The Division's weather and lighting will have adverse effects on gameplay

We think it would be a bad idea to go out in the middle of the night when a big storm is brewing in The Division.

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It’s been several months since we heard from Ubisoft regarding The Division. Today, that silence has been broken as the publisher is showing off how weather and lighting will affect our experiences in the game.

The Division will feature dynamic weather and lighting that are realistic enough to affect gameplay. One example senior game designer Fredrik Thylander gives is when players are caught in a full storm, visibility is completely hindered for both NPCs and the agent. “Our worst storm conditions that can hit will affect aim assist and detection ranges for both players and NPCs,” he shares in a recent interview.

The weather and time of day will also influence both the NPCs and wildlife you’ll stumble onto on the streets of New York City. In fact, the time of day will give the same location a completely different look and feel as various light sources can draw your attention to key aspects of the environment, while some areas will be completely blacked out. The combination of a blacked-out area and a storm were mentioned, which makes us cringe just at the thought of it.

The Division is scheduled to launch on March 8 on PC, Xbox one, and PlayStation 4. A beta will be taking place on Xbox One in December, following with a beta on PlayStation 4 and PC in early 2016.

Senior Editor
From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 26, 2015 1:26 PM

    Daniel Perez posted a new article, The Division's weather and lighting will had adverse effects on gameplay

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      October 26, 2015 3:11 PM

      [deleted]

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        October 26, 2015 3:22 PM

        Yea - that's the problem with Chatty threads. They point out when we made a typo in the original story. It was fixed after publishing.

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          October 26, 2015 4:15 PM

          I started just sending SMs to the authors when I noticed an error.

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            October 26, 2015 4:22 PM

            I'm fine with either approach. I know I make mistakes sometimes. It's impossible to be a writer and not have a typo at some point.

            This kind of thing wakes me up when it happens. I'll now triple check my stories before pulling the trigger. And then if there's another typo, then I'll perform the dreaded quadruple check.

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              October 26, 2015 5:34 PM

              just sm articles to dianeofthemoon to proof read beforehand going forward. she's practically volunteering to be a free editor.

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          October 26, 2015 10:03 PM

          protip Daniel-san we still love you

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      October 26, 2015 4:04 PM

      The Division downgrading video: Really long but seems legit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv5OXQayi2o

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        October 26, 2015 5:28 PM

        "People thought this was played live on a PS4 devkit" lmao

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        October 26, 2015 5:44 PM

        omg, that dude totally doesn't understand what global illumination is.

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          October 27, 2015 2:52 AM

          Okay, I'll take your word for it - what is wrong with his explanation? All I can see is that the original stuff looks dramatically more dynamic. It saddens me that they released a video in 2014 detailing 5 things their engine could do and then a year later they show a video where most of it is subtly cut, and they no longer brag about these things.

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      October 26, 2015 4:28 PM

      Cool, nice interview and vid, game looks cool I hope it turns out to be good.

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        October 26, 2015 4:38 PM

        I'm hoping it'll play as good as it looks.

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          October 26, 2015 4:40 PM

          Exactly this ^^^^ well they have taken their time(super delayed), so its sort of like at this point they might as well make it awesome unless all this time they ran into a technical issue which they finally fixed or something.

          I think it will be all good, I hope so at least.

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            October 26, 2015 4:46 PM

            We first saw it at E3 what like 3 years ago?

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              October 26, 2015 5:03 PM

              Yeah something like that its a long time, but at the same note what they are making takes a long time.

              I wonder how long its been in dev in total aka before the first vid, it seems like forever.

              The pressure to deliver now must be INSANE, I don't envy that position.

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                October 26, 2015 9:46 PM

                [deleted]

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                  October 27, 2015 2:27 AM

                  Also the fact that 4 different Ubisoft studios are seperately working on different parts of the game does not bode well in my book. I bought into the original hype of the game but as time goes on and I see graphic downscaling as well as reports like these where people across the world in seperate locations are working on different parts, just triggers my defense mechanisms.
                  Without strong leadership I don't see how this can work, and Ubisoft has a pretty uneveven track record when it comes to that.

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      October 26, 2015 5:47 PM

      Different lighting will give areas a different look at night than during the day? Very interesting. I'd love to read a more in depth article about how things look different at night.

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