Assassin's Creed Rogue PC Supports Tobii Eye Tracking
Ubisoft announced on Thursday that the PC version of Assassin's Creed Rogue will launch on March 10, 2015. This version will support Tobii Tech's eye tracking technology, which powers SteelSeries' Sentry eye tracker hardware. The peripheral is available now for a meaty $199.99 at the SteelSeries website.
So what will PC gamers need to run Assassin's Creed Rogue? For starters, a 64-bit version of Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8/8.1. PC gamers will also need an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor (2.4 GHz) or better, or an AMD Athlon II X4 620 CPU (2.6 GHz) or better. Additional ingredients include 2 GB of RAM, 11.4 GB of available space, a DVD optical drive and a DirectX-compatible sound card.
On the GPU front, PC gamers will need at least an Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 or an AMD Radeon HD 5670, both requiring 1 GB of VRAM. The company also provides a list of supported GPU cards, which includes Nvidia's GeForce GTS 450, 500, 600, 700 and 900 series, as well as AMD's Radeon HD 5670, 6000, 7000, R7 and R9. Supported Intel GPUs include the HD4600 and the HD5200.
"Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT officially supported," Ubisoft warned.
As for the eye-tracking feature, Assassin's Creed Rogue is billed as the first AAA title to make use of the technology in actual gameplay. According to Tobii Tech, when a player looks to the left of the screen, the game's protagonist, Shay Patrick Cormac, will also look left in the game environment. The camera will continue to pan left until the player's eyes focus on another point on the screen. Tobii Tech calls this process an "infinite screen" experience.
"The game auto-pans intuitively and in harmony with the player," Tobii Tech explained. "Players can revert to their traditional mouse control by simply grabbing it. Assassin's Creed Rogue will also pause and resume automatically if the player looks away from the screen and back again, preventing disruptions in gameplay."
The first 500 customers who purchase the SteelSeries Sentry will receive Assassin's Creed Rogue for the PC for free.
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SteelSeries revealed its Sentry eye tracker during CES 2015 back in January. The Sentry bar resides at the bottom of the gamer's screen and consists of three infrared "microprojectors" that scan the player's eyes 50 times per second. The Sentry also comes packed with the Game Analyzer software, which tracks and records "key performance metrics" for gamers to analyze and use to improve their gameplay skills. This software is currently compatible with StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and DOTA 2.
"Today, with our Sentry Eye Tracker, we are announcing an entirely new way for streamers and viewers to see the game," said Ehtisham Rabbani, SteelSeries CEO, during CES 2015. "This is just the tip of the innovation iceberg for Sentry, and we could not be more excited to realize all the possibilities that emerge when your game knows where your eyes are looking."
Tobii Tech said on Thursday that it's currently working with other developers to incorporate the eye tracking technology into their games.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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Omar Hxs Do these guys have a special copy n paste system releasing a new assasins creed every quarter. I'm still waiting on half life 3.Reply -
Lutfij The game was actually released for console so if anything this would be a port :( sigh another game like Assassins Creed Liberation HDReply -
Grognak "Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT officially supported,"Reply
Crazy requirements for a bad PS3/XB360 port, too.
^
watch what you say there - Lutfij -
Cryio ReplyI think the last thing anyone wants from Ubi right now is another AC game.
I for one was always more interested in Rogue than in Unity. So I'm eagerly awaiting it.
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turkey3_scratch Whether or not it's a crappy port it actually sounds like it will be fairly optimized to me. If you look at the hardware requirements those are like 1/3 of what Unity's were. If these requirements are true, I am impressed.Reply -
Avus Not only you are paying to beta test the new AC, now you will also beta test the new eye tracking hardwareReply -
Lmah I hope people are smart enough not to pre-order this after seeing Ubisofts releases last year.Reply -
Reepca Well... those required specs sure, uh.... well, frankly, plummeted. Let's hope it's due to better optimization rather than a lighter load.Reply -
photonboy "Whether or not it's a crappy port it actually sounds like it will be fairly optimized to me. If you look at the hardware requirements those are like 1/3 of what Unity's were. If these requirements are true, I am impressed."Reply
Here's the problem though:
You simply can't compare the game engines. Sure there where issues with Unity, but the intent was to push high-end PC's to create something visually better (with better AI as well).
Unfortunately the game ended up too demanding and the company just couldn't fix the issues in time for PC or next-gen consoles.
On one hand we get people whining about games not taking advantage of our gaming PC's, then when someone makes the attempt people complain it's only running on a small number of computers.
This doesn't excuse what happened completely but it is understandable. I for one will probably play Unity on my GTX980Ti.