14 DAY TRIAL // AMD accused Nvidia of practically sabotaging the PC version of Watch Dogs for its own graphics cards via the implementation of the exclusive Gameworks features into the game made by Ubisoft and Nvidia has now replied, saying that AMD is "crazy" to believe such a thing.
Watch Dogs appeared on the PC platform, alongside last and current-generation consoles at the beginning of the week, on May 27.
Nvidia bragged about the implementation of its Gameworks suite of features into the game, as the title has different technologies when run on graphics cards made by Nvidia. These include the TXAA anti-aliasing technique and the HBAO+ ambient occlusion one.
The result was that Watch Dogs on PC looked great on Nvidia graphics cards, but AMD quickly blamed the poor performance of the game on Nvidia's restrictive terms imposed onto Ubisoft. The developer wasn't able to share its source code and ask for feedback from AMD about optimizing the game for its own graphics cards, according to the company.
Now, Nvidia's Cem Cebenoyan has talked with Forbes and has outlined just what happens when a developer asks to implement Gameworks into its title, saying that early meetings consist of the company highlighting how the respective game will be improved with its new features.
As the development process goes along, Nvidia might also send its engineers to the studio's headquarters in order to ensure that the Gameworks features are implemented in the best way possible. For Watch Dogs, this optimization happened last year and would have also taken place if Ubisoft didn't agree to Gameworks.
"We try to make sure every game runs really well on PC and our hardware," Cebenoyan added. "So we’ll provide advice to game developers regardless of if there’s any GameWorks stuff going on."
The Nvidia representative has also tackled AMD's accusations head on, saying that you don't need to look at a game's source code in order to optimize for it. He has also emphasized that Nvidia doesn't restrict partners from sharing code with AMD or other companies.
"I’ve heard that before from AMD and it’s a little mysterious to me. We don’t and we never have restricted anyone from getting access as part of our agreements. Not with Watch Dogs and not with any other titles."
"Thousands of games get released, but we don’t need to look at that source code," he added. "Most developers don’t give you the source code. You don’t need source code of the game itself to do optimization for those games. AMD’s been saying for awhile that without access to the source code it’s impossible to optimize. That’s crazy."
AMD hasn't commented on the new statements from Nvidia, so it's unclear how it will respond after these new reveals.