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[V1LÆM]

as i entered white orchard the buildings had artifacts. it's just a lot of squares flashing. it's only happening when viewing from certain angles.

is anyone else having this issue? i'm on windows 10 64-bit, 15.12 crimson drivers, R9 290. i've submitted a report to AMD so hopefully it gets fixed in a driver update if it is driver related at all. might be the latest patch? i didn't have this issue back when the game came out.

 

[Pagusas]

Im in shock how well this game is playing on my 770gtx (2gb), I was worried I'd need to upgrade, but playing with everything on high the game runs super smooth. Not going to look at the actual FPS, I know its higher than 30 as when I lock it to 30 the game just feels wrong and not as smooth, I'm sure im floating in the 50's. Regardless, on my 75x940c its looking amazing and I'm going to keep playing. Using the TV's fake HDR mode really adds a punch to the game, making the sun feel so much punchier and brighter (basically being an HDR FALD screen it has a mode that will punch up the white areas of the screen to 10% brighter than the backlights brighness setting, making any high brightness area of the screen go super bright and artifically making the scenes dynamic range go through the roof, at some points its so bright it makes me squint lol, mixes beautifully with the near perfect blacks from the shut off led regions.

 

[ISee]

Im in shock how well this game is playing on my 770gtx (2gb), I was worried I'd need to upgrade, but playing with everything on high the game runs super smooth. Not going to look at the actual FPS, I know its higher than 30 as when I lock it to 30 the game just feels wrong and not as smooth, I'm sure im floating in the 50's. Regardless, on my 75x940c its looking amazing and I'm going to keep playing. Using the TV's fake HDR mode really adds a punch to the game, making the sun feel so much punchier and brighter (basically being an HDR FALD screen it has a mode that will punch up the white areas of the screen to 10% brighter than the backlights brighness setting, making any high brightness area of the screen go super bright and artifically making the scenes dynamic range go through the roof, at some points its so bright it makes me squint lol, mixes beautifully with the near perfect blacks from the shut off led regions.

Wait, what? You're playing on a 4000 € (or so) 4k super cool TV, but you're just using a 770. WTF?! Get a 980Ti, set settings to high and play it in proper 4k. Seriously the difference is huge.

 

[Slackbladder]

There are still plenty of bugs and glitches in the game. So I'd be expecting plenty more patches on the way. 1.11 added a bug where you could'nt get out of a room when you got one of the Witcher armour schematics (can't remember which one). Only way out was to glitch through the wall and fall through the geometry.
Also had a great animation glitch where I was walking 4 feet in the air with Geralt's legs bent as if he was crouched. Affected everyone, including horses!

 

[Pagusas]

Wait, what? You're playing on a 4000 € (or so) 4k super cool TV, but you're just using a 770. WTF?! Get a 980Ti, set settings to high and play it in proper 4k. Seriously the difference is huge.

Budget man, budget. Just bought a house, got this amazing tv (it cost $7k when i bought it), I can only do so much at a time (and the wife will only approve so much at a time..).

I was planning on waiting for Pascal.

I'm well aware the difference is huge (playing skyrim at 4k is wonderful, luckily Nvidia lets you do a 4:2:0 4k@60hz mode with the old 7xx series without hdmi 2.0). But honestly, the smoothness at 1080p is fine for now while I wait to upgrade. Even then, its going to be tough choosing between 4k@60hz or 1080p@120hz.

 

[V1LÆM]

I managed to take some screenshots of the graphical issue that I'm having. It's happening on both my old save from 1.08 and a new game (1.11). I'm still on amd 15.12 crimson but gonna try rolling back to older drivers to see if it's a driver issue.

EDIT 1: I tried 15.7.1 and 15.11.1. The issue is present on 15.11.1 as I expected (since it's pretty much identical to 15.12) but it's not there on 15.7.1. I was gonna try 15.11 but really can't be bothered with the hassle. I will just wait and hope that AMD fix it. I have already submitted a report to them about it.

EDIT 2: I found a temporary fix. It seems that Fallout 4, GTA V and The Witcher 3 are affected by the same driver bug which was introduced in 15.11. In Fallout 4 the compass is glitched out. In GTA V the mini map GPS route flickers. In The Witcher 3 you get these glitches around structures (as pictured). All 3 issues can be fixed by downloading this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/2707/? and copy/pasting the .dll's into the games directory. I know it says it's for Fallout 4 but it fixes other games too. For FO4/GTA V you can go to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\gametitle" and paste them in there. For The Witcher 3 you need to go to and paste them in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Witcher 3\bin\x64".

 

[SeeNoWeevil]

Just updated to the latest Nvidia driver, did a clean install and now I can max out all settings (minus hairworks) and get a perfect 1080p60 100% of the time on my 980Ti (ran from one end of the map to the other, through he densest forests without a single drop)

 

[Kezen]

Just updated to the latest Nvidia driver, did a clean install and now I can max out all settings (minus hairworks) and get a perfect 1080p60 100% of the time on my 980Ti (ran from one end of the map to the other, through he densest forests without a single drop)

Glad that it's running so well for you. I can't complain on my end either, although I have to lower the shadows and grass distance settings.
Hairworks off.

Game looks gorgeous.

 

[SmartWaffles]

Anyone have an idea of how this should run on my pc and what kind settings I could use?

I5 6500 3.2ghz
8GB Ram
R9 390

Thanks.

You should be able to max out most settings with a pretty stable 1080p60fps, disable NVIDIA features and lower shadow quality then foliage quality if you have performance drops.

 

[Darkstorne]

After following all the tweak guides (Nvidia's, and the CDPR forum one for performance boosts) I'm getting an average of 50-55fps on my GTX 970 and i7 2600k. Sometimes I hit 60fps, sometimes I drop to around 45fps.

Question: Is my CPU likely to be bottlenecking me in this game? I'm tempted to try overlocking again (it's watercooled, so I probably should) but last time I had this thing overclocked my PC started reporting RAM errors after a couple of months. Resetting the CPU to default settings solved those issues, and stress tests on the RAM afterwards suggests it's all absolutely fine. I would love to hit 60fps more consistently though, and maybe raise my grass density up from Low (I refuse to lower Foliage Range from Ultra so I sacrificed grass instead - those distant shadows are too important to me).

 

[The-Bean]

Question: Is my CPU likely to be bottlenecking me in this game?

Possibly.

Download MSI Afterburner

If you want to see if you're currently GPU or CPU bottlenecked in a game then use MSI Afterburner and monitor your GPU usage. If your GPU usage drops below 99% and you're getting bad framerates then it's most likely* a CPU bottleneck. If it's 99% and you're getting bad framerates it's a GPU bottleneck.

*In most cases. However, Fallout 4 recently had framerate problems relating to RAM speed, but I don't think TW3 does.

 

[Darkstorne]

Possibly.

Download MSI Afterburner

If you want to see if you're currently GPU or CPU bottlenecked in a game then use MSI Afterburner and monitor your GPU usage. If your GPU usage drops below 99% and you're getting bad framerates then it's most likely* a CPU bottleneck. If it's 99% and you're getting bad framerates it's a GPU bottleneck.

*In most cases. However, Fallout 4 recently had framerate problems relating to RAM speed, but I don't think TW3 does.

Awesome, thanks for this advice! I already had it installed for the manual fan control.

Standing on Oxenfurt bridge is a location that gives me 60fps, until I exit the bridge into the wooded army camp where it drops to the low 50s. When I'm below 60fps the GPU usage is at 99%, and when my framerate hits 60 it drops to anywhere between 85 and 95%.

So does this suggest a CPU overlock or upgrade will do very little or even nothing for my framerate? My old i7 2600k is limited by my fairly new 970? =P

 

[Dictator93]

Awesome, thanks for this advice! I already had it installed for the manual fan control.

Standing on Oxenfurt bridge is a location that gives me 60fps, until I exit the bridge into the wooded army camp where it drops to the low 50s. When I'm below 60fps the GPU usage is at 99%, and when my framerate hits 60 it drops to anywhere between 85 and 95%.

So this suggests a CPU overlock or upgrade will do very little or even nothing for my framerate? My old i7 2600k is limited by my fairly new 970? =P

Being CPU limited in TW3 on Ultra (in cities, crowds, areas with high object densities) is pretty easy with an "older" intel or with any and every AMD.
I definitely reccomend a CPU OC if you are seeing lower GPU utilisaion when your FPS drops.

 

[drhankmccoyphd]

I'm thinking about building a new PC soon and I'm aiming to eventually get a 4k TV to play on. Right now I'm debating between getting a 970 and playing on my old 1080p TV and then waiting for Pascal/buy another 970 When I go 4k. My other option is just getting a 980 ti outright and being set for 4k. My question is, if I keep settings to high instead of Ultra (is there much of a difference?) what kind of fps can I expect on a 980ti on high at 4k? Most benchmarks use Ultra from what I can tell.

 

[Darkstorne]

Being CPU limited in TW3 on Ultra (in cities, crowds, areas with high object densities) is pretty easy with an "older" intel or with any and every AMD.
I definitely reccomend a CPU OC if you are seeing lower GPU utilisaion when your FPS drops.

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on it in the cities, but so far my framerate doesn't seem to vary between cities and wilderness, but by weather effects. A storm with heavy wind and rain effects will drop my FPS into the high 40s, otherwise it's always somewhere between 50 and 60 even in Novigrad, usually at 50-55.

Also just found these benchmark results from Digital Foundry with an i7 4790k as the CPU:

1080p resolution, no hairworks - lowest fps / average fps
Titan X – 65.0/84.4
GTX 980 – 49.0/65.8
GTX 970 – 41.0/56.0
290X – 34.0/50.5
290 – 33.0/46.4

So yep, looks like I'm waiting for Pascal before I'm at a constant 60fps with the visuals I want!

I'm thinking about building a new PC soon and I'm aiming to eventually get a 4k TV to play on. Right now I'm debating between getting a 970 and playing on my old 1080p TV and then waiting for Pascal/buy another 970 When I go 4k. My other option is just getting a 980 ti outright and being set for 4k. My question is, if I keep settings to high instead of Ultra (is there much of a difference?) what kind of fps can I expect on a 980ti on high at 4k? Most benchmarks use Ultra from what I can tell.

Foliage Distance on High instead of Ultra makes a huge difference. I could easily hit a constant 60fps with my 970 (at 1080p though) if I lowered that. This guide has frame rate analysis for every single setting, and screenshot comparisons, to give you a really good idea of what to expect.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

I managed to take some screenshots of the graphical issue that I'm having. It's happening on both my old save from 1.08 and a new game (1.11). I'm still on amd 15.12 crimson but gonna try rolling back to older drivers to see if it's a driver issue.

EDIT 1: I tried 15.7.1 and 15.11.1. The issue is present on 15.11.1 as I expected (since it's pretty much identical to 15.12) but it's not there on 15.7.1. I was gonna try 15.11 but really can't be bothered with the hassle. I will just wait and hope that AMD fix it. I have already submitted a report to them about it.

EDIT 2: I found a temporary fix. It seems that Fallout 4, GTA V and The Witcher 3 are affected by the same driver bug which was introduced in 15.11. In Fallout 4 the compass is glitched out. In GTA V the mini map GPS route flickers. In The Witcher 3 you get these glitches around structures (as pictured). All 3 issues can be fixed by downloading this mod: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/2707/? and copy/pasting the .dll's into the games directory. I know it says it's for Fallout 4 but it fixes other games too. For FO4/GTA V you can go to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\gametitle" and paste them in there. For The Witcher 3 you need to go to and paste them in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Witcher 3\bin\x64".

Thanks for this. I thought it was an overclocking issue.

I do occasionally have garbage show up for a frame or 2 in cutscenes but that seems to have been fixed with changing them to 60 fps.

 

[RazorbackDB]

Thanks for this. I thought it was an overclocking issue.

I do occasionally have garbage show up for a frame or 2 in cutscenes but that seems to have been fixed with changing them to 60 fps.

That issue has been fixed for FO4 and GTA V on 16.1 btw, I assume TW3 too if it was caused by the same.

 

[NeoBob688]

Is there a built-in frame rate limiter?

 

[therealminime]

Is there a built-in frame rate limiter?

30, 60, and unlimited are all built into the options.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

That issue has been fixed for FO4 and GTA V on 16.1 btw, I assume TW3 too if it was caused by the same.

I was using the latest crimson drivers and I still got that shit in Witcher 3.

 

[A Serious Man]

Is there any way to get good AA without downsampling? Trees and grass look like shit no matter what I do and downsampling gives me a spotty framerate and distorts all the text.

 

[Thorn]

Is there any way to get good AA without downsampling? Trees and grass look like shit no matter what I do and downsampling gives me a spotty framerate and distorts all the text.

In game aa + smaa is probably your best bet. Smaa can fudge the text a bit tho

 

[tuxfool]

Is there any way to get good AA without downsampling? Trees and grass look like shit no matter what I do and downsampling gives me a spotty framerate and distorts all the text.

Change the mipmap lod bias to 0 if you want less texture aliasing on foliage.

 

[Easy_D]

Is there a built-in frame rate limiter?

Yes but from what I gather it's rather crap and you're better off using something like Riva Statistics Server to cap the framerate

 

[Dictator93]

Change the mipmap lod bias to 0 if you want less texture aliasing on foliage.

Yeah, this is a great recommendation. It may not help with distant trees swaying though and aliasing from that.

 

[A Serious Man]

Change the mipmap lod bias to 0 if you want less texture aliasing on foliage.

This helped a ton with the grass, thanks.

 

[Easy_D]

Still nothing in regards to performance, granted my FPS has risen from 45ish to a general 55-60 with the biggest dips being 45. But yeah, 1.10 (or whichever patch before 1.11) ran much better for me on average.

 

[SomTervo]

Noticably snappier in terms of UI on PS4. And possibly in-game but haven't played enough.

 

[Dick Justice]

Anyone else have stuttering issues? Even after turning everything to low, the framerate still frequently dips to 57-58fps then back to 60, which manifests in the form of terrible stuttering on a frequent basis. Tried frame limiting, various vsync setups, removing my GPU overclock, but no luck. Specs are 970 G1, i7 4770K with turbo boost, 16GB RAM and Windows 7. Game is also running on an SSD.

 

[j0hnny_385]

Anyone else have stuttering issues? Even after turning everything to low, the framerate still frequently dips to 57-58fps then back to 60, which manifests in the form of terrible stuttering on a frequent basis. Tried frame limiting, various vsync setups, removing my GPU overclock, but no luck. Specs are 970 G1, i7 4770K with turbo boost, 16GB RAM and Windows 7. Game is also running on an SSD.

Similar setup to yours, but 8GB RAM, i5 and Win 10, no issues whatsoever. 60fps locked at 1080p with most of the settings to Ultra, some to High (Shadows, Foliage distance). Hairworks off.
Maybe something in Windows background keeps hammering away? Antivirus? Some other software? ...

 

[Dick Justice]

Similar setup to yours, but 8GB RAM, i5 and Win 10, no issues whatsoever. 60fps locked at 1080p with most of the settings to Ultra, some to High (Shadows, Foliage distance). Hairworks off.
Maybe something in Windows background keeps hammering away? Antivirus? Some other software? ...

Would Malwarebytes be a possible reason? Though it occurs even when it's not running a scan. I've tried doing a clean reinstallation of the Nvidia drivers, but it doesn't solve anything. I was testing in a cave just now. Turned off vsync, and the framerate was at around 80fps. Turned on vsync, and it frequently dips to 58-59fps then back up, producing noticeable stuttering. Happens a bit in MGSV too. Haven't noticed it in many other games. Tested with and without triple buffering enabled in the Nvidia control panel, no effect.

 

[j0hnny_385]

Would Malwarebytes be a possible reason? Though it occurs even when it's not running a scan.

Don't know. Maybe?
I have Avast and it doesn't cause any performance issues (gaming or otherwise).

I've tried doing a clean reinstallation of the Nvidia drivers, but it doesn't solve anything. I was testing in a cave just now. Turned off vsync, and the framerate was at around 80fps. Turned on vsync, and it frequently dips to 58-59fps then back up, producing noticeable stuttering. Happens a bit in MGSV too. Haven't noticed it in many other games. Tested with and without triple buffering enabled in the Nvidia control panel, no effect.

Strange.
Is your Gigabyte G1 overclocked? Mine isn't (have the same model).
Try turning off vsync in game and use msi afterburner RTSS instead and see if you can get a smooth 60fps lock with it.

 

[nkarafo]

I also get a weird behavior with this game

I use a i5 4670, 960 GTX and 16GB Ram. I play at 1080p/high settings (not ultra) and FXAA. I locked the game at 30fps because it can't keep up a 60fps rate (it hovers between 40ish and 60, mostly in big towns). But even at 30fps i still get random micro stutters.

What's even more weird is that these micro stutters usually go away the moment i press the menu button (the one that brings up the options, save, load, etc). When i press it for one second and resume the game, the micro stuttering is gone until it comes back a few minutes later. Doesn't matter if i'm in Novigrad or inside a cave.

This is going on since i started the game, with earlier drivers/earlier version of the game. Problem still persists after 3 driver updates and 5-6 game updates. In both windows 7 and 10. It's pretty annoying and it keeps me from playing the game, after all this time i'm still not playing enough to finish it, even though my system can easily handle this game at stable 30fps.

 

[dr_rus]

I also get a weird behavior with this game

I use a i5 4670, 960 GTX and 16GB Ram. I play at 1080p/high settings (not ultra) and FXAA. I locked the game at 30fps because it can't keep up a 60fps rate (it hovers between 40ish and 60, mostly in big towns). But even at 30fps i still get random micro stutters.

What's even more weird is that these micro stutters usually go away the moment i press the menu button (the one that brings up the options, save, load, etc). When i press it for one second and resume the game, the micro stuttering is gone until it comes back a few minutes later. Doesn't matter if i'm in Novigrad or inside a cave.

This is going on since i started the game, with earlier drivers/earlier version of the game. Problem still persists after 3 driver updates and 5-6 game updates. In both windows 7 and 10. It's pretty annoying and it keeps me from playing the game, after all this time i'm still not playing enough to finish it, even though my system can easily handle this game at stable 30fps.

Try setting your prerender limit to 1.

 

[Dick Justice]

Don't know. Maybe?
I have Avast and it doesn't cause any performance issues (gaming or otherwise).

Strange.
Is your Gigabyte G1 overclocked? Mine isn't (have the same model).
Try turning off vsync in game and use msi afterburner RTSS instead and see if you can get a smooth 60fps lock with it.

Tried with OC and no OC, same result. Turning off vsync and using an FPS cap makes it worse, with bad tearing and judder, along with even more frequent dips below 60.

Also, the stutter even occurs in the map screen. Afterburner shows dips to 58.6fps.

 

[nkarafo]

Try setting your prerender limit to 1.

I did that too. I also messed with nvidia inspector a lot one day in order to get rid of the problem. Nothing worked for me.

 

[Dick Justice]

So after looking at that article Durante did a while back, I switched the game to borderless fullscreen, disabled Nvidia vsync and triple buffering in favour of the in-game version (turning it off completely resulted in more stutter), set the frame limit in RTSS to 61fps, and now it's actually running decently at 60, though not completely stutter-free. Borderless working better than normal fullscreen is especially baffling considering that it tends to make most games more stuttery for me (e.g. GTA V and MGSV look choppy as hell when using it, even when the framerate is actually at 60).

 

[nkarafo]

So after looking at that article Durante did a while back, I switched the game to borderless fullscreen, disabled Nvidia vsync and triple buffering in favour of the in-game version (turning it off completely resulted in more stutter), set the frame limit in RTSS to 61fps, and now it's actually running decently at 60, though not completely stutter-free. Borderless working better than normal fullscreen is especially baffling considering that it tends to make most games more stuttery for me (e.g. GTA V and MGSV look choppy as hell when using it, even when the framerate is actually at 60).

Unfortunately, even this didn't fix anything for me. The counter happily reports stable 30 fps at all times, yet, i get noticeable stuttering that looks as if it drops to 20 fps or something. Once i press the menu button and return, the stuttering goes away. then after i walk around a bit, it comes back again and doesn't go away until i press the menu button again.

So my game play is like this: Play for 30 seconds, menu button, play for 30 seconds, menu button. Repeat for a few hours. Graphics settings have no effect at all. It's the most annoying thing and even though i played for more than 40 hours, i decided not to play the rest of the game because it feels like a fucking chore. Which is unfortunate since this was one of the best games i played so far.

 

[SeeNoWeevil]

So prior to patch v1.12 releasing I could run everything set to max (minus hairworks) and never see drops below 60. v1.12 goes live and I started to see the occasional dip with tearing in dense forests. I saved my game in one of these areas, rebooted, still dipping. Shut the game down and tested again. Consistent dips under 60 in this one area. Googling around I'm seeing quite frequently people suggesting to verify Steam's game files. Sounds like hogwash, but I do it. Steam tells me it failed to verify one file and it will be reacquired (I haven't change any ini). Load up my save, no drops below 60. Run around the whole area, locked 60 the whole time. I am confused.

 

[queequegs__coffin]

So what Nvidia drivers are people using for 1.12? Haven't touched W3 in a while and want to dive back in. gtx970 btw.

 

[IcyRhythms]

Can't be sure, but I think this latest patch fixed some of the performance issues I was having.

 

[Easy_D]

Can't be sure, but I think this latest patch fixed some of the performance issues I was having.

Interesting, I had been having slightly worse performance for some reason, but after selecting the low preset and then tuning it up to my regular settings it was a bit better, but not as good as it used to be. Let's see how it runs now..

Fake Edit: Hm, it does seem a bit smoother in heavily forested areas, also the colour tone seems a lot warmer than it used to be. New menus are *sick*. So much better. I'd come with something a bit more accurate than "bit smoother" but Fraps doesn't work at all post patch.

Edit: They've definitely tuned the colour grading a lot, when it's heavily overcast the contrast is much higher than it used to be, I like it.

Edit #2: This regarding vanilla content also, I guess some of the engine upgrades did carry over, also I saw a tiny lake/pond that had ocean like waves on it :lol.

 

[selo]

Hmm, as for myself, game crashed after setting off to toussaint, and worse performance when talking to them about the quest inside the building.

 

[IcyRhythms]

I don't know what they've done. I just know the performance is better. Wasn't bad before on my setup. 4690K, 980 Ti, 16GB RAM, SSD's. I just know that I'm not really getting any dips.

 

[RadioactiveLobster]

So I can't even launch the game...

Error [content0]game\replacers\ciri.ws(325): Function 'GetCriticalHitChance' takes 5 parameter(s) which is inconsistent with base function (3).
Error [content0]game\player\playerwitcher.ws(1628): Function 'ApplyOil' has different return type 'Bool' than base function (void).
Error [content0]game\player\playerwitcher.ws(2033): Function 'GetCriticalHitChance' takes 5 parameter(s) which is inconsistent with base function (3).

Warning [content0]engine\environment.ws(25): Global native function 'EnableDebugOverlayFilter' was not exported from C++ code.
Warning [content0]engine\environment.ws(27): Global native function 'EnableDebugPostProcess' was not exported from C++ code.
Warning [content0]engine\showflags.ws(9): Global native function 'DebugSetEShowFlag' was not exported from C++ code.

Re-verifying cache in STEAM does nothing.

EDIT: Disregard, was related to a mod I had forgotten was manually installed (so disabling all mods in the Nexus Mod Manager didn't catch it)

 

[GavinUK86]

Getting crazy high CPU temps with the new patch and DLC installed. It was fine a couple days ago.

 

[nkarafo]

So prior to patch v1.12 releasing I could run everything set to max (minus hairworks) and never see drops below 60. v1.12 goes live and I started to see the occasional dip with tearing in dense forests. I saved my game in one of these areas, rebooted, still dipping. Shut the game down and tested again. Consistent dips under 60 in this one area. Googling around I'm seeing quite frequently people suggesting to verify Steam's game files. Sounds like hogwash, but I do it. Steam tells me it failed to verify one file and it will be reacquired (I haven't change any ini). Load up my save, no drops below 60. Run around the whole area, locked 60 the whole time. I am confused.

And what happens if you get something like that on the GOG version?

 

[Wagram]

And what happens if you get something like that on the GOG version?

There is a Verify/Repair option in GOG.

 

[Easy_D]

And what happens if you get something like that on the GOG version?

You can verify the game files in GoG Galaxy as well. More -> Manage Installation > Verify/Repair

 

[nkarafo]

Ok thanks, looks like i may need to install it again after all.