Tom Clancy’s The Division has just been released on the PC, and it’s time to compare the E3 2013 build that wowed everyone with the final build. The good news is that the game starts in the same place where the E3 2013 demo started, so let’s see whether the final build is as good as the E3 2013 one.
For this comparison, the final build is on the left whereas the E3 2013 build is on the right.
Unfortunately, we do have to note that Ubisoft has changed the sun placement. As you can see below, the sun was placed on the North side of the street in the E3 2013 demo. However, the sun is now placed on the South side of the street in the final build. The beginning of the main road is the East side and its ending is the West side.
This basically makes it impossible to compare the scenes under the exact same conditions. Even when the time of day is set right, the scenes look different due to the different sun placement (and the structures blocking the sunlight).
Moreover, we can clearly see that sun shafts are not being casted through bullets holes.
It’s pretty obvious that Massive Entertainment has made some changes to the environment. There are different cars, different buildings, and different environmental details. The manholes that produced that amazing smoke have been removed, though we do have to note that the manholes can be found in other areas. They are simply not here.
As we’ve already said, the game’s global illumination system has been scaled back. This can be easily noticed in the following comparison. As you can see, in the E3 2013 build the light bounced in more surfaces. Not only that, but the reflection system has also been toned down. In the final build, the light is reflected in cars according to a specific “light radius” (can be easily noticed in the screenshot) and not as dynamically as it was in the E3 2013.
And then there is the destruction system that has been scaled back. We’ve already covered this in our previous comparison article. The destruction system in the final build is exactly the same with the one found in the open beta build, meaning that it’s still not as advanced as the one that was showcased in the E3 2013 demo.
Lastly, we’ll leave you with some more comparison screenshots so you can judge for yourselves whether Massive Entertainment was able to come close to its E3 2013 demo.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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