Wednesday, November 23rd 2022
The Witcher 3 Next-Gen Update Adds Higher-res Textures, Ray Traced GI, DLSS and FSR 2
CD Projekt RED announced an unexpected content update for the now-7 year old "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt," an immensely popular AAA game that continues to be a favorite among GPU reviewers and PC enthusiasts. The content update, dubbed simply "Next Gen Update," is expected to go live on December 14, 2022. The free update adds several visual enhancements that would normally be marketed as a "Remastered" title, and sold separately.
To begin with, CDPR has increased texture resolutions, and redesigned the foliage to be more realistic. It gets new real-time ray traced global illumination (RT-GI), which should significantly improve the lighting throughout the game. The game also gets super-sampling performance enhancements, namely NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR 2. Thanks to the higher-resolution assets and RT-GI, the graphics settings now include a new preset called "Ultra+," which maxes out everything, including the new assets. The game's UI now offers more camera perspectives. For next-generation consoles, the update adds a new "Performance" mode that runs it at 60 FPS, and a new "Quality" mode that enables RT-GI along with FSR 2.The trailer for the new content update follows.
To begin with, CDPR has increased texture resolutions, and redesigned the foliage to be more realistic. It gets new real-time ray traced global illumination (RT-GI), which should significantly improve the lighting throughout the game. The game also gets super-sampling performance enhancements, namely NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR 2. Thanks to the higher-resolution assets and RT-GI, the graphics settings now include a new preset called "Ultra+," which maxes out everything, including the new assets. The game's UI now offers more camera perspectives. For next-generation consoles, the update adds a new "Performance" mode that runs it at 60 FPS, and a new "Quality" mode that enables RT-GI along with FSR 2.The trailer for the new content update follows.
138 Comments on The Witcher 3 Next-Gen Update Adds Higher-res Textures, Ray Traced GI, DLSS and FSR 2
Tried deleting/renaming the \Bin\x64_dx12\d3d11on12.dll but there isn't one in the bin folder, only in Windows/System32 :confused:
That is quite strange, make sure you have fast storage, i realized that my game was running on my old Sata SSD, moved it to my PCIE-E 4x nvme and i don't recall seeing those stutter. (altough it was after the hotfix).
I run with ReBAR on, but some people say that it could be the cause of the issue. (I have an AMD processor, it could be when you have a Intel + Nvidia combo).
On the other hand... even while taking into account this beta release - the nitpicking of its benchmark fan-base is also unrealistic. And i get it - they paid a lot of money for High-End+ hardware - and thus - they expect every game to give them a FPS ego stroke, yet... W3 Next-Gen which is suppose to offer some of the best visual samples (which in theory - is meant to shine on cutting edge hardware) - is more ore less glitchy - and that's impacting the highest possible settings (the visuals are there but the FPS is kinda embarrassing - for the hardware in question - especially while using a high end GPU from previous generation). To be fair, when it comes to DX12 software and cutting edge hardware (not necessarily - tho obviously - that's where we'll see the most troublesome issues) - the improvements & fixes are also tied to proper drivers (aka, GPU driver devs working with W3 NG devs - to optimize a future driver release).
Last but not least and also quite ironic (all things consider) - maybe even a good news for some people: the state of the game is far from bad - even while pairing an ancient GPU (well, not in the true sense of the word - but for the tech world a product released 10 years ago IS sometimes regarded as "ancient") with a modern CPU (i5 12th Gen). As in, even an old GPU like GTX 760 - which used to be appropriate for the classic version of W3 (nVidia GTX 770 / AMD R9 290 used to be the Recommended GPU - while nVidia GTX 660 / AMD HD 7870 was the Minimum recommendation) - is still capable enough (or more like - good enough - if that's the only option available) - to experience some of the Next-Gen visual improvements. Maybe not the most ideal experience - but with some tweaks here and there it's definitely playable - for someone who cares more about the game...
Think I would rather it is a new seperate game, as I wonder if its now even possible to run it in legacy mode? As asides from the massive performance nerf I think I prefer a lot of the scenes visually on the older engine.
Also not seen before/after for VRAM usage anywhere.
I think both lighting and water are better on older version. The performance drop looks crippling.
Great news :)
witcher/comments/zlnwdt Yep I have always said RT tends to look better on new games as they seem to deliberatly make RT off look rubbish, but on a game where it was originally designed to look good without RT, its very 'meh'.