CD PROJEKT RED (CDPR) recently released a new patch (4.01) for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that improves the overall stability and performance of the game on next-gen consoles and PC, including the addition of a PC-specific performance mode for ray-traced global illuminations, but the developer isn’t stopping there. According to a post that an employee shared on the official CDPR Forum today, the team is planning additional patches that should not only improve performance in the game even further via certain channels (e.g., better handling of CPU core utilization), but also resolve a number of outstanding issues, such as anomalies with ray tracing and game crashes. Users who have encountered problems with the game are encouraged to report their findings to CD PROJEKT RED’s technical support.
From a CD PROJEKT RED Forum post:
Thank you for your support and feedback on the Next-Gen update for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Following Patch 4.01, we wanted to take a moment to talk about some of the issues the team is currently working on and to give a better understanding of what’s ahead. We are working on patches for the game and investigating all the reports you’re sending our way – please keep them coming!
We are currently investigating the following issues:
- CPU core utilisation.
- We are working to improve how the game handles CPU core utilisation.
- Performance of the DirectX 12 version.
- We are continuously working to improve the overall performance and stability of the DirectX 12 version of the game, and hope that you’ll see improvements with the coming patches.
- Performance on next-gen consoles.
- We’ve received reports from players who have noticed a decrease in frame rate while playing in Performance Mode on next-gen consoles. This is especially noticed in more demanding areas of the game like Novigrad and Beauclair.
- Ray traced global illumination improvements.
- We’re working on reducing global illumination lighting leaks.
- Ray traced shadows improvements.
- We’re investigating an issue with vegetation shadows “popping” depending on Geralt’s proximity and angle.
- Restoring horizon-based ambient occlusion on PC.
- Game crashes.
- We are continuously investigating game crashes that are reported to us via telemetry and tech support tickets.
- Battle Preparations quest still not working after the patch for some players.
- We are aware that some players who experienced an issue where it could be impossible to interact with Avallac’h before patch 4.01, may now experience an issue where there are no dialogue options that can progress the quest after the fix. We’re working on the underlying cause and steps to reproduce it.