Download: Vcds 20.12 Bringing virtual worldbuilding in the Far Cry 4 & 5 Map Editor to a new level. My projects and insights are offered to you for free. But if you want, you can get me a coffee. :) DISCLAIMER: This site and my projects are not supported nor endorsed by Ubisoft. Projects are provided 'AS-IS' and are subject to change.

Download: Vcds 20.12

• (PC-only) 🛠 Mod for the Far Cry 5 Arcade Editor. This Editormod eases some editor limitations and adds more assets and features, while keeping published maps compatible with the vanilla game.
• 🏝 Far Cry 5 Community Maps index: Listing of maps published in the Far Cry Arcade, with less restricted filter options than the Arcade website.
• ⇔ Far Cry 5 Map Swapper: Loads an alternate map instead of maps published by creator 'MapSwapper'. Useful for porting console maps to PC and vice versa. Xbox too this time! ;)
•  Far Cry 5 Arcade Object List: Searchable list of assets you can use in the Far Cry 5 Editor.
• ▶ Far Cry 5 Arcade Video List: Auto-updating list of Far Cry video content found on YouTube.
• 🕮 Far Cry 5 Texts: Search through Far Cry 5's oasis text strings. Useful for finding the number to input for setting text on the "Change HUD Text" Script action.
• (Xbox/Playstation/PC): Modded template maps that unlock more assets, without requiring an editormod.
  

  Download: Vcds 20.12

  If you’re looking for 20.12 specifically because you have an older clone cable or a limited-budget scenario, consider these legitimate alternatives:

  Open VCDS. If your interface has outdated firmware, 20.12 will prompt an update. Proceed only if your interface is genuine. Fake cables will brick at this stage.

  ---

  This article is for informational purposes only. Always consult your vehicle’s service manual and local laws regarding diagnostic software. The author does not condone software piracy.

  VCDS 20.12 Download: Features, Installation, and Compatibility Guide

  The VAG-COM Diagnostic System (VCDS) remains the gold standard for enthusiasts and professionals working with Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, and Skoda (VAG) vehicles. VCDS Release 20.12, published in December 2020, was a landmark update that introduced preliminary support for the next generation of VAG vehicles and significantly improved data sets. Key Features of VCDS 20.12 vcds 20.12 download

  This version brought critical updates for newer vehicles and improved user experience:

  Next-Gen Vehicle Support: Introduced preliminary support for Mk.8 and MEB (ID.x) electric vehicle platforms.

  2021 Model Year Readiness: Enhanced diagnostic support for 2021 model year vehicles.

  Expanded Auto-Scan: The Auto-Scan screen was updated with an optional brand-selection feature to streamline the process. If you’re looking for 20

  LCode Refresh: Included a completely new version of LCode (Long Coding Assist), while retaining "LCode-Classic" for users who prefer the older interface.

  Updated Data Sets: Integration of the ASAM dataset (DS322) and VCIConfig (2.252) for better interface management. System Requirements

  To run VCDS 20.12 effectively, your Windows PC should meet these minimum specifications:

  Operating System: Windows 7, 8, or 10 (32-bit or 64-bit). Windows RT is not supported. Processor: 1.5 GHz Dual Core or faster. This article is for informational purposes only

  RAM: At least 1 GB of RAM (4 GB+ recommended for smoother performance). Connection: Available USB 2.0 (or higher) port.

  Storage: Roughly 80-100 MB for the installation, though extra space is needed for logs. How to Download and Install

  While VCDS 20.12 is an older version, the general installation process for official software is straightforward. Licensed users should always prioritize official updates to ensure interface safety. Installing VCDS

  In the world of Volkswagen Auto Group (VAG) diagnostics—covering Audi, SEAT, Skoda, Bentley, and Lamborghini—one name stands above the rest: VCDS (Vag-Com Diagnostic System). Developed by Ross-Tech, VCDS is the gold standard for enthusiast-level and professional diagnostics.

  Among the many software releases, VCDS 20.12 holds a special place. Released in December 2020, this version represents a significant milestone. It bridged the gap between older legacy interfaces and the rapidly evolving MQB platform vehicles. For users looking for a stable, feature-rich release without jumping into the subscription-based cloud ecosystem of VCDS Next Gen, version 20.12 remains a highly sought-after download.

  This article provides everything you need to know about finding, downloading, installing, and using VCDS 20.12—legally and safely.

  ---

Download: Vcds 20.12

• (PC-only) 🛠 Mod for the Far Cry 4 Editor. This editormod adds new objects to the editor, while keeping published maps compatible with the vanilla game.
• 🏝 Far Cry 4 Community Maps: Listing of Community maps published with Far Cry 4.
• ⇔ Far Cry 4 Map Swapper: Loads an alternate map instead of the map called 'MapSwapper'. Useful for playing console maps on PC. Works in coop too! ;)

Download: Vcds 20.12

• Some Google Docs spreadsheets for Editors:
  • Far Cry 5 Animation Points and their properties
  • Far Cry 5 Control Zones and their properties
• Facebook community: Far Cry Map Editors
• Facebook community: Far Cry Maps
• Heath_Deadger's Map Editor tips and tutorials site at HDarcade.US.
• FallenNinja.com, offering Custom Objects and Text generator for use with my Far Cry 5 editormod.
• My Far Cry Modding overview, some pointers on modding Far Cry games.
• FCModding.com, home of THE Mod Installer for modding Far Cry games.
• Discord: Far Cry, 2700+ members
• Discord: FarCry Arcade, 540+ members
• Discord: /r/farcry, 490+ members. Accompanies the official Far Cry subreddit

Download: Vcds 20.12

• Common Far Cry file related problems:
  • Make sure the game/editor can write any game settings, shader cache and user maps to your profile's Documents folder (i.e. %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Far Cry X).
  • Make sure the game can write the savegames to Ubisoft Connect's savegame folder (i.e. "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\savegames").
  • In Windows Threat Protection, exclude Far Cry from your Protected Folders so it can write to that folder.
  • Try renaming your Windows User's %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Far Cry X\GamerProfile.xml file to reset the game's graphics settings. This may also fix the "Unknown File Readfile()"-error on startup.
  • Try renaming your Windows User's %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Far Cry X folder entirely, to force the game to reset its game settings. Note that this will also misplace any Custom Maps (cache and your own user maps) you have stored locally.
  • Try clearing your Ubisoft Connect (Uplay) cache: When Uplay is closed, rename your %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\cache folder to something else. Uplay should recreate the folder and build a new proper cache automatically.
  • Try creating a new Windows user profile & playing the game from there. If that works, the issue you're having is linked to your Windows User's Registry or %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Far Cry X settings.

• Common Far Cry Graphic related problems:
  • If you have 2 graphic adapters, you may need to notepad edit the %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Far Cry X\GamerProfile.xml file, and change the GPU="0" to GPU="1" (or vice versa). For info on how to switch your GPU used by the game, see here.
  • Does the screen looked "zoomed in" in-game? This may be because of settings in your GPU's Control Panel. See Virtual Super Resolution (VSR from AMD) or Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR, Nvidia) and restore it to 100% screen resolution.
  • Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon Service not available? Try updating the game on Ubisoft Connect. But if you have the game on Steam, you may need the updated files from the Ubisoft Connect release.

• Is the game stuttering? You can try the following:
  • Make sure both the game, and Ubisoft Connect are installed on a fast (SSD) drive. If stutter happens when saving (i.e. picking up objects), consider excluding the Ubisoft Connect savegame folder (typically %ProgramFiles(x86)%\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\savegames) from your virus scanner to speed up savegame writes.
  • Turn off STEAM overlay (In Steam, find the game in your Library -> Properties, then under the General tab, uncheck box 'Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game')
  • Turn off Ubisoft Connect overlay, but you may lose the option to invite friends to your game that way
  • Lock down the graphics framerate; turn on V-Sync in your graphic driver's control panel instead of the game. Plus, if you have a NVIDIA GPU, open the Nvidia Control Panel -> Manage 3D Settings -> Program Settings -> Far Cry # -> and turn Low Latency Mode to Ultra.
  • Disable Fullscreen Optimization for the game's executable.
  • Disable Virtual Super Resolution (VSR from AMD) / Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR, Nvidia) and restore it to 100% of your native screen resolution.
  • For Far Cry 4: in Video Options Graphic Settings, set V-Sync=On. Then in Quality Settings, be sure to avoid using Nvidia Gameworks; Set Shadow=ULTRA, Fur=On, Godrays=Volumetric Fog, Antialiasing=SMAA, and Ambient Occlusion=SSBC.
  • If your PC's CPU has more than 4 CPU cores/Logical Units:
    • If you want to play Far Cry 2, 3 or Blood Dragon and your CPU has 32+ cores (i.e. Intel 13th Gen i9 or similar), you may need to change your number of processors and set it to 31 max.
    • If you want to play Far Cry 4 or Primal, try disabling some of your processors. Settings to accomplish this vary per processor, but may include: disabling Hyperthreading (Intel), putting the processor in Legacy Game Mode (AMD / Ryzen: Ryzen Master)
      
      Also, the free edition of Process Lasso will allow you to set CPU core affinity per process, which may help get older Far Cry games to run:
      
      
      1. In Process Lasso, go to Options -> CPU -> CPU Affinities
      2. Set Process match=Far*Cry*, and set Affinity bitmask to either F, or 55
      3. Click Add Rule, and then OK
      This should ensure that the game will have its CPU affinity changed while you have Process Lasso running.
  • As a final resort, you could install a mod package (i.e. FC5 Resistance Mod's autosave stutter fix) that tries to resolve the stuttering. This is most effective in case of Far Cry 5, if you get stutters when picking up loot.

• For general troubleshooting, try:
  • Verifying files in Steam/Uplay. Several times may be needed, make sure it completes successfully.
  • Running the redist setup files (DirectX, VCRedist, DotNet) from the game folder's Support\Software subfolder.
  • Running Uplay with Administrative Privileges & running the game with Administrative Privileges.
  • Changing the game language (causing Uplay/Steam to download additional files), then Verifying files again.
  • Make sure your Windows and Drivers are up-to-date. Conversely, some drivers may supposedly conflict with the game, like Audio drivers and newer versions of graphics drivers.
  • Is there any useful information in the Uplay log files? You can find them in e.g. the C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\logs folder.
  • Is there any useful information in the Windows Event Log? See HowToGeek for instructions.
  • Bookworm-B90A7AF6? The game is unable to authenticate your login with the Far Cry services. Try logging out of Ubisoft Connect and back in again, then restarting the map editor. If that fails, there may be a problem setting up a secure connection to the Far Cry services. If they aren't down, maybe you have proxy/security software installed that messes with your network connection?

• Far Cry Map Editor performance/troubleshooting pointers:

  • Map Editor feels like you're moving in slow motion? Try enabling vSync in the Options/Graphics/VSync.
  • If you have 2 graphic adapters, you may need to notepad edit the %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Far Cry X\EditorGamerProfile.xml file, and change the GPU="0" to GPU="1" (or vice versa). For info on how to switch your GPU used by the game, see here.
  • If you have Steam, try disabling the Steam Overlay (from here).

• Far Cry Arcade Map Editor on PC:

  • Don't want to feel limited by budget? Do you want more objects and features? Download and install my Editormod for Far Cry 5, or for Far Cry 4. It fixes some issues, adds many new features and objects and in general is more forgiving than the vanilla editor.
  • Problem saving map for upload? The resulting mapfile may be too big.

    A save error happens when the compressed map is too large to upload. To counter this, make sure that your terrain (vegetation/texture/holemap/heightmap) is greatly compressable. This means using as few unique values/patterns as possible, and having repeated data.

    So, a holemap without any holes compresses better than one with holes. And if you have 20 holes punched into the terrain, the holemap compresses better when they are one big hole (all adjacent) rather than spread out as single individual small holes across the map. The same goes for having large areas without texture/vegetation, and for flattened terrain. See Picture.

    More info on options to combat this are on my list.farcry.info site.
  • Far Cry® 5 Arcade Editor tool not showing objects? See here, go into the editor's View menu, and select Reset Layout, or apply this .REG file before starting the editor.

  • Far Cry 5 Arcade Editor Scripting troubleshooting pointers:

    • Make sure you have Show Scripting and Show object icons enabled in the Editor settings.
    • Sometimes (at least on PC), the editor might lose track of objects, causing a discrepancy between the map and the interface. Restarting the editor usually fixes that.
    • Be careful not to select multiple triggers at once with the Object Preferences window open. This may replace the tie between the trigger and the script in a way that they'll all point to a single different script.
    • If you're having issues spawning in AI, only ~12 AI can be 'active' at one time on the map. Spawners will only spawn additional AI when there are ~11 or less AI 'active'.
    • When AI does spawn in, but don't react to you, chances are you are in Explore mode and not Play mode. AI won't notice you in Explore.
    • Teleporting scripts only work when you pick a teleport spawn point target for both players.
    • Only one script can execute at a time, other script executions will be queued after previous ones. So if you have a script active that has a long Delay action in it, you'll have to wait until that script completes its runtime completely before the other scripts will kick in.

• If you're having problems getting an older Far Cry game to start:

  • Game won't start? Check your Windows Event Viewer's Application log. If you have an Nvidia card and the game crashed while accessing "C:\Windows\System32\nvapi64.dll", try renaming that file (temporarily) to something else. That could allow the game to run. Just make sure you rename the file back when you are done playing.
  • "Unknown File Readfile()"-error? Try this:
    • Renaming your Windows User's %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Far Cry X\GamerProfile.xml file to reset the game's graphics settings.
    • If that doesn't work, the Readfile() error may be caused by your Documents folder being inaccessible, likely due to antivirus or cloud backup solutions like MS OneDrive (as mentioned here and here). You may want to exclude the folder from said apps.
      
      If your "Documents" folder is part of a "OneDrive PC Folder backup", then instead of e.g. C:\Users\username\Documents, the folder is in C:\Users\username\Onedrive\Documents. That's known to cause issues with Far Cry games.
      Some things to try:
      1. Exclude the %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Far Cry X folder from OneDrive sync, in case the issue is caused by OneDrive locking the file for online synching.
      2. If that doesn't work, disable OneDrive.
      3. If that doesn't work, I'm afraid you'll have to move the Documents folder to a more standard location. If you don't want to do that on your profile, you can probably create a new local useraccount on the PC that has its own proper Documents folder location, unaffected by Onedrive. See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/configuration-of-the-my-documents-folder-dfd9a90d-8f80-18d6-e7cc-f1566fc3b10b
      4. Alternatively, try toggling Ubisoft Connect from Online to Offline, and back to Online again.
  • Far Cry 3 bad performance? Check the %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Far Cry 3\GamerProfile.xml file, and make sure that D3D11MultithreadedRendering="1", OR switch the game to use DirectX9 instead of 11. Found on Reddit.
  • Far Cry 3 crashing afer a while? Try setting graphic preset to medium and run the game in DirectX 11 mode. Or, disable MSAA. Alternatively, try making the 32-bit game Far Cry 3, Large Address Aware by using third-party tool Large Address Aware.
  • Far Cry 4 on Steam not starting? Apply the Far Cry 4 Steam Regfix every time after you've run the editor. Download .reg file here.
  • Far Cry 4 Map Editor is in Swedish language? Edit %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Far Cry 4\{YOUR_UPLAY_ACCOUNT_HASH}\EditorGamerProfile.xml, and set the Language entries to "english". Also, apply this .reg file to make sure it's in English.
  • If your PC's CPU has more than 4 CPU cores/Logical Units, try disabling some of them. Settings to accomplish this vary per processor, but may include: disabling Hyperthreading (Intel), putting the processor in Legacy Game Mode (AMD / Ryzen: Ryzen Master).
    
    Also, the free edition of Process Lasso will allow you to set CPU core affinity per process, which may help get older Far Cry games to run. In Process Lasso, go to Options -> CPU -> CPU Affinities. There, set Process match=Far*Cry*, and set Affinity bitmask to either F, or 55. Click OK and then Add Rule. This should ensure that the game will have its CPU affinity changed while you have Process Lasso running.
  • To tweak the game's graphical/performance settings further, you can edit the GamerProfile.xml file. Some settings that may have an effect on the game can be found here. After editing, you may need to make the file read-only.
  • You can get an Error: Maine-118 when trying to open Far Cry Arcade. If that happens, the FarCry5.exe is unable to reach the Far Cry 5 services. I'm not sure which servers are used, but check to see if https://public-ubiservices.ubi.com/ is working.
  • Far Cry Mod Installer not starting? Install Microsoft .NET 5.0 Runtime.
  • Messed up graphics after upgrading (NVidia) GPU? Try deleting your old GPU's cache files at %AppData%\..\Local\NVIDIA\DXCache
  • Control remapping not working? The game saves modified controls in the %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Far Cry X\hidinputremapper.xml file. Make sure the game can write to that file. If it did, making the file read-only might help keep the settings intact.

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My research and development process takes some time, and if you feel like helping me keep awake at night, you can get me a coffee. :)

Feel free to send me a PM on Facebook, Reddit, NexusMods or Discord.

DISCLAIMER: This site and my projects are not supported nor endorsed by Ubisoft. Projects are provided 'AS-IS' and are subject to change.