An Interesting Feature in Assassin’s Creed Shadows Gives PC Users a Clear Edge Over Consoles

When players think about Assassin’s Creed, it’s hard not to imagine its fluid gameplay and meticulously detailed environments, from the bustling streets of ancient cities to the landscapes filled with towering structures. But how do developers manage to keep these worlds so alive without dropping frames?

Enter dynamic resolution, the powerful feature that ensures a seamless experience, no matter how intense the action gets. While it isn’t a new concept, its implementation in Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes things up a notch, especially when we consider the distinct advantage it offers to PC players over consoles.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows promises an immersive experience with ever-changing weather, complex crowd systems, and intricate environmental details that truly bring the setting of Feudal Japan to life. From the vibrant seasons to the crowd’s reaction, it is pushing the limits of the hardware.

The dynamic nature of these environments can put immense pressure on the hardware, especially on lower-to-mid-range PCs. The solution? Dynamic resolution. It has become part of modern gaming as it automatically adjusts the resolution of the game depending on performance demands.

If the action is intense, like a massive battle with explosions everywhere, the resolution might temporarily drop to maintain a smooth frame rate. On the flip side, when the game is a little quieter, the resolution can ramp up to provide crisper, more detailed visuals.

This keeps the gameplay smooth and the environment detailed without any compromise. In an interview with GamesBeat, Pierre Fortin, a technical architect at Ubisoft revealed that Shadows takes full advantage of this technology. He said:

Dynamic resolution is interesting. […] We use dynamic resolution to maximize–you might call it a return on investment per pixel. Sometimes you need to run a lot of computation to output a certain pixel value.

This shows that the developers want to ensure that the game runs efficiently across a range of hardware setups. Sometimes, rendering ultra-high-quality pixels can be a hefty task for even a well-decked-out machine, so dynamic resolution helps dial things back to keep everything running smoothly without sacrificing the overall experience.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting. While the dynamic resolution is great for all players, it’s a feature that benefits PC gamers. Why? Because PCs aren’t locked into one fixed setup, they can flex their muscles by using the feature to keep the game running at high frame rates.

On the other hand, consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, though impressive in their own right, have a fixed hardware configuration. This means that while they do benefit from dynamic resolution, they can’t take full advantage of this feature.

Essentially, consoles are working with the hardware they’re given, so the dynamic resolution will be limited by the console’s hardware. So, when it comes to utilizing dynamic resolution to its fullest potential, the advantage is clear: PC players will get the most out of this feature.

In the battle of consoles versus PCs, Assassin’s Creed Shadows offers a feature that tilts the scale in favor of PC players, essentially giving the master race extra visual and performance gains.

In the end, if you’re playing on a PC, consider yourself lucky, dynamic resolution might just be your ticket to a superior Assassin’s Creed experience.