Assassins Creed 2 Optimizations And Controller Fix

[Ryzen_Mike]

Ok so to play this game at it's smoothest and best use these settings. These may also help with AC 1, I never tried it. I was able to run AC 1 at 240fps with minimal lag. If trying this on AC 1 only use steps 2,3,4,5, maybe 6, and 7. AC 1 is amazing at high fps with a 240hz monitor.

1. AC 2 is capped at 60fps and runs sooo laggy and jittery on my 240hz monitor, Use a 60hz monitor instead. The one thing I didn't try with this game is using My Alienware
25in 240hz monitor with it set to 60hz. But it will probably run like crap and still be jittery. I've had this issue with other games that were capped at 60fps and never got it to run as smooth as it does on a native 60hz monitor which is dumbfounding.

2. Set the compatibility mode to WinXP SP2 and turn off fullscreen optimizations and run as admin.

3. Set nvidia control panel to use the application settings. (If not this will make lag and stutter worse, the game already has an issue with occasional lag, with these
settings it will damn near get rid of all of it, it runs really smooth like 99% better if you follow these guidlines.) Feel free to experiment and try to get it even better,
but always fall back to these settings if it gets worse, that's how I discovered these settings, by experimenting.

4. Do not use any overlays, no steam, no uplay, no msi or rivatuner. The game hates them and if you adjust certain graphics in-game it will cause the game to crash.
Also, rivatuner won't hook when the compatibility is set to WinXP. You might be able to get away with using just steam overlay, but the game will still crash and it may
introduce more lag and stutter (Thats a side effect of using overlays with this game). If you need to access the Internet for guides on collectables just alt+tab out and in.
It won't crash anymore with these settings.

5. Set uplay to start and play in offline mode. Could even do it to steam.
******* IMPORTANT ******* The game may not save if your not connected to the internet. I tried this ( Being connected to the net) but had uplay in offline mode and my games still saved. But this may not work if you have 0 Internet connection. You need to test it before you start playing for a long time, that progress might get lost.

6. This one is debatable, some people said to set the affinity cores to just use 2 cores / threads. 1 and 0. If you want to try it go for it, I would suggest playing the
game without doing this so you can see how these settings act and feel like. Then try changing the affinity and see if it's worse or better. If worse just change it back. The
game needs to be running when you do this. Alt+tab out, open task manager, select details, right click on AC2 , click set affinity, and select 0 and 1.

7. Lastly set all graphics to Highest settings (unless you have a potato -_-), turn on v-sync and enjoy.



****Controller Use****

I used my ps4 controller with AC 1 and AC 2 with no issues other than figuring out how to set it up. This should also work with x-box 360 controllers without needing to download any special files or programs. If using an xbox one controller or newer you will need to download X360CE to emulate a xbox 360 original controller. That can be found here,

https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/1482-xbox-one-controller-fix-for-assassins-creed-directors-cut-and-assassins-creed-ii-ac12/

To install simply download and extract the contents of the zip file into the game's installation folder. X360ce is not required for the fix to function but is useful should you wish to make any configuration changes. There is also a 32-bit version here,

https://www.x360ce.com/



*****If using an xbox controller the firmware may need to be updated. To do this open the microsoft store, install xbox accessories. Open xbox accessories with the controller plugged in, your controller should appear. Click on the 3 dots in the middle of the screen, on the left click the update firmware ( If it says update available) If it says no update available your running the newest version. As of 1-9-21 the newest xbox 1 version is 4.8.1923.0. Updating the firmware fixes a lot of issues, especially in other AC games like brotherhood. With the older firmware my game stuttered like crazy, lagged, froze, etc. After updating it fixed all those issues.*****

***These steps are only needed if your using a PS4 controller and possibly an original x-box 360 controller.***

1. Before launching the game turn on / connect the controller to the PC either with a cable or bluetooth.

2. Make sure steam can see it and turn on the config support for ps4 and xbox. You may only need to turn on whatever type your using. For instance If I'm using a ps4 controller I may only need to use the ps4 config without turning on the x-box and vice versa. When I set up mine I turned them both on because sometimes it sees my ps4 controller as an x-box one which isn't an issue and it still works, I just have to remap some buttons.

2a. Open steam settings and click on controller to make sure your controller is setup, steam can see it and the config files are activated.

2b. Make sure the controller is active on AC 2. Steam changed this so I believe you right click on the game, select properties then somewhere in there it will tell you if the controller support is active for that game and what profiles it's using.

3. Once that is done, launch AC 1 or AC 2, go to settings / key mappings ( forgot what it's called in game, but I'm sure you can find it). Change it from keyboard to x-box 360 controller, do this even if your using a ps4 controller. Then change your bindings around. You may need to start the game and change them as you go along to see what feels best. That's it. I don't know if this will work for generic controllers, if that's what your using then I would suggest enabling x-box, ps4, and the generic configs in steam.

*** Once this is setup in AC 2 and saved in the config you won't have to use the keyboard.

*** In AC 1 every time you launch the game, the controller won't work until you use the keyboard to select your game profile and hit enter. After that the controller is active and you don't need the keyboard anymore.

[[deleted]]

Good guide! I found turning off steam overlay solved 99% of my stuttering, leaving just a minor bit here and there (say drops from 60fps to 55 and back again on occasion) but I noticed AC3/Black flag/Rogue even do this tiny bit of stuttering here and there.

[Ryzen_Mike]

Thanks, yea I started with AC1, AC2 and now on AC brotherhood and the assassins creed games hate overlays. Best to just turn them all off or try to find a workaround. A lot of Ubisoft games have stuttering issues, it's horrible. Some of the best games ever but crappy rushed ports. Far cry series was a huge headache lol, great games tho.

[Ryzen_Mike]

Probably depends on what xbox controller your using. I have a xbox 1 controller but I never tested it with AC2. I prefer my ps4 controller. On AC Brotherhood I had no issues with my xbox 1 controller except It doesn't allow me to change the button config and it caused extreme lag and stutter. I had to update the controller firmware using xbox accessories in the microsoft store. After that it was fine. I have AC2 installed on my laptop so tomorrow when my parts come in I'll put it back together and see if I have the same trigger issues as you did.

I knew about the X360CE but it's not needed for using a ps4 controller. And since my ps4 worked and the game recognized it as an xbox controller it seemed that my steps should also work for an xbox controller as well. The game config files has all the buttons, triggers, etc mapped and knows they are there. So it's odd that your triggers weren't working.

Maybe you just needed to update the firmware or had a miss configuration somewhere. I'll check tomorrow to see if I have any issues.

[laes]

I've searched around a long time for this - But there's definitely no way to get actual Xbox controller button icons (or any other controller) in the game is there?

[Ryzen_Mike]

Originally posted by TomDelonge:

I've searched around a long time for this - But there's definitely no way to get actual Xbox controller button icons (or any other controller) in the game is there?

It's possible but it depends on the game. I never tried AC 1 or 2 with the xbox controller. I just used my PS4 controller but it read my PS4 controller as an Xbox one so it gave me the xbox button Icons. On AC Brotherhood it gives me the xbox button icons with the xbox 1 controller but with my PS4 controller it says button 1 or button 2.

Sometimes enabling the steam controller support config for xbox or ps4 controllers can get the game to display the right button layout, but sometimes it doesn't work. On the AC games I can't find where the controller configs are actually at, in the normal configs it lists different controllers and buttons but not the full layout so you can't change the on screen display to display A,B,X,Y or Triange, X, Square, Circle.

If the game isn't displaying the appropriate button icons on screen and your using an xbox controller I would try doing these:

In steam settings / controller make sure the xbox controller config is activated. Make sure your xbox controller firmware is up to date. To do this open the microsoft store, install xbox accessories. Open xbox accessories with the controller plugged in, your controller should appear. Click on the 3 dots in the middle of the screen, on the left click the update firmware ( If it says update available) If it says no update available your running the newest version. As of 1-9-21 the newest xbox 1 version is 4.8.1923.0. And then while in game make sure the xbox controller is selected and is read as an xbox controller and not a wireless controller.

[Ryzen_Mike]

Originally posted by Typharius:

You know the controller stuff? Easier solution is to download X360CE which emulates a 360 pad fully, allowing the triggers to be used and everything else being exactly as it was on the original console. I am using Xbox 1 pads and until I got that I couldn't get the game to recognise the triggers on my pad.

Wow yea man you were right, I had the same issue. I'll edit the above info. An xbox 360 controller should work no problem without X360CE but and xbox one or newer controller definitely needs it. It seems like microsoft changed how the trigger is read from the original 360 controller to the xbox one. It seems to read the xbox one controller triggers like joysticks, it labels them as axis inputs. X360CE just emulates the original 360 controller. I thought it was odd that my PS4 controller still worked as well as the triggers, the game saw it as an original xbox 360 controller due to the settings I used. Would seem PS4 triggers don't read as axis inputs, curious if the new PS5 controllers retain that or if they changed them to axis inputs.

[Ryzen_Mike]

Originally posted by TomDelonge:

I've searched around a long time for this - But there's definitely no way to get actual Xbox controller button icons (or any other controller) in the game is there?

For AC2 I think if you use X360CE it should display the appropriate buttons on screen. I haven't tested or tried it, but other people have said it does and it should based on what X360CE does (emulates an original xbox 360 controller).

[Sisyphus]

Thank you very much

[Evonion]

tried all of this and still couldnt get my xbox one controller to work