CD PROJEKT RED has released a PC hotfix for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to address some of the issues introduced by its new next-gen update, which began rolling out on December 14 at midnight GMT on PC and Xbox Series X|S, and midnight local time on PS5, bringing a range of modern features that include ray-traced global illumination and ambient occlusion to the 2015 action RPG.
“We’ve just released a hotfix for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on PC which should improve overall stability and performance of the game, and fix GOG & Steam overlays. The game version won’t change,” CD PROJEKT RED wrote regarding the update, which was released today, December 19.
“At the same time, the next-gen update has been released for the Origin version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt,” the company added. “The game version is going to be 4.0.”
According to a lengthy troubleshooting thread on r/Witcher, some of the problems that The Witcher 3 players have encountered after installing its next-gen update include crashes, memory leaks, save files that won’t load, and graphical oddities, such as “awful-looking” grass.
Some GeForce owners (e.g., GeForce RTX 2070/3070) have gone so far as to claim that the game is “unplayable” with ray tracing enabled in another reddit thread that was posted to document performance and visual issues introduced by the The Witcher 3’s next-gen update.
“Our teams are working on further improving the experience on all platforms,” CD PROJEKT RED promised in its announcement for the PC hotfix that released today.
Patch notes for The Witcher 3’s next-gen update can confirm that it introduces the following PC-specific features for the game:
- “ULTRA+” graphical settings on PC, which significantly increases the visual fidelity of the game
- Number of background characters
- Shadow quality
- Grass density
- Texture quality
- Foliage visibility range
- Terrain quality
- Water quality
- Detail level
The Witcher 3’s next-gen update also adds support for the latest iteration of NVIDIA’s upscaling technology, DLSS 3, which appears to be exclusive to the company’s GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs at this time.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt originally released for PS4, Windows, and Xbox One platforms on May 19, 2015.
Discussion (19 replies)
Join Discussion →We'll see - encountered my first 'game-breaking' bug while playing with RT on using an RX6800 during one of the quests.
Game would freeze, then crash to desktop and CDPRs reporting tool would pop up. Game would also refuse to relaunch until the system was rebooted, which makes me think that this may be a bug that is shared with AMDs Radeon drivers. Haven't seen an AMD GPU driver update yet either, which would probably be helpful too.
Seems a little smoother. MSI AB OSD is working now. That's a mixed blessing though as now I can see I'm averaging 39-50 FPS in RT Ultra/DLSS Quality. I dropped DLSS down to balanced and maybe gained a few more frames. I'm also using an OC setting with the 3090 Ti and it's holding 2115-2130 MHz. I've noticed that while in the forests it consumes upwards of 430-450 Watts. I still have to give EVGA credit with its AIO holding it to 58-64c.
Here's a 4K screenshot. It looks washed out because it was captured while using HDR. I can also now verify that HDR is on.
Saw DF posted this stuff, but haven't watched/read yet:
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I have to say the game really does look incredible now (I'm sure a part of my perception with this has to do with being the 1st playthrough I've done on the C2). A majority of the upgrades are just environmental stuff so character textures are a mixed bag most of the time but otherwise, I often will stop to just pan around and look at the scenery. I also have been changing the time passage rate to 0.25 and I swear it makes things look clearer since the lighting doesn't have to change as quickly. Pretty happy with the 5800X3D rig also since the game is still playable, even in its current state, with ultra settings at 4K.
I noticed a new bug yesterday as well. When turning the character there's often a pause. Prior to this update there was a stutter but now there's a full delay. If I used the camera to turn instead and then pushed forward it didn't happen. Also the map auto-pilot is really confused now. It's rarely picking the best paths. Its always had issues but seems far worse but doesn't bother me since I already know my way around and I rarely use Roach since I'm taking in the visuals.
So... took a few tries (and reboots), but I eventually got past this issue, and haven't run into it since.
Loading seems to be a bit laggy too - you're not really 'loaded in' until several seconds after loading up a save, on my AMD rig. Inputs are a little slow and movement mechanics feel a bit numb; I should probably try the game with RT off again as it ran spectacularly well on the same 5800X3D / RX6800 rig previously.
Would really like to see how this game runs on a variety of CPU and GPU combinations!
I'm experiencing some odd controller delays as well. I'd swear I'm seeing them just pushing buttons for menus and other responses. I've got a newer(2021-22) BT Xbox controller and I'm used to some lag but this seems more exaggerated than normal. I also noticed that loads are a little longer than expected (considering PCIe 4.0 SSD and everything else on the 5800X3D rig I'd expect them to be quicker), considering they said that was one of the goals with the next-gen build. I do without a doubt have rebar working as well so, on that rig, there's no real reason for slow loading.
I'm using an official Xbox controller adapter - so not using BT - and it's still there. I'm fairly certain it's the game, as I plowed through Jedi: Fallen Order as well as Mortal Kombat 11 without input lag issues. Have had issues with the controllers desyncing then resyncing though, not sure what's up with that. Could be spectrum congestion.
Same; went through Brent's instructions from his last article to make sure it was enabled too. Only real slowdown I have in that rig is that I'm using a 2x32GB kit of DDR4-3200 CL16, which I need to swap out for another rig; it'll get a 3800 CL14 kit soon (...as USPS deigns to actually deliver the package).
Yep, I was grinning when I read his write up on that. I've been tracking it since it came out and was so happy when I could turn it on with the 5800X3D. My laptop with the 11800H has it's own version going as well. The only downside I've seen on both is temp spikes on the CPU during those blistering fast loads. I've seen it with Spiderman Remastered and Horizon Zero Dawn but I don't worry as both are mere seconds but its interesting to watch in AB.
This and SSD direct access reminds of the days of making sure DMA for platters, and anything else that could use it, was on and doing everything possible to get traffic off the FSB.
Did some more testing last night on the 4930K. It was depressing but I did notice some of the controller delays are still there even with an Intel platform but it could just be that rig. I'm at the part in Velen where the Baron's castle is on fire and there's rain and a lot of NPC activity. The poor 4930/X79 rig could only manage around 30-34 FPS despite the the 3090 Ti purring along at 2070 MHz w/ 60-80% usage since the CPU couldn't keep it fed. By comparison the 5800X3D was holding 40-50 FPS in the same section and its 3090 Ti was only running about 50 MHz higher. I was so tempted to start ordering a new mobo/CPU/ram last night but I keep reminding myself to hold out a few more months for the next 3D V cache stuff. I also got tempted by a scalper on Newegg who's selling the liquid cooled Suprim 4090 for 'only' $500 more than MSRP. I almost slapped myself lol!
At some point I'll try a controller on the laptop which has a much faster memory, NVMe, CPU (11800H 8c/16t @ 4-4.4 GHz), and rebar @1080p and report if I see the same delays but it probably won't be until sometime next week.
This has been a newly-emerging trend - that games with aspirational RT implementations are more CPU-bound than those with more token implementations or similar games that rely solely on rasterization. Still not that much though, as when it comes to compute performance the 5800X3D isn't really a record breaker, as it's slower than its non-X3D part in pure compute, and it's handling the extra load just fine.
I've seen Microcenter giving away 12700K + Z690 TUF DDR4 (ASUS) bundles for US$300 already this year. If I didn't have one already, that'd have gotten me to bite. Still, would be worth waiting, since DDR5 is also going to keep dropping in price, and boards that will support AM5 CPUs are slowly creeping down in price too.
As for scalpers... I say let 'em eat their losses.
I'm waiting for a second Xbox controller adapter to come in to use on my desktop system, and I'll see how that works. I don't recall it being much of an issue though with the 3080 in that system, but working from memory isn't really going to help much!
So both of you are playing the game with a controller? Do you feel the game plays better with a controller than a keyboard and mouse?
I'm more comfortable with a controller for most games, there are a few I prefer with a mouse, but I've always found this game in particular to be very jerky with the camera when I tried a mouse but that could just be me.
Just a note to everyone that CDPR rolled out Hotfix #2 a few days ago. Nothing major but the game does seem a little smoother and fewer controller delays now.
My first playthrough was with KBM. That worked pretty well, and the only real problems I'd faced were due to me not knowing.... how to like, play the game after putting it down for a while. Blocking, dodging, rolling, countering are all very important.
Thing is, the action is quite a bit slower and the opponents quite a bit putzier, so using a controller with some input lag and even playing with lower framerates (20FPS to 30FPS) isn't going to stop you if you know what you're doing.
To wit, I've down multiple bosses in quests that had a level rating of ?. First time I did one, I had to repair the sword three times during the fight; the higher difficulty level mostly just lowers the rate of damage that can be done and makes the consequences of mistakes more severe.
Best advice I can give is to get good at dodging. Unless it's an AoE attack (larger opponents), you can typically dodge through their thrusts and do a quick swing to knock them off balance, and then alternate heavy and light attacks to keep them off balance. And if an opponent shelters in some way, step back and wait for the next opening.
But yeah, totally doable on a controller. I'll say that it's an even better experience than KBM, if only because it's 'smoother' and the snappiness of a mouse just isn't needed.
It's probably old age and other things that life throws at us but in the last few years, I've finally come to the realization that with the games I'm currently into I have to commit to one at a time because of this. It's what, in a big way, held me off from playing CB2077 for so long (admittedly I was somewhat intimidated after completing the various tutorials early on but in the end was actually pretty easy once I got used to it and not as alien as I feared). However, from Horizon Zero Dawn, Spider-Man Remastered, Metro Exodus, God Of War, Red Dead Redemption 2 to CB 2077, and now this game, these are obviously not in order, the controller schemes are somewhat different and I just can't remember everything all the time anymore. I kind of feel bad that I put RDR2 down once again in favor of this but it's really nice to return to this game for one last hurrah.