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Assassin's Creed

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Assassins Creed: Director's Cut
Assassins Creed: Director's Cut cover
Developers
Ubisoft Montreal
Publishers
Ubisoft
Akella
Engines
Scimitar
Release dates
Windows April 8, 2008
Reception
Metacritic 79
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Modes Singleplayer
Perspectives Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, Stealth
Themes Historical, Medieval, Middle East
Series Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed on HowLongToBeat
Assassin's Creed on IGDB
Assassin's Creed guide on StrategyWiki
Assassin's Creed on MobyGames
Assassin's Creed 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

Assassin's Creed is a singleplayer third-person action and stealth game in the Assassin's Creed series.

Key points

Only the PC version is subtitled Director's Cut Edition and includes new types of investigation missions, as well as reworked existing side missions. These changes were made to replace some of the original console missions that were criticized for being repetitive, but the total number of available missions is the same.[1]

General information

Official forums
GOG.com Community Discussions
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
SafeDisc v4.85 DRM[Note 1].
Windows
Retail
DRM-free
The version included in the bundle of AC1 and AC2 (ACB3854AT-INL) is entirely DRM-free.
Windows
Amazon.co.uk
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Windows
Epic Games Store
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Windows
GamersGate
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Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Windows
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Humble Store
DRM-free
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Ubisoft Store
DRM-free after installation through Ubisoft Connect client (notes may include more details)
Included with Ubisoft+.
Game does not require Uplay to run.[4]
Windows
Amazon.com (unavailable)
DRM-free
Windows
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
[5]
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Essential improvements

Patches

The v1.02 Patch fixes various problems. Versions at Steam and GOG are already patched.
This patch removes DirectX 10.1 support.[6]
The DRM-free version is patched to 1.02.

EaglePatchAC1

Latest version can be downloaded here.
Unlocked multisampling on high resolutions.
Added support of all XInput controllers.
Added detection of hotplugged controllers.
Gamepad and kb/mouse controls work at the same time.
Added ini setting for enabling PS3-like controls.
Added ini setting to skip intro videos.
[DX10 only] Fixed doubling of resolution modes in settings.
Options configurable in .ini file.
Removes support of DirectInput controllers. Use of a DirectInput to XInput translator such as XOutput is recommended if using a DirectInput only controller.

Game data

In-game general settings.
In-game general settings.
In-game HUD settings.
In-game HUD settings.

Configuration file location

System Location
Windows %APPDATA%\Ubisoft\Assassin's Creed\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/15100/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %APPDATA%\Ubisoft\Assassin's Creed\Saved Games\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/15100/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

Video

In-game video settings.
In-game video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
WSGF entry.
Multi-monitor
Replace AssassinsCreed_Dx9.exe and AssassinsCreed_Dx10.exe in the game folder from the WSGF archive.
Ultra-widescreen
Replace AssassinsCreed_Dx9.exe and AssassinsCreed_Dx10.exe in the game folder from the WSGF archive.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Use the Racer_S FOV Hack.
Windowed
Toggle with Alt+ Enter.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See Force borderless fullscreen windowed mode. Note that the game inhibits the Win hotkey used for Borderless Gaming.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Enabled with the in-game Graphic Quality set to 4
Can be enforced for others in Assassin.ini with a value of 1.[7]
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Up to 4x MSAA
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Double buffered. Minor physics glitches occur if disabled.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
Uncapped if vsync is disabled. Minor physics glitches occur if run at more than 60 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Ambient occlusion

Force HBAO+ (Nvidia only)[8][9]
  1. Download and run Nvidia Profile Inspector.
  2. Select the Assassin's Creed profile.
  3. Change Ambient Occlusion compatibility value to 0x00060019.
  4. Change Ambient Occlusion setting to High Quality.
  5. Change Ambient Occlusion usage to Enabled.
  6. Press "Apply Changes" in the top-right corner.

Notes

Only works with true 16:9 resolutions.

Input

In-game key map settings.
In-game key map settings.
In-game camera settings.
In-game camera settings.
In-game button map settings.
In-game button map settings.

Audio

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Voice volume, music volume, effects volume.
Surround sound
5.0
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
EAX 4.0[10]
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
GOG
Traditional Chinese
Czech
Retail only.
French
GOG
German
GOG
Italian
GOG
Polish
Retail only. Patch for digital release here.
Russian
Official localization by «Akella». Retail and GOG version. Patch for digital release here.
Spanish
GOG (not listed)

VR support

3D modes State GG3D Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision
Use Helix Mod for better 3D support.
iZ3D
vorpX
G3D
Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues fixed

TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for fixing issues in this game.
You can find various fixes in this Ubisoft Support FAQ
Ubisoft Community Technical Support

Game does not start with 32 cores

Limit the number of cores in your CPU down to 31 or less[11] [12]

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.
Re-installing the Game on a drive that is not a Storage Space will fix this issue[citation needed]

Crashes to desktop at Ubisoft logo intro

The game will try to connect to Ubisoft servers which cannot be reached anymore.
Block the game's executable from accessing the internet with Windows Firewall[citation needed]
  1. Open the Start menu, type, and open "Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security".
  2. Click on "Outbound Rules" on the left-hand side.
  3. Click "New Rule..." on the right-hand side>
  4. Select "Program" then click next, select "This program path" then click "Browse...", then go to the install directory of the game and select either AssassinsCreed_Dx10.exe to use DirectX 10 or AssassinsCreed_Dx9.exe then click "open", then click next, then select "Block the connection", then click next, select Domain, Private, and Public, then click next, type a name, then click "finish".
Disconnect from from your network before starting the game[citation needed]
  1. If using a Wi-Fi/WLAN network adapter, simply disconnect from your network. If using Ethernet, either temporarily disable your Ethernet network adapter under "Network and Sharing Center" > "Change adapter settings" and right-clicking to "Disable", or simply unplug the Ethernet cable.
  2. Reconnect to your wireless network, or re-enable your Ethernet adapter/replug the cable.

Game always starts up in windowed mode

By default, the game should run in fullscreen mode. However, occasionally, the game forces itself into windowed mode.
Return to fullscreen mode with Alt+ Enter[citation needed]
Use the -fullscreen command line argument[citation needed]

Opening video plays with no visuals on Windows 7 and later

Set compatibility mode[13]
  1. Open AssassinsCreed_Dx10.exe compatibility settings.
  2. Enable compatibility mode for Windows Vista (SP2).

Game audio plays, but no visuals

Swap out files[citation needed]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Swap the names of the files AssassinsCreed_Game and AssassinsCreed_Dx[version].
  3. Run the game.

Game freezes regularly for a few seconds

The game is trying to connect to Ubisoft servers which cannot be reached anymore.
Redirect IP 203.132.26.155[14]
  1. Edit the file %WINDIR%\System32\drivers\etc\hosts using Notepad/Notepad++. This file is protected so you must run your text editor under administrator account.
  2. Add the following line at the end: 203.132.26.155 127.0.0.1

Note:

This line will redirect all connections to Ubisoft's offline server to your own computer which will make the connections fail quickly, removing the freezing in the game. This server was used to track statistics about the game usage, so blocking the connections shouldn't cause any problem to the game.
Disable your internet connection[15]
You have to do this every time before playing the game.

Character audio problem

With 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound, characters' voices can be lost or inaudible.
Switch to Stereo[citation needed]

Regular stutter, especially in the Kingdom

Enable Low Latency Mode via Nvidia Control Panel or similar[citation needed]
Disable your internet connection[citation needed]
You have to do this every time before playing the game.

Leap of Faith jumps result in death

In addition to visual glitches (such as twitching robes), playing with more than 60 FPS causes the Leap of Faith jumps to not work correctly, leading to the player characters death upon impact.
Enable Vsync in the graphics settings or force it in the graphics card control panel[16]
Cap game's framerate to 60FPS
  1. See the Frame rate glossary page for ways to limit FPS.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c, 10, 10.1 DirectX 10.1 was removed in the first patch.[6]
Shader Model support 3, 4
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok
Cutscenes Bink Video 1.8i

Mods

Assassin's Creed Overhaul

Updates most of the textures and particle effects in-game with a mix of Assassin's Creed Revelations textures and custom textures. If there are issues with running or installing the mod, making the game's executable large address aware might fix them.[17][18]

ReShade

Install by copying the contents of AC1 ReShade in the main folder of the game. (ReShade and OpenTexMod are both mutually exclusive. They don't run together by default. To run ReShade together with the Overhaul mod you have to either use TexMod, or to use OpenTexMod you need ENBInjector)[19][20][21] There also seems to be a texture issue with the sky while running this ReShade together with the Overhaul mod. In this Guide it is explained how you can make them both work together flawlessly.

System requirements

Steam

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium D 2,6 GHz
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2,6 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB (XP) or 2 GB (Vista)
Hard disk drive (HDD) 8 GB
Video card (GPU) 256 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0 (XP) or 10.0 (Vista) compatible
Shader model 3.0 support
Sound (audio device) DirectX 9.0 or 10.0–compliant sound card
Only XP and Vista
Supported GPUs at release: ATI Radeon X1600*/1650*–1950/HD 2000/3000-series, NVIDIA GeForce® 6800*/7/8/9-series
* = Only via PCI Express. Versions for laptop can work, but are not supported
Only those GPUs do work officially with the game

GOG

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 7, 8, 10
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium D 2,6 GHz
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 8 GB
Video card (GPU) ATI or Nvidia
256 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 compatible
Shader model 3.0 support
Sound (audio device) DirectX 9.0 or 10.0–compliant sound card
The game is not compatible with Intel video devices, including typical netbook graphics


Notes

  1. SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[2] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[3]
  2. 2.0 2.1 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>/15100/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (15100) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. [1] - last accessed on 2023-07-12
  2. Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
  3. Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
  4. Verified by User:MetalPlateMage on 25 July 2015
    Installer is downloaded through Uplay client. Game is DRM-free.
  5. Hitman: Blood Money - Games for Windows - last accessed on 19 August 2022
  6. 6.0 6.1 Ubisoft comments on Assassin's Creed DX10.1 controversy - UPDATED - The Tech Report
  7. TweakGuides.com - Assassin's Creed Tweak Guide page 5 - last accessed on May 2023
  8. HBAO+ Compatibility Flags - last accessed on May 2023
  9. Original HBAO+ Post at Guru3D.com Forums - last accessed on May 2023
  10. - ALchemy database Assassin's Creed entry - last accessed on May 2023
  11. https://steamcommunity.com/app/20920/discussions/0/3801652929322345234/#c3801652929322540135
  12. https://steamcommunity.com/app/20920/discussions/0/4687682349648754732/
  13. Verified by User:Chick'n'Duck on 2023-11-18
  14. steamcommunity.com - Assassin's Creed General Discussions :: AC1 freezing and unfreezing :: gcontijoch - 1 Oct @ 4:28pm - last accessed on October 2023
  15. steamcommunity.com - Assassin's Creed General Discussions :: AC1 freezing and unfreezing :: Ubi-Verse - 27 Sep @ 1:02pm - last accessed on October 2023
  16. Reddit.com - When playing Assassin's Creed 1 on PC, make sure you turn on V-Sync. This is what happens when you have it off - last accessed on May 2023
  17. moddb.com - For anyone that's lagging incredibly from the mod, make sure to patch your AC1 EXE with the Large Address Aware tool - last accessed on May 2023
  18. moddb.com - I used the Large Address Aware to enable 2gb+ memory to be allocated by the AC exes. - last accessed on May 2023
  19. moddb.com - I found out that uMod & OpenTexMod, after doing some research, that they don't always work together with ReShade or SweetFX. So the fix is to use the old TexMod. - last accessed on May 2023
  20. reddit.com - After hours searching, finally ENBInjector did the trick. - last accessed on May 2023
  21. reshade.me - none is working with reshade, only separate - last accessed on May 2023