Assassin's Creed Shadows features advanced graphics with new engine

Ubisoft's upcoming game, Assassin's Creed Shadows, features a cutting-edge Anvil Engine that brings new technological advancements to the series. The game utilizes a new real-time ray-traced global illumination (RTGI) system, replacing an older method used since 2014. This change allows for improved lighting effects, including realistic light bouncing and reflections. The Anvil Engine also enhances player interactivity with a physics-based destruction system. Players can break objects like bamboo or cut through walls, similar to older games that emphasized environmental destruction. The game's visual quality is improved with a micropolygon geometry system that eliminates noticeable level-of-detail changes for rigid objects. The development team has shared insights into the engine's workings. They explained that the RTGI combines different ray tracing techniques for dynamic lighting and that they have implemented features to make the game world responsive to environmental factors, such as humidity and wind. This leads to trees moving and particles like leaves reacting naturally to the weather in the game. For the performance of cutscenes, the game will run at 30fps. This choice allows for higher resolution and improved graphical features without taxing performance, ensuring smoother animations and interactions. The team also addressed concerns about performance on high-end systems. They aim to provide options between quality and performance modes, allowing players to choose according to their preferences. The anticipation for Shadows is high, and future updates are expected to enhance its features further.