If you have the PC version, you can try them out. Some people found the files packed among the game files, and are working to get them all up and running. 

Makes a huge difference, and isn't all that much more taxing either. Begs the question why Ubisoft didn't bother including them as an option. 

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=838538

Modder "The Worse" originally found the files. 

That's why I said you can try them out :P

And last I heard, some of the files still need to be unpacked. 

Looks like the industry is attempting to force parity on PC versus consoles. Thankfully, modder's do a better job with their product than the industry has the balls to.

It's almost like as if Ubisoft makes us have to help ourselves to a better looking game.

Agreed. Also makes you wonder why Ubisoft didn't remove the files. Were they planning on an update to increase performance, or DLC to unlock performance? Do the console versions also have these files? It's interesting, to say the least. 

Well damn. I'll be sure to mention this to my brother. He bought a GTX 770 a couple weeks ago and it came with Watchdogs, but he had already gotten the PS4 version before deciding on getting a new GPU.

Well, that kind of laziness can be simply chalked up as an industry norm.  Think Beyond Two Souls and the naked images of Ellen Page, or Hot coffee ala GTA.  Apparently it's an industry standard to leave a bunch of stuff that probably got axed during the design phase (or due to gaming politics), in the game, but simply break the line of code that would've promoted it live.

Either way, we should all be thankful that we have extremely skilled modders out there to fix whatever fuckups the industry decides to pursue.

is this a joke? They ve just put DoF at max, to the point you can't see at 5 meters. Bokeh and dof are already in the game, they are just set at realistic level. The game is still a stutter mess.

What the E3 2012 version featured, was Pom, more complex wind simulation (leaves flowing around), and more complex lightning.

There's a lot more than DoF they've discovered. Look at some of the screenshots in the link. Rain physics, headlight shadows, and much more on the way as modders continue unpacking the content.