store (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Deluxe Edition was also available.
Windows
Origin (unavailable)
Origin
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Steam (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
Icon overlay.png
Windows
All versions require Ubisoft Connect DRM.

Version differences

The Deluxe Edition is a complete edition containing the base game and all DLC.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Season Pass
Windows
The Battle Hardened Pack
Windows
Benedict Arnold DLC Deluxe Edition exclusive.
Windows
The Hidden Secrets Pack
Windows
The Tyranny of King Washington Episode 1 The Infamy
Windows
The Tyranny of King Washington Episode 2 The Betrayal
Windows
The Tyranny of King Washington Episode 3 The Redemption
Windows
DLC need to be manually enabled if the Deluxe Edition comes from a third party store such as the Humble Store.
Enable DLC from the Deluxe Edition[citation needed]
  1. Launch the Uplay client and click on your avatar in the top right corner
  2. Click Account Information and then My Games
  3. Click Show Key next to Assassin's Creed III Deluxe Edition
  4. Launch the game, enter the Extras menu and then type in the key in Redeem Code
  5. Restart the game

Notes

With the servers shut down, it is impossible to enable the DLCs.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Game Launch Intro[citation needed]
New Game Intro[citation needed]

Patches

Patch 1.06 is the latest version; use the manual download link if the Uplay client does not install it automatically.

The patch is not cumulative, all patches must be downloaded and installed separately.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Assassin's Creed III\Assassin3.ini
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/208480/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <Ubisoft-Connect-folder>\savegames\<user-id>\54\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/208480/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Origin
Steam Cloud
Ubisoft Connect

Video

Single player graphical settings.
Single player graphical settings.
Multiplayer graphical settings.
Multiplayer graphical settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Aspect ratios other than 16:9 are letterboxed. See the WSGF entry.
Multi-monitor
See the WSGF entry.
Ultra-widescreen
Pillarboxed to 16:9. See the WSGF entry.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Use jim2point0's cheat table (requires Cheat Engine).[2]
Windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
FXAA (Normal and High settings) and FXAA + 4x MSAA (Very High setting), TXAA (Nvidia only).
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Enabled by default in Singleplayer. See Vertical sync (Vsync).
60 FPS
120+ FPS
No frame rate or refresh rate cap.[3] Running the game above ~80 FPS causes certain game physics to break. Using a forced framerate cap during instances where these physics apply is recommended.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Widescreen resolution

The in-game resolution option may be missing. Resolutions can be set manually.
Set in Assassin3.ini[4]
  1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Assassin's Creed III\
  2. Open Assassin3.ini.
  3. Set DisplayWidth= and DisplayHeight= to the desired resolution.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Disable Vsync in Singleplayer[citation needed]
  1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Assassin's Creed III\
  2. Open Assassin3.ini.
  3. Set VSync to 0.

Input

Single player input settings.
Single player input settings.
Multiplayer input settings.
Multiplayer input settings.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Combined positive and negative mouse acceleration - can't be disabled. The game ignores slow mouse movement on vertical axis - it won't register until certain speed where it's all of a sudden too sensitive.
Mouse sensitivity
Set separately for each axis
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
In aiming mode there is a radial deadzone of 30% while in looking around mode there is a huge 50% cross deadzone. The deadzone in looking around mode also doesn't work like in most games - it doesn't shift the point of minimum input but instead only ignores lower inputs so at 51% input you get 51% output instead of ~2% output like you would expect. That makes higher sensitivities hard to use because it feels like looking around with arrows.
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration
PlayStation controllers
Generic/other controllers
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Single-player audio settings.
Single-player audio settings.
Multiplayer audio settings.
Multiplayer audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Up to 5.1 output.[5]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
No voice acting despite saying so on Steam.
Brazilian Portuguese
[6]
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Fan translation. See here

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Notes
LAN play
Online play
Shut down on October 1, 2022.[1]

Connection types

VR support

Issues fixed

You can find various fixes in this Ubisoft Support FAQ

AC3SP.exe has stopped working

Delete save file[citation needed]

The save file may be corrupted. Deleting the save file (after backing it up) and disabling automatic cloud save sync in Uplay may fix the crashing.

Low FPS when running two cards in Crossfire (Untested for SLI)

Set to single card mode[citation needed]

If you experience low FPS while running a crossfire setup, try disabling crossfire (running the game with only one card). This can be done under the "Performance" section of the AMD Catalyst Control Center, under the CrossfireX tab.

Low FPS when camera pointed to rich environments in Boston (Nvidia 9/10-series)

Disable MFAA
  1. Open Nvidia Control Panel
  2. Under 3D Settings -> Manage 3D Settings click on the Program Settings-tab.
  3. Select the Assassin's Creed III executable file ac3sp.exe or add it manually.
  4. In the table below scroll to Multi-Frame Sampled AA (MFAA) and set to Off, even if the global setting is already off.
  5. Click Apply and restart your game.

Notes

Even though the Very High anti-aliasing setting is the only one that uses MSAA, this works regardless of your ingame settings.

Crash with faulty module dlumd32.dll

Update DisplayLink driver[7]

Invisible Horse Carriages

The physics of the game is pegged at approximately 60fps so playing at higher FPS causes problems
Lock FPS via VSync

The game has VSync activated by default, so selecting an update frequency of 60Hz in the graphics options with VSync on solves the problem.

Alternatively set the FPS to 60 through the Nvidia Control Panel

Crash right after introduction video

Restore the introduction video

Removing the intro videos may cause the game to crash. If encountered, restore the missing files or verify the game cache via Steam/Uplay.

Display driver has stopped responding with GeForce 5xx GPUs

GPU tweak[8]
  1. Download MSI Afterburner.
  2. Go to Settings tab and tick unlock voltage control and monitoring.
  3. Go back to afterburner and increase slightly voltage - e.g. from default 1050 mV to 1100 mV.

Notes

Alternatively, GPU core clock can be decreased by 50 Hz

Stuck in the Introduction to stockpile and trade

Verify the game cache[9]
  1. Using Steam, right click on the game in the Library tab and select Properties.
  2. Under Local Files click on Verify Integrity of Game Cache.
  3. Launch game but do not load your save file.
  4. Go to Options and reset keyboard and mouse controls to default.
  5. Load your save game using only the keyboard. Do not move mouse cursor at all.

Controller not working

Disable any non-360 controller[10]
  1. Open device manager
  2. Disable any other HID-compliant game controller
Replace in Assassin3.ini
  1. Go to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Assassin's Creed III\ and open Assassin3.ini
  2. Find the line "SelectedInput=KeyboardMouse2" and change it to "SelectedInput=Controller (XBOX 360 For Windows)"
  3. Save and exit

Launching the game with Comodo Firewall crashes the computer, forcing a hard reboot

Add Comodo Firewall exception[citation needed]

The use of Comodo Firewall may cause computer crashes. To solve this:

  1. Open Comodo Firewall
  2. Go to "Advanced Settings"
  3. Select "Defense+" tab
  4. Select "HIPS"
  5. Select "HIPS Rules"
  6. Select the game executable, right click on it "Edit", allow everything.

Notes

This may also work for other Firewall/Antivirus applications.

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.

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

Flickering/stuttering

Run as administrator[citation needed]

Running the game as administrator will fix this issue. If the game was installed via Uplay, you may need to navigate to the installation folder and run the .exe as administrator

Random Freezing for a few seconds

The game freezes randomly for a few seconds until resuming on NVIDIA GeForce cards
This is a Nvidia Driver bug in driver versions 451.48 and 451.67 (newest one at time of writing). Either downgrade to driver version 446.14 or upgrade to GeForce Hotfix Driver Version 451.85 or later, once available[11]
Unconfirmed, this game is in the list mentioned in the Nvidia thread.

Other recommendations

  • Force DirectX10 in the ini file
  • Delete pbsvc.exe in the game files
  • Install game on your C drive.
  • Run game as administrator.
  • Verify Integrity of Game Cache in Steam.
  • Make sure that your firewall is not blocking game executable files including Uplay software.
  • If you have an Nvidia GPU, turn off FXAA in the Nvidia Control Panel profile for the game.[12]

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 10, 11 DX11 is known to cause camera bugs on newer systems. Force DX10 in the INI file for a smoother experience.
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Cutscenes Bink Video
Anti-cheat PunkBuster [13]

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Vista SP2
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 2.66 GHz
AMD Athlon II X4 620 2.6 GHz
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 17 GB
Video card (GPU) 512 MB of VRAM
DirectX 10 compatible
Shader model 4.0 support


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/208480/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (208480) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References