Arriving right on time for gamers who might have the holiday off for Thanksgiving, Ubisoft has just released a new update for the latest Assassin's Creed game. Normally, these patches are merely bugfixes, but Assassin's Creed Valhalla's 1.04 patch introduces more than just stability. A quality/performance mode toggle has been added to the game, allowing players on the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 to choose between higher framerates or better graphical quality. The former option makes the game run at adaptive resolution in order to keep the framerate locked at 60fps, while the latter maintains 30fps, "at the maximum resolution setting", dependent on platform. By default, the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 use the performance mode, and the Xbox Series S focuses on quality.

Patch Sizes and Deployment Timing:

• Xbox Series X|S: ~5.3 GB @ 1pm CET | 7am EDT | 4am PDT | 11pm AEDT
• Xbox One: ~4.9 GB @ 1pm CET | 7am EDT | 4am PDT | 11pm AEDT
• PlayStation 5: ~2.5 GB @ 1pm CET | 7am EDT | 4am PDT | 11pm AEDT
• PlayStation 4: ~4.1 GB @ 1pm CET | 7am EDT | 4am PDT | 11pm AEDT
• PC: ~4.3 GB @ 1pm CET | 7am EDT | 4am PDT | 11pm AEDT

Please note that these timings are estimates and subject to change.

Check out the most notable changes with 1.0.4 below.

CONTENT
Quality/Performance Mode Introduction

Added an option to the game that allows players to choose between Performance or Visual Quality.

Feature breakdown:

• This option is available for Xbox Series X|S & PlayStation 5.
• Choosing Performance allows the game to adapt the resolution and graphic settings to maintain 60 FPS.
• Choosing Quality enables the game to run maximum resolution and graphic settings while maintaining 30 FPS.
• Default values since the launch of the game are as follows:
• Xbox Series X / PlayStation 5: Performance
• Xbox Series S: Quality

Miscellaneous

• Added a new background image to the title screen.
• Added various VFX to enhance visuals.
• Added an option that will automatically assign all nodes on the path when acquiring a central skill.
• Added rune categories to the rune menu. All runes are now categorized in Weapon & Armor runes.
• Added a warning when switching from a language that supports TTS to one that doesn't.
• Sliders can now be moved with left/right arrows on M&K and controllers.
• Increased fabric limit to 82.
• Added fabric to traders once the settlement has reached Level 6.
• Added offering altar requirements to the world map.

Balancing

• Updated gear quality and gear to their correct values.
• Added Assassination damage stats on the character stats page.
• Removed duplicate gear from inventory.
• Heavy and light attack stats will now adjust correctly based on acquired skill nodes.
• Heavy attack modifiers will no longer be applied to range attacks.

Game improvements

Performance and Stability

• Improved stability and performance.
• (Xbox Series) Improved experience on Xbox Series S | X consoles including screen tearing
• (PC) Addressed a VRAM/RAM leakage issue when alt tabbing to desktop.

Save Games

• Corrected some instances where Load Game would not display save games correctly.
• Renamed Cloud saves to make them more distinguishable from regular saves.
  • Previously the cloud save was only highlighted with a Cloud icon. Now they’ll be called, for example, “Manual Save Cloud”
• Removed Cloud saves from the Save menu. This will ensure that it cannot be overwritten unintentionally.
• Added a notification when a cloud save retrieval has failed.

Graphics, Audio, Animation

• Addressed various graphical issues across the board.
• Addressed various FX issues.
• Addressed various instances of clipping issues.
• Addressed various visual issues with Eivor's cloak.
• Addressed various instances of player or NPC animation issues.
• Addressed various audio issues.
• Addressed various lighting issues.
• Shadow resolution on High will now use correct values.

World

• Addressed various texture or object placement issues.
• Addressed some instances where the player could become stuck in specific locations.
• Fish in Norway will now spawn in bad weather. Yeah, we had to read this one twice too.
• Crows will no longer randomly fall from the sky in Asgard. *Bad omens, huh?*

Gameplay, Combat, AI

• Addressed various bow-aiming issues.
• Improved NPC and Boss behavior across the board.
• NPCs will now react to the player stealing...so think twice before stealing!
• Addressed an issue where dogs would start levitating when Eivor starts to pet them.
• Blocking Springald projectiles will now consume stamina, as intended.
• Zealots that were hit with a sleep dart can now be stun attacked. Sleep tight.
• Zealots will no longer heal themselves while in player vicinity.
• Guards who clearly saw Eivor shoot their ally will now turn hostile. *presses emergency button*
• Guards will now hear the impact of dead bodies dropping to the ground.
• Improved guard reactions to whistling.
• Improved disguise behavior in distrust zones.
• Shooting bows from the Longship now consumes arrows.
• Players will now be able to air-assassinate sleeping NPCs. *Savage...*
• Improved fish-reeling behavior.
• Addressed an issue where the horse wouldn't use the gallop animation in combat.
• The crowd will now cheer during drinking games. *You better.*
• Reworked sliding mechanic.

Quests, World Events, Side Activities

• Addressed an issue where the assassination sequence wouldn't play for some targets.
• Addressed various texture issues during cutscenes.
• Addressed various issues with quests or world events that prevented players from completing them.
• Players can no longer use the fishing tool or the horn during the drunk walk with Tewdr - *you're drunk, go home.*
• Sub quests will now display the correct "Part of" parent quest.
• The memory stream can now be chosen when starting a New Game if Hold Alternative option is set to ON.
• Increased frequency of experienced travelers.

User Interface / HUD

• Addressed various issues with the User Interface/HUD.
• Addressed various localization issues.
• Addressed various Mouse- and Keyboard-related input issues
• Secrets will now be discovered when synchronizing a Viewpoint. (This does not apply to Pathfinder difficulty)
• Experienced travelers are now highlighted on the world map and on the compass when in proximity.
• Addressed an issue where the map wouldn't update once players got intel from an experienced traveler.
• Increased Odin's Sight radius and enemies will now be highlighted for longer.
• Improved radius in which Synin reveals keys.
• Reduced Synin's view distance of materials.
• Improved the objective beam behavior.
• Settlement building beams can now be seen using Odin's Sight.
• Improved enemy target-lock mechanic.
• "Sell all trinkets" will now be greyed out after all trinkets were sold. *Cha-ching!*
• Bosses’ power levels will now be displayed on their health gauge. This does not apply to regular enemies.
• Regular brightness settings will no longer apply to HDR exposure settings.
• The Codex will no longer foreshadow or spoil some events.
• (A11y) Desktop entries and content on Layla's laptop are now narrated when Menu Narration is ON.
• (A11y) Colorblind filters are now applied correctly to mini-quest log and raid tutorial.

Abilities and Skills

• Addressed an issue where players couldn't use any abilities anymore when the Dive of the Valkyries ability was interrupted.
• Ally NPCs or horses can no longer trigger body traps. *Some people just want to see the world burn, huh?*
• Addressed a display issue where the poisonous powder trap could become invisible after using Synin.
• Adjusted chain-assassination behavior. Players will no longer be able to assassinate a target who was tackled to the ground.
• The Secondary hand slot will no longer be available when a two-handed weapon is equipped (pre-heavy dual-wield skill).
• Flaming powder traps will now explode when walking over the arrow.

Raids

• "Force Open" will now be displayed correctly even if nearby allies are in combat.
• Addressed an issue where allies would not help Eivor to open a door during Raids.
• Allies will now return to the longship once a raid is complete.
• Added a timer until players can restart a raid that was just completed.

Photo Mode

• Effect values can now be adjusted with arrow keys or WASD.
• The no-filter option will now work correctly.
• The Territory panel is no longer displayed in Photo Mode.
• Changing filters will now work as intended.
• Addressed an issue where an Online Service Error could occur temporarily when looking at photos on the world map.
• Snow FX will now center to the camera instead of the player in Photo Mode.

System

• (PC) Updated readme files to show correct PC specifications.
• Added additional checkpoints to some boss fights.
• Addressed an issue that led controllers to vibrate constantly.
• Addressed an issue where players could become stuck in a black screen after closing the menu with start.
• (PC) Updated the autodetect config for Nvidia Geforce 1650 S.

Source

 

[Silent_Gunner]

DAE think that these patch sizes are a bit big, even for the new generation of consoles which I've been told patches would definitely never be what they are with games on the 8th generation of consoles?

 

[Armadillo]

DAE think that these patch sizes are a bit big, even for the new generation of consoles which I've been told patches would definitely never be what they are with games on the 8th generation of consoles?

Was always bs, never going to go down. Last gen the sizes were alledgely because of duplicate files for slow mechanical hdd, this gen will be because of higher quality assets. Never going to go down until you are allowed to pick what you need (so dump languages you don't need, dump 4k stuff if you are on 1080p).

In this case though, I don't think 4GB is excessive for a patch.


Anyway 60fps , I doubt it will once the cross gen games go away, but I really hope this trend of console games having a 60fps option continues.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Was always bs, never going to go down. Last gen the sizes were alledgely because of duplicate files for slow mechanical hdd, this gen will be because of higher quality assets. Never going to go down until you are allowed to pick what you need (so dump languages you don't need, dump 4k stuff if you are on 1080p).

In this case though, I don't think 4GB is excessive for a patch.


Anyway 60fps , I doubt it will once the cross gen games go away, but I really hope this trend of console games having a 60fps option continues.

Srsly? Multiple languages?

And yeah, 4K/higher res textures/models/lossless audio/whatever should always be an option. That last bit is apparently part of the reason COD Modern Warfare 2019 was eating up so much storage space on people's HDDs.

 

[gbadl]

How is series s set on quality by default and the other more powerful consoles on performance. Doesn't make sense.

 

[Chary]

Srsly? Multiple languages?

If you ever get, ah, repacked...backups of PC games, they give you the option to trim out a lot of data, mostly gigs worth of audio and text of all the languages that games come in. It can actually take up a decent amount of room.

 

[AshuraZro]

How is series s set on quality by default and the other more powerful consoles on performance. Doesn't make sense.

Guessing that Series S running at its lower target resolution is capable of a more solid and stable experience at the higher graphic setting. That said, the naming of "quality" and "performance" has rubbed me the wrong way since I stepped foot in the new consoles. I wish that some games give an "Advanced" button and let me toggle some more options closer to a PC. I'm running the Series X on a 1440p 120hz display and I don't care if the games run internally at 4k. Although such options may not be allowed by the platform holders and I could understand that its tough enough to target multiple baselines on console as it is.

 

[gbadl]

Guessing that Series S running at its lower target resolution is capable of a more solid and stable experience at the higher graphic setting. That said, the naming of "quality" and "performance" has rubbed me the wrong way since I stepped foot in the new consoles. I wish that some games give an "Advanced" button and let me toggle some more options closer to a PC. I'm running the Series X on a 1440p 120hz display and I don't care if the games run internally at 4k. Although such options may not be allowed by the platform holders and I could understand that its tough enough to target multiple baselines on console as it is.

Thanks I forgot about the resolution limit. Sweet, I guess I can get max quality at 1080P as that is the most I can do on TV's right now. If only the S had a BLURAY drive or gets hacked, it would be sweet.

 

[sarkwalvein]

How is series s set on quality by default and the other more powerful consoles on performance. Doesn't make sense.

Performance means do the best you can, and try to keep 60FPS.

Quality means do the best you can, and try to keep 30FPS.

I assure you "quality" mode (i.e. keep 30FPS) has way lower graphical settings in Xbox Series S, than the 60FPS mode does in the X.

 

[Karones]

DAE think that these patch sizes are a bit big, even for the new generation of consoles which I've been told patches would definitely never be what they are with games on the 8th generation of consoles?

I think they won't change much because of the higher res textures and all, but this is game isn't a full next gen game, it was made for last gen and has been in dev for a few years so they're still using techniques for dealing with HDD speeds and such

 

[Deleted User]

So basically... it's less Assassins Creed. Huh. Sorry Assassins Creed fans!

 

[Spider_Man]

Im guessing this is more aimed towards the s series with its cheaper hardware....

But fuck me if a game at launch has to offer a patch to offer performace over graphics, how the fuck is it a next gen system.

Whats going to happen in 3 years time, ohhh yea exactly what weve seen already.

Multi platform games using a third party graphic engine that isnt tailored to the actual consoles hardware and push to its limits.

This is why i have no interest in either next gen consoles.

Its games are not that much of an improvement, this can be used when pc gamers rant master race playing a console game ported to pc....

Sits back, looks at the two, see little difference, looks at your cost compared to a console thats 5 years old and achieving nearly same results.

Yup shut up n sit the fuck down, the extra cost isnt justified.

 

[air2004]

The AC series has become to repetitive as of late. Is this release any different?

 

[Bladexdsl]

don't worry they got plenty more bugs to fix yet!

 

[deSSy2724]

Was always bs, never going to go down. Last gen the sizes were alledgely because of duplicate files for slow mechanical hdd, this gen will be because of higher quality assets. Never going to go down until you are allowed to pick what you need (so dump languages you don't need, dump 4k stuff if you are on 1080p).

In this case though, I don't think 4GB is excessive for a patch.


Anyway 60fps , I doubt it will once the cross gen games go away, but I really hope this trend of console games having a 60fps option continues.

Im yet to see a "next gen" game with reduced size (overall). that looks really like a next gen game and you do know that this is not the whole story? (multiple vs single assets blah blah).

Thing is, there were some game patches which reduced the overall game size and improved the loading times on BOTH HDDs and SSDs......... games still dont rely on sequential reads for the most part, unless that happens you wont use the true full potential of high speed PCI-e 3.0 and especially PCI-e 4.0 SSDs. Example, in some newer games you only have 15 - 25 seconds less loading times on SSDs compared to HDDs, while on other ones you can have over 1 min less loading times, in most games SATA SSDs and nVME SSDs will give you almost the same loading times..... it really depends on how the games are made from the ground-up.

!!!! IMPORTANT !!!!
BTW removing some languages and removing some "parts" of the game (like removing online mode, leaving offline mode only) is not the "low size games" we are talking about...... that you can already do with almost all the PC games since 80 - 90s...... just look at the repacks (Fitgirl for example) where you choose what to install, thats nothing new.

So, basically 50 GB next gen games with true next gen visuals will never happen...... games will be 100 - 150 GB minimum at best case scenario (I mean those games developed with "real life like" visuals in mind).

 

[Bladexdsl]

The games so broken. Can't believe you guys ain't talking about the Draw Distance (LOD)... it's like looking at ps2 graphics..