Ubisoft released the latest installment of their popular game series, the Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The award-winning series features pirating, pillaging, spilling and fighting wars with assassins on land. The previous generation console versions came out in October and received critical acclaim. This month, the PC version came in Northern America, with the worldwide release following for the rest of the month.

The PC version comes with an upgraded next-gen Anvil engine which also supports the Creed IV: Black Flag on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The PC version also offers resolution support up to 3840x2160. Other features include NVIDIA PC-exclusive functions and higher-resolution assets as well textures. For gamers to take advantage fully of the game, it is important to understand what these features can do and how to make them work. Understanding these settings and features yield optimal playable configurations.

System Requirements

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag require a range of system configurations for it to run smooth. These include DirectX 9, DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 configurations. Following system requirements will allow players working with older systems to play and enjoy the game just as much as other players. For best results, players are recommended to get a Quad-core CPU and a DirectX 11-capable GPU.

According to NVIDIA's GeForce site, the following are the minimum requirements for Assassin's Creed IV:

  • OS: Windows Vista SP or Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8 (both 32/64bit versions)
  • Processor: Intel Core2Quad Q8400 @ 2.6 GHz or AMD Athlon II X4 620 @ 2.6 GHz
  • Memory: 2GB for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (512MB VRAM with Shader Model 4.0 or higher)
  • DirectX: 9
  • Hard Drive Space: 30GB

The recommended system requirements are as follows:

  • OS: Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8 (both 32/64bit versions)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5 2400S @ 2.5 GHz or AMD Phenom II x4 940 @ 3.0 GHz or better
  • Memory: 4GB RAM or more
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470 (1024MB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0) or better
  • DirectX: 11
  • Hard Drive Space: 30GB

The NVIDIA GeForce site offers a range of configurations for this.

AnvilNext - A Next-Gen Graphics Engine

Similar to other publishers, Ubisoft creates it primary franchise based on internally-developed game engines. This allows the company to fully control the features and other advancements. It was in 2007 when Ubisoft developed the Anvil Engine. This allows massive and detailed cities to appear on platforms that were limited before to linear corridors and low fidelity worlds.

Come 2012, the company introduced the AnvilNxt on the installment of Assassin's Creed at that time. The company used the PC version to test the new technologies and features seen on the fourth installment on Xbox One and Playstation 4. Although there is just a year separating the two installments, the AnvilNext became unrecognizable from its predecessor, due to the number of new technologies and upgrades.

All in all, the newest additions from AnvilNext engine improve the image quality and fidelity of Assassin's Creed IV. It should be worth checking out for those who are avid fans of advanced features.