Support NeoGAF

[BoobPhysics101]

Is there any chance of a patch to make it run better on dual core?

^ Also, disappointing to see that dithering made it into the final game.

I don't think so, man... the game is simply made for more than two cores, can't really get around that. Unless they add in an option for more CPU option customization.

Do this: turn on FRAPS, and play with Dangling Objects Limit = Disabled. Then exit out, Enable Dangling Objects Limit, and see if it helped.

 

[BoobPhysics101]

Oh my friend thanks for answering, really. But that's not what im asking, i know what the options you listed do and what hit in performance they have. Like i said Image Quality wise the game looks fine to me, tweaked the catalyst to my tastes long ago.

What i want to know is what aspects of the visuals are affected by using low, medium, high or ultra settings? Or are they just global presets for the people that don't bother using the advance tweaking options. I hope i was more clear this time.

My bad, dude... They're just global presets for people that can't be bothered to do advanced tweaking. But like any PC game, you get much better FPS/image quality if you ignore the presets and customize it to suit your hardware and taste in image quality. Hopefully that helps

 

[Yoshichan]

After reading some of the reviews... I'm very interested, but how will it run? I'm crap with computers...

Windows 7
Geforce GTX 275
i5 2.67 GHz
8gb ram

I can only play it in 1024x768 and I'd love it to run smooth... so what should I be expecting?

 

[Dizzy-4U]

Fuck yeah, SLI working properly now. Use "0x02C04205"

http://www.abload.de/img/witcher22011-05-1801-5zozx.png

Credit goes to:-
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=200554&view=findpost&p=1238609

I LOVE YOU MAN! Thanks!

What gpus do you have?

 

[jett]

After reading some of the reviews... I'm very interested, but how will it run? I'm crap with computers...

Windows 7
Geforce GTX 275
i5 2.67 GHz
8gb ram

I can only play it in 1024x768 and I'd love it to run smooth... so what should I be expecting?

You can expect to get destroyed.

 

[TheExodu5]

Thanks TheExodu5 !

Yeaah that's a pretty big difference I guess it's time to part ways with my 1gb 9600 GT lol

Okay, here ya go.

Low settings, with High texture memory, 16x af, and no texture downscaling:

Same performance as low. Using <800mb video memory at 1080p.

You can expect to get destroyed.

What? He'll run it fine.

30-40fps. High settings.

 

[nelsonroyale]

This guy seems have to running pretty decently on a MacBook Pro 2011. High settings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=worPgfrtnTk

My laptop is quite a lot more powerful than his, so gives me some hope

 

[Refreshment.01]

My bad, dude... They're just global presets for people that can't be bothered to do advanced tweaking. But like any PC game, you get much better FPS/image quality if you ignore the presets and customize it to suit your hardware and taste in image quality. Hopefully that helps

Haha! That take cares of my doubts, thank you for your patience. I always try to tweak manually btw.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=27882177&postcount=169

Thanks for answering Narag, some rep to you

 

[Yurt]

Okay, here ya go

Thanks again!

sigh what a shame. I was gonna get it tomorrow, but now I guess I have to wait until I upgrade my rig first.

 

[gdt]

This guy seems have to running pretty decently on a MacBook Pro 2011. High settings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=worPgfrtnTk

My laptop is quite a lot more powerful than his, so gives me some hope

Same here. Hope it's true.

 

[Narag]

Have other question to anyone that might now, i read previously in the thread that there's a way to invert the mouse. But i want to invert the camera while using the control pad. I think this question fits more here than in the offcial thread, but sorry if it might cause any inconvinience.

Invert Gamepad Y Axis:

First of all, make sure you're editing the ini's in the Documents/Witcher 2/Config folder, NOT the game installation folder (this took me hours to figure out :<...)

Anyways, open the User.ini file under ...\Documents\Witcher 2\Config

check the KeyboardLayout= property, for most people it should be QWERTY. close the file without saving.

Assuming it is QWERTY, open the input_QWERTY.ini in the same folder, find the IK_Pad_RightAxisY=(GameKey="GI_AxisRightY",Value=1) and change the value to -1.

IK_Pad_RightAxisY=(GameKey="GI_AxisRightY",Value=-1)

Save and exit. I tried this and it worked for me.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=27882177&postcount=169

 

[I NEED SCISSORS]

I don't think so, man... the game is simply made for more than two cores, can't really get around that. Unless they add in an option for more CPU option customization.

Do this: turn on FRAPS, and play with Dangling Objects Limit = Disabled. Then exit out, Enable Dangling Objects Limit, and see if it helped.

I think i've done everything I can now to get it running as well as possible.

Around 25-30fps on ultra, with occasional drops lower is still very good - as I said earlier, the game feels very responsive and fully playable at lower framerates, which can't be said for many other games (*cough* Brink *cough*). It's also probably the best looking game i've ever seen. I took a quick peak at uber, and despite it running at 5fps it was still exciting to think that someday i'll be able to run that at 60fps.

Now to stop all this tweaking and enjoy it.

 

[Mango Positive]

After reading this thread all day, it was a relief to get home, update my Nvidia drivers to the beta, run the game and have it run extremely well on my GTX 560. No slowdowns at all in the first 1.5 hours.

 

[ManeKast]

Ok, I'm going to post what works for me on my G73JH, these settings SHOULD work for any other G53/G73SW and G73JH users. YMMV but I've gotten 10-15 better FPS by doing all of this vs. what the game was originally running at (20-25 FPS, now I'm at 30-35 FPS avg).

ASUS G Series Laptop owners (or anyone else using modern Radeon or GeForce Mobile GPU's and Core i5/i7 CPU's), here's some tweaks/tips for better FPS!

1. For ATI users, get the 11.4 drivers. NVidia users, get the newest beta drivers released today. Uninstall all 3D Vision drivers, Nvidia users! Huge boost in FPS there


2. Download unclewebb's ThrottleStop. This tool is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY for any Core i5 or i7 owner! It stops your CPU from throttling down and keeps it clocked higher during games especially. Install it, make sure to right click the icon and 'Turn On', and then go into Options and hit 'Unlock BiDirectional PROTCHOT'. After that, make your ThrottleStop main screen look like this!

For Core i5 (non Sandy Bridge) and Intel Extreme Mobile processor owners, make sure to click on TPL and set TDP and TDC to something much higher like 60, 70, or even higher. It'll force Turbo Boost to clock higher consistently. On my old Core i5 430m in my previous laptop, I had it running @ 3.2 Ghz constantly on all four cores @ 100% load.

3. ATI and NVidia users, change your Image Quality Settings in NVidia Inspector/Control Panel or Catalyst CC/Radeon Pro to 'Quality' for Texture Filtering. Also, force Vsync Off unless you're familiar with forcing triple buffering and checking for Vsync performance loss.
MAKE SURE ANTIALIASING IS SET TO APPLICATION CONTROLLED!
I also highly recommend NOT setting Anisotropic Filtering. It makes a 3-4 FPS difference in performance but makes angled/distant textures look MUCH, MUCH sharper. Maybe try 2x, 4x or 8x AF... 16x AF is pretty intensive on this game, which is strange, since 99% of games have no performance hit from 16x AF.


4. Make sure your laptop is in High Performance power plan mode! Also, if you've previously disabled Core Parking (If you don't know what that is, ignore this) make sure to re-enable it! From what I've seen, Turbo Boost works much better with Core Parking enabled, at least on The Witcher 2. I got a 5-6 FPS boost from this alone.


5. For Witcher 2 Graphics options, I'd recommend disabling SSAO, Motion Blur, Depth of Field - Gameplay (ruins FPS), Ubersampling, and Vertical Sync.

ENABLE Dangling Objects Limit. Set AntiAliasing on or off depending on your resolution/tastes,
Texture Memory Size to Large or Very Large, Shadows to Medium or High, and anything else to Medium/High/whatever you prefer.


6. (Optional) Overclock your GPU or CPU! If you need help, just ask. If you've got a Core i5/i7 Mobile and your BIOS doesn't support overclocking, you'll need to use SetFSB. I can help you with that. For ATI users, use Sapphire Trixx/MSI Afterburner to overclock your GPU. For NVidia owners, use GPUTool/MSI AfterBurner.
My 5870M is stock @ 700/1000 (Core/RAM), and I've got it stably clocked at 840/1100 for Witcher 2. It'll really help at high resolutions like 1600x900 and 1080p


7. (Optional but good to do anyways) Make sure your Intel Chipset INF drivers are installed properly! There have been bugs with Intel Chipset installers where it doesn't force Windows to use the new driver, so Windows keeps using some generic bullshit. Either go into Device Manager and check all your Intel drivers to make sure the dates/driver maker are recent and NOT Microsoft supplied, or follow these steps (Core i5/i7 Non-Sandy Bridge). DISCLAIMER: These are provided by an Asus employee (known as Chastity on NotebookReview Forums) that has set up a useful resource/guide for all G73/G53 owners HERE: http://www.asusrog.com/forums/showthread.php?1150-G73-Series-Driver-and-Application-Reference

a. Download and install these Chipset INF drivers: http://pcaudio.ath.cx/stuff/infinst_auto.exe
b. Reboot
c. Verify through Device Manager that it replaced all Intel drivers with recent versions. If you haven't done this previously, your system should feel a lot more responsive!

Thank you this helped a lot and brings my G73SW up to 30-40fps @ 1080P. Awesome.

 

[∀ Narayan]

Wow. I just turned off SSAO (I don't like how it looks in this game.), turned off bloom, and used Inspector to force 16x AF. This game looks a shit ton better and runs at 40-60 frames/second for me now.

After reading some of the reviews... I'm very interested, but how will it run? I'm crap with computers...

Windows 7
Geforce GTX 275
i5 2.67 GHz
8gb ram

I can only play it in 1024x768 and I'd love it to run smooth... so what should I be expecting?

You'll be fine. I use a GTX 275 as well.

 

[Technosteve]

Specs

CPU: i7-920 @ 3.0 Gigahertz
GPU: 4890 1 gigabyte Vram@ 870 Megahertz
Memory: 6 gigabytes PC1500
Resolution: 1080p
System: Windows 7

Settings
High with following changes
AA: Disabled
SSAO: Disabled
Cinematic DOF: Enabled
V Sync: Disabled

FPS Min 24 High 60 Average 30

Very Playable with those settings, no tearing. I wonder if combat will be more fluid if it's locked at 60.

 

[Solo]

So the general consensus is that bloom should be turned off (in addition to ubersampling, of course)?

 

[BoobPhysics101]

This guy seems have to running pretty decently on a MacBook Pro 2011. High settings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=worPgfrtnTk

My laptop is quite a lot more powerful than his, so gives me some hope

Same here. Hope it's true.

Here you go: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=27892627&postcount=452

Wrote that just for gaming laptop users.

Thank you this helped a lot and brings my G73SW up to 30-40fps @ 1080P. Awesome.

Wow, you had the same performance boost I did... from low 20's FPS to 30-40 FPS @ 1080p is a huge increase. Now enjoy the game!


I really, really hope that with driver optimizations and CDP optimizing the game's performance, we could all get an extra 10-15 FPS average. This game is just begging for new drivers/optimizations.

 

[Minsc]

Turning off bloom has it's pluses and minuses though (or maybe all pluses, I dunno). It's definitely the type of thing that you have to look at a wide variety of shots to decide, not just one or two, here's another example:

Bloom

No Bloom

Full 1920x1080 Screens: Bloom / No Bloom

Some interesting things being discovered! Thanks for all the comparisons.

I also think while the engine has it's quirks, it's pretty impressive - not horrible. I mean it loads in under 2 seconds, huge scenes with tons of complex textures and objects everywhere, pretty amazing coming from TW1!

 

[delirium]

God damn, my dual core E6850 is dying (bottlenecked) because of this game. It's gonna cost too much to replace it just for this game (need a new mobo, CPU, and RAM).

 

[TheExodu5]

Thanks, Sanjay, for the SLI settings!

DAT FRAMERATE

 

[TheExodu5]

Turning off bloom has it's pluses and minuses though (or maybe all pluses, I dunno). It's definitely the type of thing that you have to look at a wide variety of shots to decide, not just one or two, here's another example:

It does have a few minuses...most notably as you've posted, where the sun actually makes contact with the world. Otherwise, all pluses, as far as I can tell.

Then again...it's hiding the sun shafts...so maybe all minuses.

As you say though, I'll have to play with it a bit and check later scenes to make a proper decision. I would have liked to have it on, but just be more subtle...and obviously not affect Geralt's face. =\

 

[gdt]

Here you go: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=27892627&postcount=452

Wrote that just for gaming laptop users.




Wow, you had the same performance boost I did... from low 20's FPS to 30-40 FPS @ 1080p is a huge increase. Now enjoy the game!


I really, really hope that with driver optimizations and CDP optimizing the game's performance, we could all get an extra 10-15 FPS average. This game is just begging for new drivers/optimizations.

Yeah, got that bookmarked for when I get the game. Hopefully my 6770m @ 720p will do well by then (I assume there'll be some performance patches and such too).

 

[knitoe]

2600K@4.5GHz
CF 6970
8GB ram

Not using any profile and CF seems to be working. Wondering if it's CPU limit since the GPU load in first screenshot is only ~50%.

 

[Zeliard]

How's Ubersampling now with functional SLI?

 

[Solo]

After seeing those shots, Im keeping bloom on. The lighting looks much better with it on.

 

[Varna]

Nearing the end of the prologue and now during conversations the frame-rate is being cut in half. How odd. Soon as gameplay starts it goes back up.

EDIT: Anyone else getting some texture flickering?

Still, it's amazing to me how well this game got released. Usually there are a ton of bugs in crpgs.

 

[delirium]

The scene where you meat Iorweth is amazing with bloom. I can't see why you would turn it off.

 

[Sanjay]

I LOVE YOU MAN! Thanks!

What gpus do you have?

2x460 GTX 1GB.

 

[TheExodu5]

How's Ubersampling now with functional SLI?

30-40fps...37fps in the shot above.

Not quite there yet...though someone with tri or quad sli will probably be playing with it on.

I knock SLI quite a bit...but those times when you need it, it's really nice to have. Thanks to my second GTX 570, I can basically play The Witcher 2 on Ultra with a locked 60fps.

 

[zlatko]

I have this weird lighting issue it seems where torch lights seem to make things glow orange, like peoples skin look like oompa loompas. It's a bit jarring, so is there a fix for that?

 

[TheExodu5]

I have this weird lighting issue it seems where torch lights seem to make things glow orange, like peoples skin look like oompa loompas. It's a bit jarring, so is there a fix for that?

Turn off bloom? That's probably it.

 

[cleveridea]

I cant believe this game was originally going to come out for consoles

I have a i7 with NVidia 460M which is a high end laptop, and the game is basically unplayable, horrible stuttering framerate at even low-medium settings.

Its hilarious I was thinking this could be GOTY for me. If I had SLI top end desktop + GPU's maybe I could actually play the game shown in screenshots. As it is, ugh disapointment of the year so far.

 

[Sir Garbageman]

Reposting from the main thread. The Witcher 2 isn't detecting my Save Games and not allowing me to import. My saves are currently in the C:\Users\xUsernamex\Documents\The Witcher\saves folder.



Anyone have any suggestions would be much appreciated.

I dunno what the problem was. I eventually DL'd one of the saved games in the OP in the other thread and dropped it in the The Witcher 2 folder. It detected it. Don't know what the heck the problem was.

 

[knitoe]

Overclock my 2600K CPU from 4.5GHz to 4.8GHz and increase framerate by 5 fps, but GPUs loads only increase by a few % points. Looks like the CPU is the limiting factor.

 

[zlatko]

Turn off bloom? That's probably it.

Thanks will give it a shot.

Is this the right spot to post my PC specs to get some advice on what I should be running the game to get the best look to performance ratio?

 

[Wallach]

Overclock my 2600K CPU from 4.5GHz to 4.8GHz and increase framerate by 5 fps, but GPUs loads only increase by a few % points. Looks like the CPU is the limiting factor.

If a 2600k is actually a limiting factor for this game there's a serious problem somewhere.

 

[jett]

If a 2600k is actually a limiting factor for this game there's a serious problem somewhere.

Frankly it doesn't look that advanced for this bullshit. It's not Crysis in 2007.

 

[Varna]

Yeah, what the hell. Cutscene are now capped at 30 FPS for some reason. Started in the final prologue section. :/

 

[BoobPhysics101]

I cant believe this game was originally going to come out for consoles

I have a i7 with NVidia 460M which is a high end laptop, and the game is basically unplayable, horrible stuttering framerate at even low-medium settings.

Its hilarious I was thinking this could be GOTY for me. If I had SLI top end desktop + GPU's maybe I could actually play the game shown in screenshots. As it is, ugh disapointment of the year so far.

Please read my posts above on how to optimize the game for i7's with 460M's, then come back and post your results.

Overclock my 2600K CPU from 4.5GHz to 4.8GHz and increase framerate by 5 fps, but GPUs loads only increase by a few % points. Looks like the CPU is the limiting factor.

I think this is another sign of poor driver optimization/game optimization. Perhaps it's just not using GPU's as much as it should.

 

[zlatko]

I want to update my graphics drivers, but I'm shitty at this kind of stuff. I'm scared I'll screw something up.

 

[Krauser Kat]

Specs

CPU: i7-920 @ 3.0 Gigahertz
GPU: 4890 1 gigabyte Vram@ 870 Megahertz
Memory: 6 gigabytes PC1500
Resolution: 1080p
System: Windows 7

Settings
High with following changes
AA: Disabled
SSAO: Disabled
Cinematic DOF: Enabled
V Sync: Disabled

FPS Min 24 High 60 Average 30

Very Playable with those settings, no tearing. I wonder if combat will be more fluid if it's locked at 60.

seems like what i am getting. I m very happy. I bumped textures to ultra.

 

[Phloxy]

Is there a decent guide for how to use a custom sli profile?

 

[ColonialRaptor]

Anyone got crossfire working properly yet without flickering?

I'm assuming it's probably not going to be properly possible until ATI release an update right...!?

 

[teiresias]

Can someone remind me how to check core affinity when running an app under Windows 7?

I have an i7, so it obviously supports hyper-threading, and I just would like to be sure that the game is actually getting distributed over multi physical cores rather than running multiple threads, hyperthreaded, on a single core.

I know there is a debate about whether this is an issue on i7 cpus, and I suppose I could just disable hyperthreading in my BIOS when I'm playing the game, but was wondering if someone could tell me how to check?

Also, with SLI apparently working now, my finger has been hovering over the buy button over at Newegg to get another 1GB 460!!!

 

[TheExodu5]

Thanks will give it a shot.

Did you try it yet? Curious to see if it worked.

Is this the right spot to post my PC specs to get some advice on what I should be running the game to get the best look to performance ratio?

See my low settings screen shot from above. Start there. Low, with maybe 8x AF forced through the driver control panel, and set texture memory to an appropriate size (high, if you have 1GB of VRAM), as well as setting texture downscaling to off.

 

[delirium]

Specs:
GTX 460
4 GBs DDR2-800 RAM
E6850
Windows 7
1920x1200
On high, vsync disabled since it has horrible input lag.

FPS: 17-30 (averages around 25)

 

[cleveridea]

Please read my posts above on how to optimize the game for i7's with 460M's, then come back and post your results.
.

Thanks for all your detailed postings but isnt disabling SSAO going to mess up the beautiful colors I see in screens/videos? Also turning off VSync will make it screen tear wont it?

The game LOOKS beautiful, its just a slideshow though. If I don't get to experience the beautiful vibrant colors etc I'd rather just wait until I get a new desktop in a couple of years.

 

[knitoe]

Anyone got crossfire working properly yet without flickering?

I'm assuming it's probably not going to be properly possible until ATI release an update right...!?

I am running CF 6970 and don't notice any flicking issue.

 

[BoobPhysics101]

Thanks for all your detailed postings but isnt disabling SSAO going to mess up the beautiful colors I see in screens/videos? Also turning off VSync will make it screen tear wont it?

The game LOOKS beautiful, its just a slideshow though. If I don't get to experience the beautiful vibrant colors etc I'd rather just wait until I get a new desktop in a couple of years.

No, the SSAO just adds extra shadowing to various objects, it doesn't affect the colors at all. Vsync won't make it tear because the game isn't rapidly cycling from 60 FPS (refresh rate) to lower FPS, so you should be fine.




CROSSFIRE USERS! Try this!

From nvnews forums:
Quote:
Radeon Pro with the Dirt 2 Crossfire profile forced and Alternate Frame Rendering enabled = Both of my cards working at 95%+ and my performance is great now!