The Witcher 3 Next-Gen Update Adds Higher-res Textures, Ray Traced GI, DLSS and FSR 2

[bug]

they couldn't do a spin off maybe, I'm not asking for whitcher 4, instead of wasting time with the resolution of the leaves. Or a pack with new missions instead of wasting time or continuing with cyberpunk a real disappointment, talking about cdproject

All Witcher titles had an enhanced edition at some point. In fact, I only got the first one because I couldn't believe a developer would release such an incredible amount of extra content for free.

 

[trsttte]

If you think about it, the books didn't get wide popularity because they're too dark and fragmented in writing. The Witcher 1 did a perfect job of replicating that, so it didn't become widely popular, either. Some tweaking was needed

The books also had the common problem of Polish not being English

I haven't read the books yet but I loved the storytelling of the first game, how it's all connected and leading towards the end. The combat system was pretty awkward but it only takes a moment to get a hang on it.

people only cried because it run like crap on the PS4 and because it wasn't actually GTA: Night City, which CDPR never said it would be.

That's not entirely fair, CDPR played a big part on hyping "GTA: Night City" and the game was barely playable on both PS4 and Xbox One - so bad it was removed from the platforms, not just the usual "muh uh it runs bad!". They knew how bad it was and tried to hide it with all demos specifically done on PC, but for whatever reason had to release it like that (contracts, shareholders, whatever), but it was crap. It's not even like it was a cross generation title, it was purely developed for the PS4/Xbox one generations.

There's not living up to the hype - sad but to be expected with something so hyped, and there's the worst release quality in recent history, this unfortunately was both.

 

[bug]

The books also had the common problem of Polish not being English

I haven't read the books yet but I loved the storytelling of the first game, how it's all connected and leading towards the end. The combat system was pretty awkward but it only takes a moment to get a hang on it.

I've heard that complaint before, however, there was an easy workaround: you don't like combat? Major in signs instead. Fwiw, the final battle was pretty tough with the sword, but when I went signs, I cast maxxed Ignis like twice and then I was like "where'd everyone go?".
Plus, you don't play the series for the combat, you play it for the story.

Books, I haven't gone through all of them yet. They're like the Netflix series, seemingly unrelated stories until you realize it's the same story, just told in out-of-order fashion. Great overall, imho, but the out-of-order will surely phase some.

 

[AusWolf]

I've heard that complaint before, however, there was an easy workaround: you don't like combat? Major in signs instead. Fwiw, the final battle was pretty tough with the sword, but when I went signs, I cast maxxed Ignis like twice and then I was like "where'd everyone go?".
Plus, you don't play the series for the combat, you play it for the story.

Books, I haven't gone through all of them yet. They're like the Netflix series, seemingly unrelated stories until you realize it's the same story, just told in out-of-order fashion. Great overall, imho, but the out-of-order will surely phase some.

It's pretty ironic that out of the only two things that the show got right in the first season (Henry Cavill and the storytelling style), one of them ended up being one of the key points of criticism.

That's not entirely fair, CDPR played a big part on hyping "GTA: Night City" and the game was barely playable on both PS4 and Xbox One - so bad it was removed from the platforms, not just the usual "muh uh it runs bad!". They knew how bad it was and tried to hide it with all demos specifically done on PC, but for whatever reason had to release it like that (contracts, shareholders, whatever), but it was crap. It's not even like it was a cross generation title, it was purely developed for the PS4/Xbox one generations.

There's not living up to the hype - sad but to be expected with something so hyped, and there's the worst release quality in recent history, this unfortunately was both.

I'm not saying that console performance wasn't a big issue - it just wasn't a big issue for me. I'm not gonna recite "PC master race" crap, but if I ever wanted to, this would be the time.

Hype is a strange thing - on the one hand, you have material coming from the media and the studios themselves. On the other hand, you form your own preconceived notions of the final product that may or may not have a correlation to the media material presented to you. Maybe you see a car chase scene in one of the trailers and conclude that the whole game is going to be about car chases. In reality, that car chase might be one single scene from the game. Or just an animated sequence that never gets featured to get you into the atmosphere of the game. What I'm trying to say is that hype isn't just about what you see, but it's more about what you think of it. CDPR isn't more responsible for the hype around Cyberpunk 2077 than Nvidia is for the hype around the GeForce and RTX brands. It's always up to the end user to decide whether something is worth hyping, or whether it should be taken with a pinch of salt. Personally, I never give any media material any credit until I see the final game with my own eyes.

 

[mouacyk]

"buy now"

 

[KLMR]

"60 FPS MODE" X_D

 

[medi01]

A: "Ray Traced GI!"
B: What will it do?
A: Guaranteed to tank your FPS
B: Oh

crysis remaster with almost no difference...

Fun fact: Epic lumen (here is the demo if you missed it) runs slower with "hardware RT" enabled.

Some things about "hardware acceleration" are hard to comprehend...

 

[AusWolf]

A: "Ray Traced GI!"
B: What will it do?
A: Guaranteed to tank your FPS
B: Oh

I'm not too worried about that, as the original Witcher 3 already runs at 100+ FPS with maxed out settings on modern hardware. It was a game developed with the GTX 960-980 in mind.

 

[chrcoluk]

I see they've also added rt reflections
"improved Screen Space Reflections"
.......oh, nevermind... hope we can turn these off, I hate screen space garbageflections

Curious if the pre RT lighting got nerfed so RT looks better and if the game has been slowed down to sell GPUs like they did with cyberpunk patch updates.

Also can a 10gig 3080 handle the improved textures?

 

[AusWolf]

Also can a 10gig 3080 handle the improved textures?

I'm sure it can. The original game uses around 2 GB at 1080p ultra.

 

[mouacyk]

I'm sure it can. The original game uses around 2 GB at 1080p ultra.

It sure can. I'm running 3840x1620 with hd textures and vRAm is around 6GB.

 

[Punkenjoy]

If the game was just an HD texture, it would probably be fine. Something those HD texture aren't super optimized so maybe there is some room there. But if it had a lot of new effects like better Screen space reflection, Ray tracing, etc. It will need to save that data into memory.

I still think that 10 GB will be fine for this game and at worst, it's probable that just lowering a settings will do the trick (and it's quite possible the visual loss wouldn't be perceptible). We are still not sure what exactly they aim, but with the new gen of cards, 10+ gb cards will become more numerous. There are a lot of 12, 16 GB and 24 GB cards around and at some point, Devs will want to utilize that with ultra settings.

 

[Aquinus]

I wonder what the motivation is for doing this. Something at the end of the tunnel has to be making money.

 

[bug]

I wonder what the motivation is for doing this. Something at the end of the tunnel has to be making money.

That's how they cater to their customers. They did it for the other installments of the franchise as well.

 

[Prima.Vera]

what's a "Ray Traced GI" ?? and how does this visually compare with existing GI ?

 

[AusWolf]

what's a "Ray Traced GI" ?? and how does this visually compare with existing GI ?

Must be the initials of Geralt of (R)ivia. I guess his rays are gonna be traced now.

 

[Fluffmeister]

The day AMD are better at ray tracing is the day it becomes an important feature for their fans.

I for one welcome this free update.

 

[bug]

what's a "Ray Traced GI" ?? and how does this visually compare with existing GI ?

Current GI is mostly a pre-baked approximation (or a series of). Ray tracing makes that fully dynamic and thus more realistic.
Here's a (very) high level overview: https://developer.nvidia.com/rtx/ray-tracing/rtxgi
Keep in mind GI is just one aspect of ray tracing though: https://developer.nvidia.com/rtx/ray-tracing

 

[Chomiq]

I wonder what the motivation is for doing this. Something at the end of the tunnel has to be making money.

Makes people that finished the game revisit it, revive the franchise, as well as bringing in new players ("new content inspired by The Witcher series").

 

[Easo]

Must be the initials of Geralt of (R)ivia. I guess his rays are gonna be traced now.

Gary the metrosexual fruitcake truly is the light in our lives.

 

[Fluffmeister]

The update has just dropped on Steam, downloading now!

 

[AsRock]

The update has just dropped on Steam, downloading now!

Yeah a little over 45GB .

 

[mouacyk]

there's just a little bit of stuttering... not sure what's going on. might need another patch to smooth it out

 

[The King]

Good thing I upgraded from my RX 480.

 

[Space Lynx]

@AsRock or anyone

The next Witcher 3 update today, I am playing it, but the camera angle is really weird, its more zoomed in Mass Effect style, I do not like it, is there anyway to go back to the old camera style while keeping the next gen update?