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New Witcher 3 update adds various fixes, stability and performance improvements | VGC

Patch 4.02 is available for PC and consoles now…

www.videogameschronicle.com

In addition to various fixes, the studio said patch 4.02 “improves the overall stability and performance of the game” on all platforms.

The update weighs in at roughly 2GB on PC and between 10-20GB on Xbox and PlayStation consoles.

The most notable changes included in the patch are listed below.

Witcher 3 patch 4.02 notes​

PC-SPECIFIC

• Improved CPU core utilization in the DX 12 version.
• Restored horizon-based ambient occlusion. Players who had previously turned Ambient Occlusion off will need to do so again. You can find it
• in Options → Video → Graphics.
• Fixed an issue where the “My Rewards” section was not localized in REDlauncher.
• Fixed an issue with a flickering landscape in Toussaint that occurred when NVIDIA HairWorks was disabled.
• Fixed an issue related to particle optimization which could result in temporary stuttering.

CONSOLE-SPECIFIC

• Improved Performance Mode on next-gen consoles.
• Fixed an issue where characters could become slightly blurry during dialogues and cutscenes on PlayStation 5.
• Fixed an issue related to memory usage in Ray Tracing Mode which could result in crashes on Xbox Series X.
• Whatsoever a Man Soweth… – The game will no longer crash if Geralt runs away from Shani after starting the conversation on next-gen consoles.
• Fixed an issue where quicksaves couldn’t be loaded when using cross progression on Xbox One.
• Added two missing “Top notch swords!” on previous-gen consoles.
• Fixed an issue with overwriting manual saves where in some circumstances the oldest gamesave was deleted on PlayStation 5.
• Addressed performance issues in Beauclair and Novigrad that occurred after loading a gamesave.

VISUAL – PC and Next-Gen Exclusive

• Improved immersion of water appearance by adding refraction to SSR and ray-traced reflections.
• Fixed a visual issue with brick textures where black artifacts covered stone arches.
• Added a Motion Blur slider. It can be found in Options → Video → Graphics.

QUESTS & GAMEPLAY – Available on all platforms

• Battle Preparations – Fixed the lack of a dialogue option that would progress the quest during the objective “Let Avallac’h know everything’s ready.”
• Reason of State – Fixed an issue where the door to the warehouse could become permanently locked if the player knocked, entered and then immediately left the building.
• Scavenger Hunt: Cat School Gear Upgrade Diagrams Part 1 – Fixed an issue where the quest could stay active even after the diagrams were looted.
• Fixed an issue where trying to start a New Game+ on an incompatible save would block the player from starting the expansions in standalone mode until the game was restarted.

LOCALIZATION – Available on all platforms

• Fixed an issue with the Korean localization of Ciri’s and Geralt’s Gwent card descriptions.
• Fixed punctuation issues in Arabic localization.
• Updated Traditional Chinese font.

 

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Previously on CDPR's patching fiasco.

4.01 made the Performance mode on consoles worse and both PS5 and SX were losing 10 FPS on average in many places where they were running at 60 FPS before.

Let's see what 4.02 has 'improved'.

 

[93xfan]

Did they ever fix the LoD problems they introduced on XSX? Is it now even with PS5 as it was when the first next gen patch released?

 

[Tsaki]

10-20GB wtf? What did they put in there? Also "Improved immersion of water appearance by adding refraction to SSR and ray-traced reflections". Isn't refraction really costly computationally wise?

 

[Warablo]

Hopefully my mods aren't broken

 

[Gaiff]

>Still tons of shadows popping in and out, even with ray tracing
>Play for 5 minutes
>Crash

Time to uninstall this garbage.

 

[Warablo]

>Still tons of shadows popping in and out, even with ray tracing
>Play for 5 minutes
>Crash

Time to uninstall this garbage.

Just play on DX11, RT isn't worth it.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Waiting for the Switch patch so I can transfer my saves to PS5 and Switch between them. It's taking forever, what the hell is CDPR doing?

 

[DanEON]

Didn't fix the frame generation issue with AMD CPUs.

 

[Agent_Nobody]

I’m kinda tired of testing it out again to see if it runs (in my opinion) acceptable for another run (It would be my 6th). It’s one of the few games I own on both PS5 and SX but every ‘improvement’ seems to keep taking steps back and creating more problems for both consoles.

I just want a clean version, with the main bugs out that have been detailed for almost a decade now out of the way like the grandmaster feline constant audio chime, and at the very least a decent framerate. If this patch was months of work, I can kinda see why they are starting to dump their own engine in favor of Unreal...And this is from someone who kinda encourages Bethesda to keep on with Creation Engine.

 

[Vick]

I'm just never going to update 4.00, loved the Performance Mode on PS5 for 300+ hours, took thousands of pictures and also video showcasing how incredible the practically absent LOD was on foliage and shadows, all at rock fucking solid framerate with the only exception of using Witcher Senses in Novigrad.
Plus, vaginas.

>Still tons of shadows popping in and out, even with ray tracing

Shadows pop-in is very likely due to ray tracing.
Try turning RT shadows off, if it's anything like the PS5 version you shouldn't be able to notice any shadow/occlusion disappearing even literal miles away from the tree/bush.

 

[Fess]

Have they fixed the performance issues yet that made Novigrad stutter even on a 4090?

 

[DenchDeckard]

Modern day patches people...gaming 2023

 

[StereoVsn]

Just play on DX11, RT isn't worth it.

At that point, is it worth it vs regular/previous version? Had shit performance on DX12 and reverted back to OG.

 

[Warablo]

At that point, is it worth it vs regular/previous version? Had shit performance on DX12 and reverted back to OG.

Pretty sure everything is the same except DX12 has RT and DLSS that you can enable. Still get Ultra+ settings and stuff on DX11.

 

[StereoVsn]

Pretty sure everything is the same except DX12 has RT and DLSS that you can enable. Still get Ultra+ settings and stuff on DX11.

Thanks, going to give it a shot on the weekend on my main PC.

Kept it to OG version on Steam deck for best performance and don't think I will be changing that.

 

[Rea]

New update crash after playing about 20 minutes.

 

[Arioco]

Let's cut to the chase: what did they ruin this time?

 

[Gaiff]

I'm just never going to update 4.00, loved the Performance Mode on PS5 for 300+ hours, took thousands of pictures and also video showcasing how incredible the practically absent LOD was on foliage and shadows, all at rock fucking solid framerate with the only exception of using Witcher Senses in Novigrad.
Plus, vaginas.


Shadows pop-in is very likely due to ray tracing.
Try turning RT shadows off, if it's anything like the PS5 version you shouldn't be able to notice any shadow/occlusion disappearing even literal miles away from the tree/bush.

Yep, seems that way. I distinctly recall the OG game not doing this. This one has shadows popping in and out 5 meters away from the player.

Let's cut to the chase: what did they ruin this time?

Would be wiser to ask what they did not ruin.

 

[SkyHighTrees]

PS5 version still has the ODD LOD bug/pop-in right beneath your Geralt, in seemingly random places. Thing is, you can't even recreate this kinda LOD transition bug.

Imagine you are running on a field of grass, suddenly some grass just pops in or out of existence (but it's just really minor bushes) so the field of grass is still full of grass like it was before this LOD transition, so you walk back to see if it happens again and it just doesn't.

Basically, it is like an additional LOD transition on top of the regular one (which is kinda distant). So it ruins the improvement the increased draw distance has on the game. I think they haven't even acknowledged it yet.

 

[Gusy]

Performance IS improved though. At least on PS5 is night and day.. (Performance mode)

 

[Filben]

Did they ever implement proper DualSense features in the PC version? At launch you wouldn't get the haptic feedback the PS5 has when riding in the PC version.