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Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 08:37, 22 July 2018 by Garrbot (talk | contribs) (updated template usage)
Template:Infobox game/row/winporter
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag cover
Developers
Ubisoft Montreal
Publishers
Ubisoft
Engines
AnvilNext
Release dates
Windows November 19, 2013
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag guide on StrategyWiki
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag on Wikipedia
Assassin's Creed 2008
Assassin's Creed II 2010
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood 2011
Assassin's Creed: Revelations 2011
Assassin's Creed III 2012
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag 2013
Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD 2014
Assassin's Creed: Freedom Cry 2014
Assassin's Creed: Pirates 2014
Assassin's Creed Unity 2014
Assassin's Creed Rogue 2015
Assassin's Creed Chronicles (series)
Assassin's Creed Syndicate 2015
Assassin's Creed Origins 2017
Discovery Tour (series)
Assassin's Creed Odyssey 2018
Assassin's Creed III Remastered 2019
Assassin's Creed III: Liberation Remastered 2019
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2020
Assassin's Creed Mirage 2023

General information

PC Report
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
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Windows
Amazon.com
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Windows
GamersGate
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Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
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Windows
Incorrect store name. See here for available options.
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Windows
Green Man Gaming
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Windows
Humble Store
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Windows
Origin
Origin
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Windows
Steam
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Windows
Ubisoft Store
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Deluxe Edition
Windows
All versions require Ubisoft Connect DRM.

Version differences

The Gold Edition is a complete edition containing the base game and all DLC. Only available in NA.
The Deluxe Edition includes Aveline DLC, The Castaway's Prize and Illustrious Pirates Pack.
Freedom Cry is available as both DLC and a standalone game.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Season Pass
Windows
Kraken Ship Pack Season Pass exclusive.
Windows
Freedom Cry Pack Also available as a standalone game.
Windows
The Castaway's Prize Deluxe and Gold Edition exclusive.
Windows
Aveline DLC Deluxe and Gold Edition exclusive.
Windows
Time saver: Resources Pack
Windows
Time saver: Collectibles Pack
Windows
Time saver: Activities Pack
Windows
Death Vessel Pack
Windows
Crusader & Florentine Pack
Windows
Time saver: Technology Pack
Windows
MP Character Pack: Blackbeard's Wrath
Windows
Illustrious Pirates Pack
Windows
Guild of Rogues
Windows

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

File removal[citation needed]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Go into videos (for single player) or multi\videos (for multiplayer).
  3. Rename, delete or move these files:
ubi_logo.bik
TWIMTBP.bik
abstergo_logo.bik
ac4bf_logo.bik
warning_disclaimer.bik
warning_disclaimer.bik is in a subfolder that corresponds with the set language.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/242050/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <Ubisoft-Connect-folder>\savegames\<user-id>\273\
<Ubisoft-Connect-folder>\savegames\<user-id>\437\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/242050/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Origin
Steam Cloud
Ubisoft Connect
Uplay cloud synchronization was disabled sometime in 2013.[1]

Video settings

Graphics settings.
Graphics settings.

Template:Video settings

Windowed

Run patcher[2]
  1. Download AC4 Window Mode Patcher.
  2. Copy it to the installation folder and launch it.
  3. Type y and press Enter to start patching.
Use WinExplorer[citation needed]
  1. Download WinExplorer.
  2. Run game and choose a resolution of your choice.
  3. Alt+Tab to the desktop.
  4. Open WinExplorer and select AC4 from list of running programs.
  5. Head over to style tab and tick WS_DISABLED and WS_CHILD checkboxes.

Notes

You may want to further customize the window style with WS_THICKFRAME, WS_BORDER or WS_DLGFRAME options

Input settings

Controls settings.
Controls settings.

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Audio settings.
Audio settings.
General settings.
General settings.

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

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

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
Online play
8

Connection types

VR support

Issues unresolved

Mouse and keyboard do not work

Might be related to either Logitech or Steam Controller drivers, as the game improperly detects the input device.[3]

Issues fixed

Crash when installed in a Storage Space

The game will refuse to run when installed on a drive which is managed by a Storage Space on Windows 8 and later.
Creating a junction to the folder "sounddata" to a non-Windows Storage Space drive seems to solve the problem[citation needed]
Installing the Game on a drive that is not a Storage Space will fix this issue[citation needed]

Game freezes on AMD GPUs

This issue first manifests upon starting a new file when the game freezes on a black screen with the 'saving' icon.
Avoid using MSAA or EQAA[4]

The image freezes but the game still runs in the background

Sometimes the game might appear to be frozen, but you can still hear the sound and the HUD works.[5]
Enabling "Volumetric Fog" and / or disabling "FXAA" fixes the issue[citation needed]
"Volumetric Fog" may cause artifacts on screen edges in-game, Use Driver AA instead if MSAA is being used.[6]

FPS drops to 30 when Vsync is enabled

This is caused by lack of triple buffering in the game.
Use D3DOverrider to force triple buffering[7]
Don't force VSync in D3DOverrider, only triple buffering. Enable VSync in game options (or force it in Nvidia control panel or Nvidia Inspector).
If you're using SweetFX or another injector, this fix will not work. Use the workaround below.
Use RadeonPro to force triple buffering[citation needed]
  1. Download and install RadeonPro.
  2. Launch RadeonPro.
  3. Add a profile pointing to AC4BFSP.exe or AC4BFMP.exe.
  4. Select the exe profile by clicking on it.
  5. Go to the tweaks tab leave vsync to driver default and check triple buffering.

Notes

Tested on Win8.1 with CFX 7970s.[citation needed]
Use Ctrl-Alt-Del workaround to force triple buffering[citation needed]
This method has only been tested on Windows 7 SP1 with an Nvidia graphics card and on Windows 10 with an AMD graphics card.
  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete.
  2. Click the cancel button to return to your desktop.
  3. Go back to the game by clicking its icon on the taskbar.
Alt+Tab does NOT work.
This workaround makes possible the use of SweetFX or other injectors with triple buffering.

Nvidia PhysX performance issues

Disable Shadowplay[8]
Change process affinity[8]
  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to open Task Manager.
  2. Go to the Details tab.
  3. Right click ac4bfsp.exe and select "Set affinity".
  4. Uncheck the last CPU core and hit OK.
  5. Go back to the same menu and re-enable it.
  6. Close Task Manager.

Nvidia PhysX on newer GPUs even after the above workaround

Remove old PhysX files[8]
  1. Install updated PhysX drivers
  2. Go to the <path-to-game>
  3. Delete or rename PhysX3_x86.dll, PhysX3Common_x86.dll, PhysX3Cooking_x86.dll, PhysX3Gpu_x86.dll, PhysXDevice.dll
  4. This will disable PhysX in the game. This can also be achieved by simply disabling PhysX in the in-game menu.

Nvidia broken PhysX on newer GPUs fix (Windows 7)

Install older PhysX driver
  1. Uninstall any existing instance of PhysX from your computer.
  2. Install version 9.14 of PhysX. Earlier version are not supported, and later versions are broken. PhysX 9.14.0702

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 11
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Vista SP2
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 2.6 GHz
AMD Athlon II X4 620 2.6 GHz
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 30 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce GTX 260
ATI Radeon HD 4870
512 MB of VRAM
Shader model 4.0 support
Supported video cards include: Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or better, GT400, GT500, GT600, GT700 series or AMD Radeon HD4870 or better, HD5000, HD6000, HD7000 series.
Laptop graphics cards may work but are not officially supported.
Dual core processors will, despite the minimum requirements, most likely work.[9] (only LGA1150/LGA1155 dual core processors will, under most circumstances, deliver a playable frame rate - LGA775/LGA1156 and AM2/AM2+/AM3/FM1/FM2 dual core CPUs are unlikely to suffice due to significantly lower IPC)

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>/242050/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (242050) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References