Watch Dogs

Watch Dogs
Watch Dogs	2014
Watch Dogs 2	2016
Watch Dogs: Legion	2020

Watch Dogs is a singleplayer and multiplayer third-person action and open world game in the Watch Dogs series.

A companion app was available for Android and iOS, which released on May 24, 2014. It has since been removed from both platforms' storefronts in 2017 and shortly after, fully discontinued.^[1] As a result, trying to go into the in-game Grid mode throws a Currently Unavailable error.^[2]

General information

PC Report

Official forums

Official Discord server

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Amazon.com
Epic Games Store		Complete Edition also available.
GamersGate		Complete Edition also available.
		Complete Edition also available.
Green Man Gaming		Complete Edition also available.
Humble Store		Complete Edition also available.
Steam		Complete Edition also available.
Ubisoft Store		Complete Edition also available. Standard Edition is part of Ubisoft+.
Origin (unavailable)

All versions require Ubisoft Connect DRM.

Version differences

The Complete Edition includes the Deluxe Version of the game and Season Pass.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Access Granted Pack
Bad Blood
Conspiracy
Season Pass
White Hat Pack	Available only for PlayStation and the no longer sold Deluxe and Gold Editions.

Essential improvements

Watch Dogs Settings Configuration Tool

Allows for extensive settings changes not available ingame in a convenient GUI.

Skip intro videos

Skip intros^{[citation needed]}
Install the No Intro Mod.

TheWorse Mod

Restores E3 2012/2013 visual effects.

Some of the restored effects may appear buggy, such as headlight shadows.

Significantly reduces Field of View. See Field of view (FOV) to change this.

Uses the built-in patch mechanism that Ubisoft provided and incorporates the version 1.3 patch.

The version with MalDo textures allows ultra textures on GPUs with less than 3GB of vram. It removes mipmaps, introducing aliasing on distant textures.

Game data

Configuration file location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Watch_Dogs\<user-id>\GamerProfile.xml
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/243470/pfx/^{[Note 1]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<Ubisoft-Connect-folder>\savegames\<user-id>\274\
Steam	<Ubisoft-Connect-folder>\savegames\<user-id>\541\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/243470/pfx/^{[Note 1]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
Origin
Steam Cloud		Reliant on Uplay for cloud saving.
Ubisoft Connect

Video

Video settings.

Advanced video settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor		Use Flawless Widescreen.
Ultra-widescreen		Use Flawless Widescreen.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Use Flawless Widescreen. To set custom FOV value see Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Fullscreen only if set to native monitor resolution
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		TXAA (Nvidia only), FXAA, SMAA, up to 8x MSAA and 2x SSAA. SSAA can only be enabled by changing `SuperSampling ="0"` to `="1"` in `GamerProfile.xml`.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Anything higher than 60 FPS causes Aiden's coat physics to behave erratic.^[3]
High dynamic range display (HDR)		^[4]

Field of view (FOV)

Flawless Widescreen^{[citation needed]}

Go to Flawless Widescreen\PluginCache\FWS_Plugins\Modules\WatchDogs\Dependencies\Scripts\
Open WatchDogs.LUA with Notepad
Find fFOVMax and change Max to whatever desired.

Horizontal FOV is used. Recommend changing from 110 to 120 for 16:9. Setting the FOV too high may cause the scope on sniper rifles to disappear.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		`← Backspace`, `Page Up`, `Page Down` and `↵ Enter` are not bindable.
Mouse acceleration		Uses forced mouse acceleration.
Mouse sensitivity		No true mouse input as the mouse emulates an analog joystick.
Mouse input in menus		Implemented with a software cursor, which is susceptible to framerate changes and will feel different from the normal OS/hardware cursor.
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Both X and Y axes can be inverted independently.
Controller
Controller support		XInput only.
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Default and three left handed presets.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		Both X and Y axes can be inverted independently.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Generic/other controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Additional information
Button prompts		Use DualShock Button Prompts mod.
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M		Rapidly changes button prompts

DualShock Button Prompts

This mod adds PlayStation buttons, can be installed with Watch Dogs Mod Installer.

The keyboard controls menu.
The keyboard rebinding menu.
General gameplay menu.
The controller menu.
The controller controls menu.

Mouse smoothing and aim assist

Disable mouse smoothing and aim assist^[5]

Go to the configuration file location.
Open GamerProfile.xml with your text editor of choice.
Find the following lines and set them to these values.

Sensitivity="1"
UseMouseSmooth="0" 
Smoothness="0"
selAimAssist="-"

4. Add this to your configuration file https://www.reddit.com/r/watch_dogs/comments/43fzl5/it_took_just_almost_two_years_to_find_a_fix_for/

Add the new value UseMouseAcceleration="0" just before UseMouseSmooth="0"
then set MaxPrerenderedFrames="X" to 1

Go into the GamerProfile.xml file properties and make it read-only.

Audio

Language, subtitles and volume control settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, songs, sound effects and voices.
Surround sound		Auto configures up to 5.1 output^[6]
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		Always enabled.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

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

Network

Network settings.

Multiplayer types

Type	Players	Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play	8	Versus, Co-op Drop in and drop out invasion mode for the singleplayer. Freeroam, online decryption (deathmatch), online race. 2-player co-op missions in Bad Blood DLC.

Connection types

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

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Native 3D
Nvidia 3D Vision		See Watch Dogs - DX11 3DMigoto 3D Vision Fix.
vorpX		G3D Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues fixed

Continue button greyed out

Revert to cloud saves^[7]
Go to the save game data location and backup the `.save` files. Launch Uplay, click on the Gear icon in the upper right corner and go to Settings. Check Enable Cloud Saves. Start the game. A prompt should announce that the cloud and local saves are not in sync. Select the cloud save game then play.

Stuttering on Ultra settings

Use the `-disablepagefilecheck` command line argument^[8]
Parameter most likely works by not preallocating the system's page file but instead write into it only when needed.^{[citation needed]}

Audio

Voice audio not playing during cutscenes

Instructions^{[citation needed]}
Go to the speaker setup screen. Set your audio channels to anything below 7.1 Surround, then restart your game.

Multiplayer

Unable to connect and play multiplayer

Instructions^[9]

Open the Start Menu, type ncpa.cpl and press ↵ Enter.
Right click on any unused network adapters and click on Disable.
Restart Uplay.

Notes

Make sure to re-enable the previously disabled network adapters after exiting the game to avoid various issues with applications that rely on these adapters.

Bedbug got killed on Mission "Not a Job for Tyrone" when you begin to hack the house

Instructions^[10]^[11]

Before hacking the house, shoot at the wall of Bedbug's house until everyone is screaming and run away.
When everyone has left, start hacking.

Notes

There is a bug in-game that makes the ground of Bedbug's house disappear so he will fall out of the map during hacking. After shooting at the wall, the ground won't disappear or Bedbug will reposition.

Unable to remap keys if Bad Blood is not installed

Workaround trick^{[citation needed]}

If you do not have the Bad Blood DLC installed, a bug prevents you from remapping any of the keyboard controls. In this situation, there are four unlabeled actions at the bottom of the list can't be assigned a key; as a result when you try to save other remapping changes, the game gives you a "Some actions are unmapped" error and refuses to save your changes. However, as long as you have Ubisoft in online mode and configured to sync saves to the Ubisoft cloud then the game does still save the changes to the Ubisoft cloud. So you can work around the problem with these steps:

After making the remapping changes you want, when you click on 'Back', you will see an error that says "Some actions are unmapped! Press Ok to return and edit your controls or Cancel..."
Do not click on 'Cancel'; this will trash your changes. Instead, click on 'OK' which will cancel the changes locally and return you to the 'Customize Controls' page.
The "saving game" animated icon should immediately appear on the left, indicating that the changes are being saved to the Ubisoft cloud.
Once the animated icon disappears, hit 'Alt-F4' to force close the game. Then restart the game and it will load your new controls from the Ubisoft cloud without checking for those four unlabeled controls.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11
Shader Model support	5

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Bink Video	v1.992a

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Vista SP2	7 SP1, 8
Processor (CPU)	AMD Phenom II X4 Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400	AMD FX-8350 X8 Intel Core i7 3770
System memory (RAM)	6 GB	8 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	25 GB
Video card (GPU)	AMD Radeon HD 5770 Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 1 GB of VRAM DirectX 11 compatible Shader model 5.0 support	AMD Radeon HD 7850 Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti 2 GB of VRAM

A 64-bit operating system is required.

Notes

↑ ^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>/243470/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (243470) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

↑ Reddit post about the app by an Ubisoft employee on r/watchdogs - last accessed on 2021-12-25
↑ Clarification by an Ubisoft employee to a comment - last accessed on 2021-12-25
↑ Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-03-04
Aiden's coat moves all over the place as its physics bug out when above 60 FPS. Only setting a frame rate limit of 60 or lower fixes it.
↑ Is it true watch dogs is compatible with HDR? - Steam - last accessed on 2023-03-04
↑ Reddit - Mouse Acceleration Fix - last accessed on May 2023
↑ PC Gaming Surround Sound Round-up - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Reddit - Lost Savegame Data - last accessed on May 2023
↑ Get rid of Ultra-setting stuttering by adding "-disablepagefilecheck" to a shortcut to the game. - Reddit - last accessed on 2023-03-04
↑ Reddit - Multiplayer Fix - last accessed on May 2023
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F0R1LbvknA
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw7t33uhcm0

[Proton_path_note-3] 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>/243470/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (243470) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

[1] Reddit post about the app by an Ubisoft employee on r/watchdogs - last accessed on 2021-12-25

[2] Clarification by an Ubisoft employee to a comment - last accessed on 2021-12-25

[4] Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-03-04
Aiden's coat moves all over the place as its physics bug out when above 60 FPS. Only setting a frame rate limit of 60 or lower fixes it.

[5] Is it true watch dogs is compatible with HDR? - Steam - last accessed on 2023-03-04

[6] Reddit - Mouse Acceleration Fix - last accessed on May 2023

[7] PC Gaming Surround Sound Round-up - last accessed on May 2023

[8] Reddit - Lost Savegame Data - last accessed on May 2023

[9] Get rid of Ultra-setting stuttering by adding "-disablepagefilecheck" to a shortcut to the game. - Reddit - last accessed on 2023-03-04

[10] Reddit - Multiplayer Fix - last accessed on May 2023

[11] ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F0R1LbvknA

[12] ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw7t33uhcm0

[1]

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[Note 1]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

Developers

	Ubisoft Montreal
	Ubisoft Quebec
	Ubisoft Bucharest
	Ubisoft Reflections
Bad Blood	Ubisoft Paris
Bad Blood	Ubisoft Annecy
Publishers
	Ubisoft
Engines
	Disrupt
Release dates
Windows	May 27, 2014
Reception
Metacritic	77
OpenCritic	79
IGDB	81
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Open world
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Contemporary, North America, Sci-fi
Series	Watch Dogs