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[winjer]

Currently investigated issues [last updated: 13.02.2023 - Patch 4.01]

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...

forums.cdprojektred.com

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.

Good to see that CDPR is planning to fix their game's performance. But this should have been done before the launch of the game.

 

[Arioco]

It's CDPR, their next patch could make things even worse for no reason at all.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

I would very much like them to improve that too. My 12700K is almost asking for some work when I boot the game up lol.

I’m happy to wait, got a bunch on my plate to get through.

 

[Skifi28]

Give it another year and it might actually work well.

 

[Jaybe]

CDPR, could you do us all a solid and QA your console patch releases… it’s just three pieces of uniform hardware ffs

 

[Freeza93]

Why not before release?

 

[RoadHazard]

Why not before release?

That's not how CDPR operates. They release games broken, then fix stuff while simultaneously breaking even more stuff, and so it goes, on and on. After a few years the game MIGHT be in pretty good shape.

 

[ExcitableBoy]

Does this company ever learn?

 

[Freeza93]

That's not how CDPR operates. They release games broken, then fix stuff while simultaneously breaking even more stuff, and so it goes, on and on. After a few years the game MIGHT be in pretty good shape.

Sadly. But not gonna lie i had good fun with the game. But 3 playthroughs since 2015 is enough. Im done with w3. Wheres W4?

 

[keraj37]

.

 

[RoadHazard]

Sadly. But not gonna lie i had good fun with the game. But 3 playthroughs since 2015 is enough. Im done with w3. Wheres W4?

Yeah, I love the game, it's one of my favorite RPGs ever. But I'm staying away from the "next gen" version for another 6 months at least.

 

[ACESHIGH]

Such a meaningless release for PC gamers. Folks with high end rigs were playing next gen Witcher 3 in 2016.

 

[sachos]

Waiting 2 years and then playing it maxed RT 4k 120 with an RTX 6000 /s

 

[The Cockatrice]

They finally admit that HBAO was removed to make RT look better. What a bunch of cunts. At least its getting fixed. Prolly by 2024.

 

[TIGERCOOL]

DX12 was a fucking mistake

 

[Alex11]

They finally admit that HBAO was removed to make RT look better. What a bunch of cunts. At least its getting fixed. Prolly by 2024.

Better late than never, but yeah dick move from them if really it's true, so 2024 seems about right.

 

[SmokedMeat]

It’s easy to attack CDPR, but remind me again how many other developers have done something like this for free.

I can think of maybe one.

 

[Alex11]

It’s easy to attack CDPR, but remind me again how many other developers have done something like this for free.

I can think of maybe one.

Yeah, you have a point here, but Jesus, how many patches did the vanilla Witcher 3 have? I lost count, but remember that by the last expansion the game was more than ok.

But free or not, after all those patches and the Cyberpunk fiasco to release this facelift with so many bugs and still have a long ass list of future fixes it isn't perfect, to say the least. Not to mention the HBAO thing and the console RTGI fix which isn't a fix.

 

[lukilladog]

It’s easy to attack CDPR, but remind me again how many other developers have done something like this for free.

I can think of maybe one.

Most likely they are taking Nvidia money, who takes it from Us.

 

[Roni]

I'm still waiting for Stunning Blows to work on Cyberpunk 2077, a perk which was broken in the patch they reworked the perks.

I lost hope, honestly... They're understaffed and with too many projects going on. Chances are all this old stuff is gonna be put aside in time as is and they're gonna focus on UE5 projects exclusively.

I reckon they only haven't done this yet because of all the face they've lost with Cyberpunk...

 

[KloetenQuetsche]

I don't know why people call this a dick move?

Give me an example of a game that doesn't get a performance patch after release.

Today a release date is worth nothing.

And anyone who buys a game at launch is sort of...well...simple.

When a kid touches a cactus, the pain told him not to touch it any more.
Some people here carrying a cactus in their underpants without realizing where this pain comes from.

Never play a Game at Launch. Wait one year!

 

[OZ9000]

The good thing about CDPR is they they deliver.....eventually.

I'm quite glad I picked up Cyberpunk 2 years after being released because it feels pretty damn good in it's current state.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Most likely they are taking Nvidia money, who takes it from Us.

It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Nvidia was behind making sure 3000 series cards underperform, so they could push their 4000 line.
PC games are noticeably very unoptimized, with developers half assing PC ports, because we can just use DLSS. Suddenly now we need frame generation on overpriced GPUs in order to get okay performance.

 

[Buggy Loop]

« bUt aHVE U mADe a GaMe bEfoRE? » was the answer Alex Battaglia got in that other thread. Game should already be optimal, we have no right to complain!

 

[lukilladog]

It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Nvidia was behind making sure 3000 series cards underperform, so they could push their 4000 line.
PC games are noticeably very unoptimized, with developers half assing PC ports, because we can just use DLSS. Suddenly now we need frame generation on overpriced GPUs in order to get okay performance.

They literally have had Nvidia engineers working full time at their offices whose primary objective is to push hardware sales (admitted by Nvidia itself -officially-), they have been Nvidia's bitches since the W2 with several silly feature implementations. It's hardly a coincidence that these new games with dlss frame interpolation struggle so much to use your Processor efficiently, because that is where frame interpolation shines the most. Straight anticonsumer practices.

 

[Xtib81]

How is it that they constantly release broken games/patches? Every single time ffs.

 

[Hugare]

CDPR is like that douche that keeps saying sorry for the same mistakes until you become numb to them

Went from some of the best in the industry to this. What a shame.

 

[SlimySnake]

« bUt aHVE U mADe a GaMe bEfoRE? » was the answer Alex Battaglia got in that other thread. Game should already be optimal, we have no right to complain!

link?

 

[analog_future]

I don't know why people call this a dick move?

Give me an example of a game that doesn't get a performance patch after release.

Today a release date is worth nothing.

And anyone who buys a game at launch is sort of...well...simple.

When a kid touches a cactus, the pain told him not to touch it any more.
Some people here carrying a cactus in their underpants without realizing where this pain comes from.

Never play a Game at Launch. Wait one year!

The game's been out for 8 years.

 

[GreatnessRD]

That's not how CDPR operates. They release games broken, then fix stuff while simultaneously breaking even more stuff, and so it goes, on and on. After a few years the game MIGHT be in pretty good shape.

So pretty much like all game developers today, lol.

 

[Buggy Loop]

link?

1, 2, 3, 4, (many more from that guy, i'll drop it), 5, 6, 7

 

[SlimySnake]

1, 2, 3, 4, (many more from that guy, i'll drop it), 5, 6, 7

GAF can be really weird sometimes. It's his job as a tech critic to tell devs where they are lacking. And when they continue to fail miserably game after game, yes, he can tell them how to do their jobs.

I really dont understand the developer worship on these boards. We used to be far more critical. At least on gaf, we still are to some extent but then we get posts like that where simply calling out developers is considered telling them how to do their jobs.

A lot of those guys in that thread arent even PC gamers. They dont realize what its like to start a game on day one and simply struggle to play it. Or see half of the GPU go underused. Gotham Knights, Callisto, Dead Space, Witcher 3 and now Hogarts in a span of three months. back to back to back. Unplayable fucking games. These games should be given a 1/10 on PC. If anything DF isnt critical enough for my liking.

Hogwarts and Witcher 3 have the same thing in common. Runs fine in the wild but the moment you go into the city, framerates tank, GPU utilization is halved because of CPU bottlenecks and even 5.0 Ghz CPUs simply sit there with 20-30% utilization because devs didnt bother multithreading despite having access to next gen consoles and devkits since 2019.

 

[nowhat]

It's CDPR, their next patch could make things even worse for no reason at all.

I remember the patch that added HDR (not this current-gen patch, for previous gen), and yes, HDR was added - at the same time, playing on a Pro, the pop-in became just ridiculous. One could see vegetation and people just appear out of thin air a few meters from the player. CDPR did fix it a little bit later, but surely they were aware of the issue as I was far from the only one affected by it.

 

[Warablo]

Just play on DX11, RT isn't worth it and you don't need DLSS.

 

[Buggy Loop]

GAF can be really weird sometimes. It's his job as a tech critic to tell devs where they are lacking. And when they continue to fail miserably game after game, yes, he can tell them how to do their jobs.

I really dont understand the developer worship on these boards. We used to be far more critical. At least on gaf, we still are to some extent but then we get posts like that where simply calling out developers is considered telling them how to do their jobs.

A lot of those guys in that thread arent even PC gamers. They dont realize what its like to start a game on day one and simply struggle to play it. Or see half of the GPU go underused. Gotham Knights, Callisto, Dead Space, Witcher 3 and now Hogarts in a span of three months. back to back to back. Unplayable fucking games. These games should be given a 1/10 on PC. If anything DF isnt critical enough for my liking.

Hogwarts and Witcher 3 have the same thing in common. Runs fine in the wild but the moment you go into the city, framerates tank, GPU utilization is halved because of CPU bottlenecks and even 5.0 Ghz CPUs simply sit there with 20-30% utilization because devs didnt bother multithreading despite having access to next gen consoles and devkits since 2019.

I mostly end up avoiding these problems by simply not purchasing day 1 most games unless i was really hyped (Elden ring, no way i would skip that). But say, Arkham Knight too was apparently so bad at launch on PC and even offered refunds back then i believe? But then i played it last year, way late to the party, but it was perfect.

But the wave of recent launches, including Plague tale to the list you have too as before the patch it was a performance hog, is really bad. Not pointing fingers at devs for fucking it up is a big mistake and i agree with you, Digital Foundry is being too nice on them. Skipping a few tech reviews even because its too bad! On the contrary! DO TELL how shit it is.

 

[Tchu-Espresso]

“ We’ve received reports from players”

So they don’t employ testers?

 

[SlimySnake]

I mostly end up avoiding these problems by simply not purchasing day 1 most games unless i was really hyped (Elden ring, no way i would skip that). But say, Arkham Knight too was apparently so bad at launch on PC and even offered refunds back then i believe? But then i played it last year, way late to the party, but it was perfect.

But the wave of recent launches, including Plague tale to the list you have too as before the patch it was a performance hog, is really bad. Not pointing fingers at devs for fucking it up is a big mistake and i agree with you, Digital Foundry is being too nice on them. Skipping a few tech reviews even because its too bad! On the contrary! DO TELL how shit it is.

I played AK on my PS4 but my friend got it on PC and was able to get a refund from Nvidia who had given him a free code for it lol. Even they were like we get it, the free game we gave you is broken, would you like MGSV instead? And yes, I played Batman AK last year maxed out at 4k 90 fps. Gorgeous looking game. Especially with nvidia enhanced smoke effects.

I also try to hold off and only buy games on day one if i have to like elden Ring and Hogwarts. I returned Gotham Knights after seeing the stutter issues and bought it a month later. Very smooth experience, but went to shit whenever i turned on RT. It would be fine for a good 30 minutes but then literally crawl to 1 fps a second randomly and simply wouldnt recover. My GPU could easily run it maxed out with RT but those stutter bugs became more and more common, and after the fifth one, i simply stopped using RT.

Right now, hogwarts is the same. It is frustrating that on PS5, i can play these games with RT on, albeit at 30 fps but not on my fancy PC with a 3080. A GPU 2x more powerful especially in RT.

P.S I dont mind games like RDR2 and Cyberpunk which struggle to run on older or even current hardware. Cyberpunk despite its bugs, at least maxed out my 2080 and then maxed out my 3080. Same goes for RDR2. Both games still look way better than anything released so far this gen.

 

[Andodalf]

Holy Shit gaf has really gone down hill. People complaining about this are truly awful and must have absolutely zero of their life in reality.

 

[Hendrick's]

CDPR, could you do us all a solid and QA your console patch releases… it’s just three pieces of uniform hardware ffs

They need a QA department for their QA department.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Some of us don't give a flying fuck about ray tracing but the industry is determined to push it. Even if they have to insert it into old games- and break them in the process.