Witcher 3 downgrade arguments in here and nowhere else

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Totobeni

An blind dancing ho
Personally, I'll take the latest footage running at 60fps than the previous at sub 30fps.

Scalability is everything since it's PC, so why not put the best quality assets and let people with low end PC tone it down to get better frame rate or whatever instead of downgrading the entire thing for everyone.
 

Sanctuary

Member
Scalability is everything since it's PC, so why not put the best quality assets and let people with low end PC tone it down to get better frame rate or whatever instead of downgrading the entire thing for everyone.

I'm just saying if I had to choose between the two, I'd be fine with the current iteration as long as it runs well. And anymore, exclusive bells and whistles for the PC versions of games shouldn't even be thought of as a factor. Almost no one is doing it when developing a multiplatform game. Why would they spend development time and resources on assets that are going to be on the platform the game will most likely sell the least on anyway? Those $5 Steam sales or whatever in a year shouldn't even be a factor in this either.

No one knows how much of the earlier footage was spread across the entire game either. Most of that could have just been a very small slice, which is most likely what happened.
 

ufo8mycat

Member
Scalability is everything since it's PC, so why not put the best quality assets and let people with low end PC tone it down to get better frame rate or whatever instead of downgrading the entire thing for everyone.

Yup. This is what I don't get.

The high-quality original assets you see in the trailer for high-end/Ultra settings

The current assets for low/mid PCs/consoles

Instead we get the exact same assets. Just higher resolution/texture quality/ more AA, AF for high-end settings.

I guess it would be to expensive to create 2 entirely different graphical assets and thats why we get what we get.
 

Momentary

Banned
I'm just saying if I had to choose between the two, I'd be fine with the current iteration as long as it runs well. And anymore, exclusive bells and whistles for the PC versions of games shouldn't even be thought of as a factor. Almost no one is doing it when developing a multiplatform game. Why would they spend development time and resources on assets that are going to be on the platform the game will most likely sell the least on anyway? Those $5 Steam sales or whatever in a year shouldn't even be a factor in this either.

That's weird big dawg... seeing as how a game like Dark Souls 2 sold more on PC than Consoles, I'd figure this game would do the same.
 

Jonm1010

Banned
What's up with that tone? Its not personal man.



1.- I'm on topic, big AAA publishers have to deal with both the PS4 and Xbox One sub par hardware, hence downgrade ton

2.- You are assuming with no proof there is a CD Project intent of malice regardless The Witcher 3 visuals. The game is not even out yet, an you have ZERO insight about the development process of the game. Even if downgraded you are assuming there was bad intentions.



Why are you assuming (assuming yet again) I'm upset? I'm very much calm, enjoying my Sunday playing vid games while browsing the www.

BTW assuming is a very bad mental practice, of which you seem pretty fond of, perhaps you should look for it on a dictionary.



AAA developers have to deal with underpower hardware for the next years, relevan to the conversation wether you like it or not.



Nah dude, is pretty real google it.. there are plenty of budget builds that outperform the PS4, not exactly breaking news

Potato Masher VS PS4

You started a line of discussion essentially trying to blame the console manufactoers for developers and publishers releasing deceptive and misrepresentative footage of their games. That is where this discussion started. That is where my responses were directed at.

It is an idiotic and completely ridiculous argument. Akin to blaming the construction company that built the store for the store owners selling fraudulent goods. Its completely laughable. Its completely meritless and it is the worst attempt at a defense force for these growing practices that I have ever come across.

Then you go fucking spastic. Start shifting the discussion. Respond to my posts about completely irrelevant points then what was being discussed. Arguing straw men. It was pathetic.

And then you still aren't actually getting back on topic. Just give it a rest. Take the L and move on. You made a horrible argument and got called out for it.

If you think I am interested in arguing some other topic you feel more comfortable with like you are seemingly trying to do with your goalpost moving, you can forget it. You already showed you aren't really worth wasting time discussing anything with how poorly you think things out.
 

Sanctuary

Member
That's weird big dawg... seeing as how a game like Dark Souls 2 sold more on PC than Consoles, I'd figure this game would do the same.

Do you have any one to two month sales info for the game? Because I seriously doubt Dark Souls 2 at launch on PC sold more total units than what both of the consoles did combined during their first few months. Many of those sales (just like with Dark Souls) came after the big price cuts.

Actually, during the first month the 360 sold 320k units, while the PS3 sold 330k units. The PC ended up selling 30k units at launch.
 

Etnos

Banned
You started a line of discussion essentially trying to blame the console manufactoers for developers and publishers releasing deceptive and misrepresentative footage of their games. That is where this discussion started. That is where my responses were directed at.

It is an idiotic and completely ridiculous argument. Akin to blaming the construction company that built the store for the store owners selling fraudulent goods. Its completely laughable. Its completely meritless and it is the worst attempt at a defense force for these growing practices that I have ever come across.

Then you go fucking nuts. Start shifting the discussion. Respond to my posts about completely irrelevant points then what was being discussed. Arguing straw men. It was pathetic.

And then you still aren't actually getting back on topic. Just give it a rest. Take the L and move on. You made a horrible argument and got called out for it.

If you think I am interested in arguing some other topic you feel more comfortable with like you are seemingly trying to do with your goalpost moving, you can forget it. You already showed you aren't really worth wasting time discussing much with how poorly you think things out.

"Akin to blaming the construction company that built the store for the store owners selling fraudulent goods", because a parallelism between a "contruction company building a store" with Computer Hardware makes total sense, brilliant logic right there.

man you have a powerful imagination, I'll happily take the L whatever that means and move on.
 

Grief.exe

Member
Do you have any one to two month sales info for the game? Because I seriously doubt Dark Souls 2 at launch on PC sold more total units than what both of the consoles did combined during their first few months. Many of those sales (just like with Dark Souls) came after the big price cuts.

Actually, during the first month the 360 sold 320k units, while the PS3 sold 330k units. The PC ended up selling 30k units at launch.

Where are you getting your information? Dark Souls 2 had around 100k concurrent players at launch.

PC sales will likely match or exceed console at launch, LTD will be significantly higher.
 

AmyS

Member
When the first Skyrim trailer was shown in early 2011 -- I must have watched it 100 times. And didn't we all?

I couldn't believe the graphics.

fh2pjgz.jpg


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j83TPjW.jpg


i6GxxKa.jpg


But at least a on good PC, the visuals were not downgraded from what I remember. But if they were, someone will need to remind me in what ways.
 

Jonm1010

Banned
"Akin to blaming the construction company that built the store for the store owners selling fraudulent goods", because a parallelism between a "contruction company building a store" with Computer Hardware makes total sense, brilliant logic right there.

man you have a powerful imagination, I'll happily take the L whatever that means and move on.

Apparently analogies are lost on you.

It is pointing out the absolute fucking absurdity of attempting to blame a party who's only link to a companies actions in question are that they built the foundation through which the companies decided to engage in that egregious behavior.
 

JAYSIMPLE

Banned
I'm just saying if I had to choose between the two, I'd be fine with the current iteration as long as it runs well. And anymore, exclusive bells and whistles for the PC versions of games shouldn't even be thought of as a factor. Almost no one is doing it when developing a multiplatform game. Why would they spend development time and resources on assets that are going to be on the platform the game will most likely sell the least on anyway? Those $5 Steam sales or whatever in a year shouldn't even be a factor in this either.

No one knows how much of the earlier footage was spread across the entire game either. Most of that could have just been a very small slice, which is most likely what happened.

You think the witcher is going to have low or even the least sales on pc? The section of the market that makes your company and bought your previous games? Oh dear. It's going to be huge on pc and that's not counting steam sales for 5 dollars
 

Jonm1010

Banned
Skipped to 5 minutes, he really says Concerned alot lol. I think there is one moment where he lops like 5 of them or so in one sentence.

Video went on about 8 minutes too long.

Would of been much smarter if he condensed it and just laid out the timeline of footage releases and the the context of peoples responses, established the complaints, compared the footage, mentioned the neogaf insider, talked about some of CD Project Reds arguments and then ended it.

He rambles on and goes off on side tangents and it opens himself up to(well deserved) mockery.
 
LOL. I like him talking about GAF like it's a single person or news outlet.

GAF is just that one sweaty nerd guy in his mother's basement with hentai figurines lining his wall who posts leaks and seeds Fappening torrents, right? Just one dude, not a forum of people from diverse backgrounds and with varying interests in the different subsets of gaming culture and development.

PC sales will likely match or exceed console at launch, LTD will be significantly higher.

This blows my mind and makes me so happy that PC sales for games like this are gaining more traction. Are there any sources or links for the sales breakdown on DS2, I'd love to see the numbers.
 

Chaos17

Member
LOL. I like him talking about GAF like it's a single person or news outlet.

Depending of the thread, you can easely see two camp : "you're right or you're wrong" and when one is stronger than the other you can really have the feeling there is only one mind (or one way of thinking) speaking since the arguments will be usually the same whatever the person is writing.

So I can understand the feeling even when you want to stay neutral.
 
OH MAN THERE'S NO WAY THE GAME WILL BE FUN NOW I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO PREORDER CANCELED?

No. Preorder is not canceled. If you're letting this stuff bother you so much then I hate to say it, but if you believe a game is going to look exactly like promotional videos from two or three years ago, as well as cinematic trailers, then you probably had this coming all along. Find another way to justify your $800 video card purchase, I guess.

I'm so ready for this game. I want to hunt monsters a lot.
 

elelunicy

Member
PC sales will likely match or exceed console at launch, LTD will be significantly higher.

LTD is next to meaningless. I bought Witcher 1 for $2.49, and CDPR sees like $1.5 from that. After taking TVM into considration, one copy sold at a launch = 30 copies sold three years down the line.
 

StevieP

Banned
LTD is next to meaningless. I bought Witcher 1 for $2.49, and CDPR sees like $1.5 from that. After taking TVM into considration, one copy sold at a launch = 30 copies sold three years down the line.

You're right. It's not like console games ever go on sale, and there are certainly not any additional margins removed for the retail markup there, or paying for the production and infrastructure of physical goods as well. Sales numbers are a meaningless statistic on PC.
 
OH MAN THERE'S NO WAY THE GAME WILL BE FUN NOW I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO PREORDER CANCELED?

No. Preorder is not canceled. If you're letting this stuff bother you so much then I hate to say it, but if you believe a game is going to look exactly like promotional videos from two or three years ago, as well as cinematic trailers, then you probably had this coming all along. Find another way to justify your $800 video card purchase, I guess.

I'm so ready for this game. I want to hunt monsters a lot.
I mean, this thread was made by and for those that care about the graphics of The Witcher 3. Rational or irrational as they may be. If that's not you then that's totally fine, but find another way to spend your time then to come into a thread and insult everyone for being a part of it.
 

cripterion

Member
No shit, things like this make me not want to visit this site. Game looks great. Did the demo look better? Sure, but it's a demo. Confined space and confined game compared to the finished product with everything running. It's a wonder that any of these people complaining have ever finished any game ever. No game is perfect and I literally mean no game. Just like no music, no film, and no painting because different strokes for different folks. If grass clipping through a rock makes you hate a game then you might as well find a new hobby.

Isn't the thread title indicative of its contents? So feel free to stay clear of it if it's not to your liking. Thanks for your input though.

Also what demo are you talking about?

Wait when did this thread turned into PC vs Console discussion

It hasn't.
 
Here'a another example I was looking at, of foliage being hit hard. Pay attention to the grass and distant trees in these clips. Different times of day I realize, but the quality is drastically different.

Newer gameplay

1428677532-witcher-gif.gif



Older gameplay

yttr.gif



The top image still looks great, no denying that, but the grass and foliage on the bottom image is ridiculously full. There's hardly any blank patches of dirt and the detail on the trees down the hill, and quanity of them is certainly better. Again I'm not saying the top gif doesn't look great, but its for sure not the same level of detail as the bottom one.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
This thread is ridiculous.

There are definite downgrades shown by recent playthroughs of parts. Refuting that based on the evidence displayed or complaining that someone else doesn't have the right to complain about being shown one thing early on and then receiving something that doesn't seem quiet right later is dumb. Also going on a PC vs. Console debate is useless at the moment. If the developer couldn't reach the clarity of visuals they've shown early on, they should have been forthcoming or at least made it possible for PC's capable of it. Making fun of people on consoles or getting into wanker war over making fun of people's expensive PC purchases is just dumb drivel that brings the whole discourse of this thread into an abyss of stupidity.
 

Trace

Banned
Here'a another example I was looking at, of foliage being hit hard. Pay attention to the grass and distant trees in these clips. Different times of day I realize, but the quality is drastically different.

Newer gameplay

1428677532-witcher-gif.gif



Older gameplay

yttr.gif



The top image still looks great, no denying that, but the grass and foliage on the bottom image is ridiculously full. There's hardly any blank patches of dirt and the detail on the trees down the hill, and quanity of them is certainly better. Again I'm not saying the top gif doesn't look great, but its for sure not the same level of detail as the bottom one.

Assuming it's anything like The Witcher 2, there will be a mod out within days that allows you to push as much foliage as you want and murder your framerate in the process.
 

Pop

Member
Here'a another example I was looking at, of foliage being hit hard. Pay attention to the grass and distant trees in these clips. Different times of day I realize, but the quality is drastically different.

Newer gameplay

X_X

Older gameplay

X_X

The top image still looks great, no denying that, but the grass and foliage on the bottom image is ridiculously full. There's hardly any blank patches of dirt and the detail on the trees down the hill, and quanity of them is certainly better. Again I'm not saying the top gif doesn't look great, but its for sure not the same level of detail as the bottom one.

That bottom gif was never gameplay.
 
Yup. This is what I don't get.

The high-quality original assets you see in the trailer for high-end/Ultra settings

The current assets for low/mid PCs/consoles

Instead we get the exact same assets. Just higher resolution/texture quality/ more AA, AF for high-end settings.

I guess it would be to expensive to create 2 entirely different graphical assets and thats why we get what we get.

too expensive???? cdpr doesn't exactly pay out the ass on labor costs..
 

_13500

Neo Member
The game really looks awesome. The world is huge and without load times, is an amazing work.

BUT, the downgrade is real.

Studios should stop showing ultra 'unreal' footage in conferences just to sell their ideas or games: (this, watch_dogs, the division...)
 
Maybe it's just compression and a different season.


What is it with these "season" posts? Is that a feature in a game? I don't remember CDPR actually stating there would be any dynamic seasons; I know there are different areas with different seasons but they are static. Please provide me a link that says otherwise.
 
That bottom gif was never gameplay.

It was presented that way. Its in a trailer showing a ton of gameplay. A trailer, that looks much better than what we have now in many ways.

Like I said Witcher 3 still looks beautiful, but the downgrade is unfortunate and the part that bugs me is how they are adamant that there wasn't one. There has been, just be honest about it.
 
Not surprised this thread got massive lol.

TW3 is the best looking open world game yet. And I'm also glad they dropped the art style of the earlier footage. Colours are great, I wish more games used them. But yes, the game has been downgraded in a few ways. As many have pointed out, the draw distance and foliage quality have taken a big hit. A shame that this had to be done for PC as well, but hopefully the modding tools are strong enough so that those issues can be addressed.

The 35 min gameplay demo was imo the best the game has looked (even though that was when most people were first noticing the "downgrades"). I suggest people watch the uncompressed footage again. The main thing I notice is the lighting engine, especially how it interacts with foliage.



Hard to explain, but the bottom image doesn't seem to give the same impression of sunlight and how the foliage is highlighted by the sun. Shadows are also darker and don't seem to use GI (not sure if that's the correct term) like the top image.

There were other things that might have just been in my head like better DOF in conversations, better interior lighting, etc but that stuff is pretty difficult to compare until we have the game.

Even though the game still looks amazing, it's not a reason why we can't be disappointed with how CDPR have handled things. Saying things like "there were no downgrades" or "ultra settings will be a slap to the face" is really not something the fans want to hear from a company that has in the past been pretty honest. With that said, I think most of the comparisons the fans have done are fucking nonsense. Like completely idiotic. I see something like this



and I just laugh because anyone with half a brain knows that screenshot is such a poor representation of the game. Saying things like how TW3 looks worse than TW2 just makes you look like a moron. It'll be interesting to see if CDPR eventually responds to this because they do care about their image to the fans and this subject has generated so much attention.

the lighting/shading of foliage in both of those pics is quite terrible
 

Jonm1010

Banned
The game really looks awesome. The world is huge and without load times, is an amazing work.

BUT, the downgrade is real.

Studios should stop showing ultra 'unreal' footage in conferences just to sell their ideas or games: (this, watch_dogs, the division...)
Or basically just don't double down to the public that the footage released is not only going to be achieved, but will likely be surpassed.

I am convinced this thread would be a fraction of this size -if it would even need to exist - if CDPR had just handled this more appropriately.

I certainly wouldn't of given a shit had I not kept getting strung along with promises.
 

Jonm1010

Banned
Did you really want unnecessary rendering that far out? Seems pointless. Looks good for what it's ask to do.
In an open world game where beautiful European influenced vistas are a staple of your graphical appeal? Yeah, I kind of would want better lod and distance rendering then what we currently have. Which so far is pretty bad.
 

Trace

Banned
In an open world game where beautiful European influenced vistas are a staple of your graphical appeal? Yeah, I kind of would want better lod and distance rendering then what we currently have. Which so far is pretty bad.

They have stated that the LoD is baked into the assets. So no, it's not possible to have farther rendering than what we currently have.
 
Because everyone needs to be a winner. PC gamers tout the hardware; console gamers have the low price; handheld/mobile gamers have their experiences; 'tis only browser-gamers that are left out in the cold with nothing of their own.

But, really, what sort of question are you asking? The entire basis of this thread is WAS THE WITCHER 3 BETTER BEFORE?! It doesn't matter that things change in development. It doesn't matter that it obviously wasn't representative of the final product while in alpha. The only thing that matters is that the games industry is based on lies & deceit when it comes to marketing their products - especially for high-profile releases - and that they are called out on it at a whim by consumers. Not all the time, but enough to be bothersome.

Now, everyone needs to decide something when it comes to pre-release footage: is it promotional footage used to market the game, OR are bullshot to the moon materials forever representative of the final product? Because all this flip-flopping is tiring, especially when it's going to happen to pretty much every. single. high-profile. game. on the horizon, and probably the future as well. Downgrades, as they are called, are such an endemic situation that everyone needs to collectively decide whether it's an important issue or normal operating procedure. No more selective dilly-dallying.

And, please, ignore whatever developers/marketers say. They're trying to sell a product, and as such they will only show it in the best light. It's at a consumer's own peril to get caught up in marketing hype. Reviewers exist for a reason. Ultimately, it's an issue of trust - because the end product is in no way indicated by the marketing that precedes it.

To be honest now when I see footage of games that are years away I just see it as a target, I never expect to get the game I see at that moment, that way I am not disappointed and have the chance of being surprised when I see footage closer to release. The Witcher 3 in my mind looked nothing like that 2013 footage because it was so long ago I forgot what it looked like, in my mind it looked closer to what we see now. I'm perfectly fine with the way it looks, but I also understand people that are disappointed with it. Developers are of course trying to put their product in the best light, almost every single one is guilty of that.
 
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