Watch Dogs Legion currently runs on the same visual settings on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, and still maintaining the same performance.
The new video analysis shared by Digital Foundry confirms that the latest entry in the open-world series by Ubisoft works much the same on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 respectively, using similar visual settings.
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Check out the video below:
According to Digital Foundry:
But to address the most burning question, I can confirm right away that Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 do indeed run with practically identical visual settings – an almost complete match for the details locked away in the PC version’s configuration files (which don’t just include PC settings, but every single version). This is most readily evident in side-by-side ray tracing comparisons – the RT effect is identical, but crucially, the cut-off for objects not in the reflection is also the same, meaning matched fidelity in the effect itself, but also identical compromises and optimizations.
If you notice, the only visible differences are puddles missing reflections on Xbox and PlayStation 5 consoles, which in turn, delivers a slightly lower level of texture filtering. Moreover, this happens due to bugs, because the config files are void of anything remotely similar to the bugs.
There seems to be a bug on Xbox Series platforms here for some reason. Series X delivers a slightly lower level of texture filtering than its PS5 equivalent. Again, checking the ‘reference’ config files stashed within the PC version, Series X and PS5 should be using the same ultra-quality setting, while Series S explicitly gets a cut-back rendition of the effect. Beyond that, any differences between the premium consoles are thin on the ground – literally. I noticed that puddles are missing in RT reflections on PS5, but not on Xbox consoles, likely another inconsistency rather than intended behavior.
However, on Xbox Series S, Watch Dogs Legion has similar settings for ray-traced reflections with differences aiming at a lower render internally at 720p and 1080p at checkerboard.
Series S also has the same settings for its ray-traced reflections, but with one crucial difference. The premium consoles target a dynamic 4K rendering resolution for the majority of the presentation, but reflections run at checkerboarded 1080p instead. For Series S with its much lower 1080p target pixel-count, RT reflection resolution drops in step – reflections here are rendered internally at 720p instead, with the same reconstruction technique.
Note that the performance is similar on all three consoles. Again, it’s important to know that Watch Dog Legion runs at a steady 30 FPS on new consoles, which is a boost over the unequal performance of the game on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Everything runs at 30fps on all three systems, with none of the varying levels of slowdown found on the last-gen machines – uninteresting for frame-rate graphs but great for the players. I suspect we were short on both CPU and GPU sides on the last-gen platforms, but the new hardware just powers through, with the DRS system taking care of any potential graphics bottleneck.
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Watch Dogs Legion is now available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and PC.