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Watch Dogs

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Watch_Dogs
Watch_Dogs cover
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
Watch Dogs on HowLongToBeat
Watch Dogs on IGDB
Watch Dogs guide on StrategyWiki
Watch Dogs on MobyGames
Watch Dogs on Wikipedia
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
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Windows
Amazon.com
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Windows
Epic Games Store
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Complete Edition also available.
Windows
GamersGate
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Complete Edition also available.
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Complete Edition also available.
Windows
Green Man Gaming
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Complete Edition also available.
Windows
Humble Store
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Complete Edition also available.
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Icon overlay.png
Complete Edition also available.
Windows
Ubisoft Store
Icon overlay.png
Complete Edition also available. Standard Edition is part of Ubisoft+.
Windows
Origin (unavailable)
Origin
Icon overlay.png
Windows
All versions require Ubisoft Connect and VMProtect 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
Windows
Bad Blood
Windows
Conspiracy
Windows
Season Pass
Windows
White Hat Pack Available only for PlayStation and the no longer sold Deluxe and Gold Editions. Missing files for Ubisoft Connect can be downloaded here
Windows

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]
  1. 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.
Video settings.
Advanced 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]
  1. Go to Flawless Widescreen\PluginCache\FWS_Plugins\Modules\WatchDogs\Dependencies\Scripts\
  2. Open WatchDogs.LUA with Notepad
  3. 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
PlayStation 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
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M
Rapidly changes button prompts

DualShock Button Prompts

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

Mouse smoothing and aim assist

Disable mouse smoothing and aim assist[5]
  1. Go to the configuration file location.
  2. Open GamerProfile.xml with your text editor of choice.
  3. 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.
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.
Network settings.

Multiplayer types

Type Native 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

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]
  1. Go to the save game data location and backup the .save files.
  2. Launch Uplay, click on the Gear icon in the upper right corner and go to Settings.
  3. Check Enable Cloud Saves.
  4. Start the game. A prompt should announce that the cloud and local saves are not in sync.
  5. 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]
  1. Go to the speaker setup screen.
  2. Set your audio channels to anything below 7.1 Surround, then restart your game.

Multiplayer

Unable to connect and play multiplayer

Instructions[9]
  1. Open the Start Menu, type ncpa.cpl and press Enter.
  2. Right click on any unused network adapters and click on Disable.
  3. 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:

  1. 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..."
  2. 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.
  3. The "saving game" animated icon should immediately appear on the left, indicating that the changes are being saved to the Ubisoft cloud.
  4. 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
Processor (CPU) AMD Phenom II X4
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400
System memory (RAM) 6 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
A 64-bit operating system is required.


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>/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

  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
  3. 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.
  4. Is it true watch dogs is compatible with HDR? - Steam - last accessed on 2023-03-04
  5. Reddit - Mouse Acceleration Fix - last accessed on May 2023
  6. PC Gaming Surround Sound Round-up - last accessed on May 2023
  7. Reddit - Lost Savegame Data - last accessed on May 2023
  8. Get rid of Ultra-setting stuttering by adding "-disablepagefilecheck" to a shortcut to the game. - Reddit - last accessed on 2023-03-04
  9. Reddit - Multiplayer Fix - last accessed on May 2023
  10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F0R1LbvknA
  11. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw7t33uhcm0