Does Shadow of Mordor's Crazy Ultra HD Content Pack Make a Real Difference?

Gamers with extremely high-end computers can download a special HD content pack for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor that enables the game's Ultra-level textures. But do they actually make a difference?

In the very likely case that you're unable to take advantage of these yourself, Digital Foundry has provided some impressions of what they're like. You can also check out the video below for a comparison of the PS4 and PC (with Ultra textures) versions.

Expectedly, it's very pretty when running the game at Ultra. However, it's not the kind of leap over High that you might be hoping for, particularly because the most-improved areas are hard to notice while playing the game in a normal manner. "For the most part, we found that the high setting--in itself placing a significant video RAM requirement on the user--offers the bulk of the ultra experience," writes Digital Foundry.

The option for these Ultra textures are built into the game, but in order to actually activate them, you need to download a free DLC pack from Steam. Earlier this week, the pack was only obtainable through an unintuitive process.

Installing the HD content is now easy enough, but you'll need a fairly ridiculous rig in order to take advantage of this if you follow the recommended requirements. In addition to a 64-bit processor, you'll need at least 8 GB of RAM and a DirectX 11-compatible video card with at least 6 GB of memory. That is not a misprint. It is, however, what's making me so sad about having spent a ton of money on a 3 GB video card not so long ago.

Digital Foundry spoke with lead designer Bob Roberts about why this option is even being offered, given how few people have the necessary hardware. Roberts said the game's artists built the game's assets at "an outrageously high fidelity" before then optimizing them "to fit onto [PS4/Xbox One], to fit onto PCs at high-end specs."

"Then obviously there's going to be that boundary where our monster development PCs are running it OK--but why not give people the option to crank it up?" Roberts continued. "It makes sense to get it out into the world there--we have it, we built it that way to look as good as possible. You might as well, right?"

According to Digital Foundry, high-end artwork can actually be run on GPUs with less memory, but you'll run into issues without capping the framerate. Fortunately, the game offers a 30fps cap option if running the game at the highest quality possible is your goal, though you'll still want as much GPU memory as possible for a good experience.

For a comparison of the Xbox One, PS4, and PC (running without the Ultra textures) versions, check out our video below.