The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt: Official Thread

[Mchart]

I really doubt the field of view makes all that much difference but I'll certainly check it out when I get home later tonight. And I still think that Metro Exodus Enhanced has a lot more modern graphics being rendered and just as good of ray tracing effects from what I understand so I'm still not getting the massive performance difference. Hell Witcher 3 still has shit that changes LOD and pops in nearly right in front of you.

Metro EE does to, that's not really something any of these games does different. Only difference is that there is just a lot more shit going on in Witcher 3.

 

[Aireoth]

I really doubt the field of view makes all that much difference but I'll certainly check it out when I get home later tonight. And I still think that Metro Exodus Enhanced has a lot more modern graphics being rendered and just as good of ray tracing effects from what I understand so I'm still not getting the massive performance difference. Hell Witcher 3 still has shit that changes LOD and pops in nearly right in front of you.

lol, someone has never touched the fov slider and watched their fps numbers.

 

[jobert]

lol, someone has never touched the fov slider and watched their fps numbers.

I've moved the fov slider in plenty of games and never noticed any meaningful difference but like I said I'll look a little closer when I get home from work. I probably never noticed before because I had plenty of headroom at the settings I was using with vsync enabled so my actual frame rate didn't change.

 

[zandor]

I saw this on one of my discords and it seems to work.
Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\RivaTuner Statistics Server\Profiles and open the Config file as a Admin with notepad, and just paste these 2 lines:
[RendererDirect3D12]
D3D11on12=0
Then save.
If you can't save because of Admin rights, right click the Config file, choose "properties", then click the security-tab then click on the Users (DESKTOP random numbers\Users) and click the edit-button and put allow on all checkboxes. That should do the trick.

Another way that also works is to go to the drive where your Steam Common files are. Open The Witcher 3/bin/x64_dx12 and move these 2 files to a new folder or delete them.

d3d11on12.dll
dxil.dll
and restart the game.
I have not seen a single person say it didn't work or that it fucked up their game, so...yeah. GL!

Thanks. I'll give it a try. Might try fraps first though. I'm just looking for some sort of actual performance readout. Not sure what I can get away with settings wise with a 3090 running at 4k. 60fps should be fine, pretty sure my 10th gen i9 can handle that. I rarely play 3rd person games and they always feel clunky for at least a few days when I start playing one. Tuning the old FPS vs. looks balance is way easier when I have some numbers.

 

[jobert]

lol, someone has never touched the fov slider and watched their fps numbers.

I had a feeling you were exaggerating on the effect of FOV in Metro Exodus and sure enough at the narrowest FOV it was bouncing between 75 and 74 fps and on the widest FOV it was at 72 fps so 3 to 4% difference.

 

[SeymourGore]

Had a chance to play a little bit - definitely felt that 'stutter' in DX12 mode. And the combat is really beginning to feel its age - after playing Elden Ring, God of War, Tsushima - it's hard to go back to Witcher 3's style. Really hoping they'll move to a Dark Souls-esque system for the next game.

Definitely felt the HDR improvements, RT tanked my performance but I didn't delve much into the effects to make it work - just wanted to do a quick check. Everything feels more colourful, I was only in White Orchid but the colours made me feel like I was in Toussaint.

Also, booted up the PS5 version to test out the new cross save progression. It worked well enough (after I downloaded a few add-on quests to make the two versions identical). Well, I thought it was the PS5 version, but then realized (and which I should've known after my experience with FF VII Remake) I had to go back into the PS store to download the PS5 digital upgrade.

Oh, and there doesn't appear to be a way to change keybinds for gamepads in the menu - so I think I'll be sticking with the KB+M experience for the replay afterall. The Dark Souls control scheme has become my WASD for gamepad control.

 

[NmCRooK]

^^^ Agreed the combat is dated and needs that Dark souls responsiveness instead of floaty.

 

[horrorshow]

F this updated version.

Due to the new launcher, I can't even load a fresh install of "classic" and have all the usual/typical mods work. I have to launch the game from Mod Manager every time to get HDRP....

Can anyone confirm GOG has the 1.32 version downloadable offline without Redlauncher? Thanks (I'll buy that version immediately for 10 bucks)

 

[Starfalcon]

F this updated version.

Due to the new launcher, I can't even load a fresh install of "classic" and have all the usual/typical mods work. I have to launch the game from Mod Manager every time to get HDRP....

Can anyone confirm GOG has the 1.32 version downloadable offline without Redlauncher? Thanks (I'll buy that version immediately for 10 bucks)

In my witcher 3 version that updated to the new version, it has the old version available with offline install still so you should be good. I actually only use the offline versions and never use gog galaxy.

 

[horrorshow]

In my witcher 3 version that updated to the new version, it has the old version available with offline install still so you should be good. I actually only use the offline versions and never use gog galaxy.

Excellent. Thanks for letting me know (and yeah, offline DL's only )

EDIT:

Well that sucks. Perfectly good 10 bucks down the drain.... (Figured everyone should know)

- Guess I gotta go that "other way"..

 

[CAD4466HK]

F this updated version.

Due to the new launcher, I can't even load a fresh install of "classic" and have all the usual/typical mods work. I have to launch the game from Mod Manager every time to get HDRP....

Can anyone confirm GOG has the 1.32 version downloadable offline without Redlauncher? Thanks (I'll buy that version immediately for 10 bucks)

Good info there, thanks.

 

[horrorshow]

Good info there, thanks.

Modded ("the other way") on GoG 1.32:

- All the mods included in 4.0 (and then some), but at 90 fps SOLID instead of 50-ish /w stutter.

 

[LurkerLito]

Excellent. Thanks for letting me know (and yeah, offline DL's only )

EDIT:

View attachment 534867

Well that sucks. Perfectly good 10 bucks down the drain.... (Figured everyone should know)

- Guess I gotta go that "other way"..

The v1.32 GOTY version is in the extras if you want to download that version. And the v4.00 Starts for me without the launcher (installed from the offline installer you are showing in the screenshot you posted).

 

[InaDaise]

So I take it from reading some of the posts, and I haven't read all of them, that DLSS Quality and TAA have about the same image quality except there are a few visual glitches here and there in DLSS Quality but not prevalent throughout the game. If I'm wrong in any of that I can take the corrections.

Edit: I've tried both while using RT and it does look better than with no AA. With both AA methods I notice better reflections or lighting on leaves and pine branches. Compared to a kind of flat looking no AA as far as the lighting appearance. And the clouds look better and just about everything else looks better than with no AA. So I can't go back to no AA even though it would greatly improve fps.

 

[Mchart]

So I take it from reading some of the posts, and I haven't read all of them, that DLSS Quality and TAA have about the same image quality except there are a few visual glitches here and there in DLSS Quality but not prevalent throughout the game. If I'm wrong in any of that I can take the corrections.

Edit: I've tried both while using RT and it does look better than with no AA. With both AA methods I notice better reflections or lighting on leaves and pine branches. Compared to a kind of flat looking no AA as far as the lighting appearance. And the clouds look better and just about everything else looks better than with no AA. So I can't go back to no AA even though it would greatly improve fps.

DLSS quality improves FPS. There’s basically no reason not to use it even if you don’t need the FPS improvement.

 

[spaceman]

I turned off the rt and at 3440x1440 with a 5600x and 3090 it is running fine. Mostly around 120 fps. A hitch here and there but pretty damn fluid. With rt on the game is a mess.

 

[Starfalcon]

Excellent. Thanks for letting me know (and yeah, offline DL's only )

EDIT:

View attachment 534867

Well that sucks. Perfectly good 10 bucks down the drain.... (Figured everyone should know)

- Guess I gotta go that "other way"..

The original version in mine is on the bottom right hand side under the extras, it shows original 1.32 classic version.

 

[Archaea]

I turned off the rt and at 3440x1440 with a 5600x and 3090 it is running fine. Mostly around 120 fps. A hitch here and there but pretty damn fluid. With rt on the game is a mess.

RT does look better. There’s no question here. In games I’ve played so far that had RT and were heralded for it I was mostly indifferent to turning it on or off. The raster lighting in these praised games was also very good I found.
Metro
Cyberpunk
Control

With Witcher 3 — it does seem to add more realism to the game world. I find myself (so far) preferring to play with RT turned on at lower FPS than turned off with higher FPS.

I have RT on, DLSS at balanced, both blurs turned off, chromatic aberration off, and everything else at max settings. It’s 30-40 FPS on my 3080 and 12700K. It looks very good! It’s right on the threshold of performance acceptability though unfortunately, and I can certainly understand how the trade off wouldn’t be worth it to some.

 

[Mchart]

For those that have a 40 series card - The frame generation on this game causes massive stuttering, although that could be because it disables nvidia reflex. I didn't try playing with both off, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the stuttering people are getting is due to GPU downclocks because of random CPU bottlenecks. This is one of the few games I wouldn't mind using frame generation on, but the massive stutters were so bad that it wasn't worth it.

 

[noko]

Thanks. I'll give it a try. Might try fraps first though. I'm just looking for some sort of actual performance readout. Not sure what I can get away with settings wise with a 3090 running at 4k. 60fps should be fine, pretty sure my 10th gen i9 can handle that. I rarely play 3rd person games and they always feel clunky for at least a few days when I start playing one. Tuning the old FPS vs. looks balance is way easier when I have some numbers.

Install GF Experience, in game -> Alt + R

 

[pandora's box]

For those that have a 40 series card - The frame generation on this game causes massive stuttering, although that could be because it disables nvidia reflex. I didn't try playing with both off, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the stuttering people are getting is due to GPU downclocks because of random CPU bottlenecks. This is one of the few games I wouldn't mind using frame generation on, but the massive stutters were so bad that it wasn't worth it.

Not experiencing the GPU downclocking here. If your on a AMD motherboard, update the chipset drivers. Before I updated I was getting stuttering too, now its smooth.

 

[Archaea]

Has anyone here tried it on xbox series x? How's it look on the console compared to maxed out PC?

EDIT
Saw this for PC vs PS5 -- so probably similar.

 

[Mchart]

That video does a good job of demonstrating how much the raytracing adds to some areas, you can see on the console how much certain things have been toned down if not completely turned off. Console version also looks like it has general Vaseline smear over everything to hide the upsampling.

 

[robbiekhan]

There is definitely CPU optimisation (or lack of), and GPU too, at times I saw the GPU use drop below 80& lol and that was with RT enabled...

In Novigrad and nominal seems to be 30-44. Look at the RTSS stats, the CPU is not really being taxed at all still. Ray tracing off results in ~70 fps inside the city walls, but if you go inside a building, the RT on or off framerate doesn't increase vs staying outside which confirms an optimisation issue since the engine should not be rendering stuff that cannot be seen, so the framerate should be much higher indoors.

RT on:

RT off:

RT on:

RT off:

RT on:

RT off:

RT on:

RT off:

RT on:

RT off:

RT on:

RT off:

 

[spaceman]

Big difference there. Damn.

 

[robbiekhan]

Definitely, ray traced global illumination has been implemented really well in this game, just if only they would now optimise the engine. It's running DX11 on top of DX12 so I guess there is only so much overhead to go round :/

 

[spaceman]

My rig is running mostly above 60 fps with rt global on and dlss at balanced with mostly medium settings at 3440x1440 w 5600x and a 3090. Playable. Really impressive looking for an older game. Especially in regards to the monsters.

I hope they optimize it more but am enjoying things as they are. Such a great looking game.

 

[Mchart]

My only general agreement with others is that the combat has not aged well with this game. Everything else about it is great, but after Elden Ring in particular - The combat here just sucks.

 

[spaceman]

My only general agreement with others is that the combat has not aged well with this game. Everything else about it is great, but after Elden Ring in particular - The combat here just sucks.

Yeah. Combat was never great. I play for the story and visuals.

 

[Decko87]

I liked the combat back in 2015, but you had to play on the hardest difficulty or there was basically no to lose.

 

[GSDragoon]

My only general agreement with others is that the combat has not aged well with this game. Everything else about it is great, but after Elden Ring in particular - The combat here just sucks.

I'm finding the controls and movement to be worse. I'm constantly fighting Gerald and Roach, trying to make them go where I want. Was hoping for more QoL improvement here.

 

[Archaea]

I'm finding the controls and movement to be worse. I'm constantly fighting Gerald and Roach, trying to make them go where I want. Was hoping for more QoL improvement here.

Switch control method to “alternate” in the game menu. It’s much better, if you aren’t already there. It changes the animation and movement for the better.

 

[noko]

There is definitely CPU optimisation (or lack of), and GPU too, at times I saw the GPU use drop below 80& lol and that was with RT enabled...

In Novigrad and nominal seems to be 30-44. Look at the RTSS stats, the CPU is not really being taxed at all still. Ray tracing off results in ~70 fps inside the city walls, but if you go inside a building, the RT on or off framerate doesn't increase vs staying outside which confirms an optimisation issue since the engine should not be rendering stuff that cannot be seen, so the framerate should be much higher indoors.

RT on:
View attachment 534960
RT off:
View attachment 534961


RT on:
View attachment 534962
RT off:
View attachment 534963


RT on:
View attachment 534964
RT off:
View attachment 534965


RT on:
View attachment 534966
RT off:
View attachment 534967


RT on:
View attachment 534968
RT off:
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RT on:
View attachment 534970
RT off:
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No shadows in the none RT images, games would use raytraced lightmaps which are absent here. Of course RT would look noticeably better here. Add in the poor CPU usage which makes DLSS 3 look that much better. Plus game runs like crap on AMD PC hardware, like zero optimizations or concern. I would almost suspect this title would be a great marketing tool for Nvidia on why you need to buy their 4000 series GPUs . On my 3090, Ultra settings w/o Motion Blur, Blur (stuff that hides artifacts)Chromatic Aberrations, 50 FPS with DLSS on Balance at 4K is not exactly I call an older game running well. Good enough for me to play through when I get to it, that is if I don't have a 7900 XTX later. Who was this game really made for? For less RT capable hardware -> looks like 95% of GPU owners, the older version would be much better in my opinion.

 

[robbiekhan]

No shadows in the none RT images, games would use raytraced lightmaps which are absent here. Of course RT would look noticeably better here. Add in the poor CPU usage which makes DLSS 3 look that much better. Plus game runs like crap on AMD PC hardware, like zero optimizations or concern. I would almost suspect this title would be a great marketing tool for Nvidia on why you need to buy their 4000 series GPUs . On my 3090, Ultra settings w/o Motion Blur, Blur (stuff that hides artifacts)Chromatic Aberrations, 50 FPS with DLSS on Balance at 4K is not exactly I call an older game running well. Good enough for me to play through when I get to it, that is if I don't have a 7900 XTX later. Who was this game really made for? For less RT capable hardware -> looks like 95% of GPU owners, the older version would be much better in my opinion.

Yep and Callisto Protol is proof that non RT effects in screen space can very closely produce almost RT-like effects which is why enabling RT in Callisto produces very similar visuals to having RT on, just with 100fps vs the 50 odd currently being seen. If CDPR made the next gen on DX12 as opposed to a layered DX11 on DX12, then this may well have been possible in terms of framerate, but visually they just didn't put much effort into making it next gen within screen space effects and as such have relied on RT hardware to brute force the visuals in and then use frame gen to up the fps.

 

[noko]

Yep and Callisto Protol is proof that non RT effects in screen space can very closely produce almost RT-like effects which is why enabling RT in Callisto produces very similar visuals to having RT on, just with 100fps vs the 50 odd currently being seen. If CDPR made the next gen on DX12 as opposed to a layered DX11 on DX12, then this may well have been possible in terms of framerate, but visually they just didn't put much effort into making it next gen within screen space effects and as such have relied on RT hardware to brute force the visuals in and then use frame gen to up the fps.

Callisto to me is just smart RT where it enhances the IQ and using other techniques that work just or almost as well without the performance hit. the 7900 XTX is doing very good at this stage of the game with RT on, maybe even better than the 4090 but not sure. As for this new edition of Witcher 3, with DX 11 layered DX 12 (single thread draw calls but Nvidia in drivers I think will do 2 threads while AMD is more limited will take a big hit) is made for whom? I guess the Consoles was really the main point for CDPR to make some money, while the PC side looks heavily Nvidia influenced or paid for.

 

[Mchart]

Callisto to me is just smart RT where it enhances the IQ and using other techniques that work just or almost as well without the performance hit. the 7900 XTX is doing very good at this stage of the game with RT on, maybe even better than the 4090 but not sure. As for this new edition of Witcher 3, with DX 11 layered DX 12 (single thread draw calls but Nvidia in drivers I think will do 2 threads while AMD is more limited will take a big hit) is made for whom? I guess the Consoles was really the main point for CDPR to make some money, while the PC side looks heavily Nvidia influenced or paid for.

The console version looks like shit compared to the PC version. Even the PC version with no raytracing period still looks better.

Yes, they targeted the latest GPUs with this game, and if you have the horsepower to run it, it looks outstanding.

 

[LukeTbk]

Callisto to me is just smart RT where it enhances the IQ and using other techniques that work just or almost as well without the performance hit

I never thought that game will be ever used has an example of smart optimization for performance:

Maybe the patch changed stuff but at launch at least
https://www.dsogaming.com/pc-performance-analyses/the-callisto-protocol-pc-performance-analysis/
Add to this the fact that the game cannot take full advantage of modern-day CPUs, and you got yourself an unoptimized mess with RT enabled. Therefore, and at this point, we suggest avoiding Ray Tracing like the plague, even if you own high-end CPUs and GPUs.

Going from Ultra to Max RT according to this:
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/the-callisto-protocol-benchmark-test-performance-analysis/4.html

Goes to 73 fps to 41 (44% drop) and 62 to 38 (38% drop) in the 2 scene they tried, is that significantly different than Metro, Control or Cyberpunk RT ?

 

[Aireoth]

Callisto suffers from the same problem as every game that crams in a bunch of real actors and motion capture, the entire rest of the design and development suffers. Every game has a budget, the more that goes to talent, the less left for everything else.

Heck, I don't know what most are on about, I could barely tell the difference between RT on and off in it except for my frames dying.

 

[noko]

The console version looks like shit compared to the PC version. Even the PC version with no raytracing period still looks better.

Yes, they targeted the latest GPUs with this game, and if you have the horsepower to run it, it looks outstanding.

Yes, it can look outstanding with some serious performance requirements. Consoles IQ does not compare with top end PC's but does compare with what the majority use, probably better in that respect. It is relative, comparing a $1600GPU requiring some serious CPU/Ram and everything else to a $599 console kinda makes the consoles seem like the best machines to own for gaming if $ are a concern.

 

[motqalden]

Runs pretty good on my 3090 and 5900x. Turned everything to max with dlss on balanced and im getting 43-50 fps. Feels playable with vrr (4k)