Witcher 3 Downgraded visuals?

Is there any comment from CDPR?

Morrandir said:

Is there any comment from CDPR?

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I have seen the same story from multiple sources but nothing from CDPR yet. There is definitely a downgrade but I think the game still look amazing However I am interested in the technical details and reason for the PC downgrade. We know their engine can do those amazing earlier visuals so why not put in Uber elite setting for the PC and leave them in? Someone with 3 titan cards might be able to play it

I still see absolutely no established confirmation of what settings are being used, what platforms we're looking at, to what extent the shots are using similar weather/lighting conditions. Even the locations themselves don't seem to be the same in all the shots. The Ultra Settings screenshot, for instance, doesn't seem to depict the same time or weather conditions (smoke from chimney would only come when it's cold, draw distance could be affected by fog conditions, the sky depends on weather, etc.) - and everything looks compressed and blurry - which, no matter how much it's downgraded, will never be the case with the PC version.

Again, it's useless without a proper comparison, where people have done real research - instead of these weak and stupid examples.

I'm a hundred % sure all "crappy" pics and vids come from consoles and rigs downgraded to hardware similar to consoles.

If I'm not right, expect videos like this one sooner or later:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b43ZlqPvBDs

If the new renderer was superior to the old (like CDP have claimed), instead people would now be discussing how much better the game looks than in the old videos, unfortunately, we aren't. It's not like CDP would purposely suddenly only show us screens and videos where they've turned down the settings.. that's not how marketing works.

Also, it's not just lightning and the overall look of the 3D rendering, there's also downgrades in geometry that we've seen in screens.

I would be VERY disappointed if CDPR went for such a scam joxer. Because it would mean that they think that are idiots with memory span of a canary.

I wonder why CDPR doesn't react to the rumours about the downgrade though. If they really needed to implement it, NOW will be a time to tell us the reason why!

zahratustra said:

NOW will be a time to tell us the reason why!

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Now is the worst time.. They will most probably do it like Bethesda did with Oblivion - no comments until the game is relased, THEN you spill the beans "ah yeah sorry no, that just didn't work out." Much smarter. The reason is always the same, performance.. there's been a lot of talk about 60 FPS and that it should basically look the same on all platforms, this is the "fruit" of that.

I think it's also kind of strange to say that "well it wasnt in the exact same angle, so we can't say.." That's not how people judge art. A painter can do two totally different paintings where one is supperior over the other, people can still tell because we have have eyes to see with and taste (well, some have).

Sure, all I'm talking about is the angle

The game will be out in a week, and we'll see the extent of the downgrade. I assume we're all playing it regardless? I know I am.

If you want to tell yourself those images are a reliable way to establish the details of the downgrade, I won't stand in your way.

It doesn't actually make it any less unreliable, though.

Only makes sense. They're designing for consoles and don't have experience in making an open-world game/engine. Even the latest Kingdom Comes: deliverance screenshots didn't look all that nice.

Open world demands compromises. And when crunchtime comes and FPS-optimization for consoles with mediocre (at best) hardware is required, all that VFX wizardry gets tossed clear out the window. An 'uber-sampling' option could be an option… if you didn't have to turn around and offer support for all the inevitable out-of-memory crashes it would bring about.

Very disappointing. I really liked the look of the game in the 2013 screens and videos. It had a nice dark and gloomy look to it. It was a first day buy for me. Now i am going to wait until i read some reviews from here.

zahratustra said:

I would be VERY disappointed if CDPR went for such a scam joxer. Because it would mean that they think that are idiots with memory span of a canary.!

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I don't think CDpr would downgrade the game visually just to slap PC audience. There are two reasons.

1. People are forgetting TW2. It had ubersampling by default. Whoever wanted could try it out, if it worked flawlessly it was awsome, if didn't work so what the game still looked great. CDpr knew some people are not hotel owners and can't afford the most expensive build so made the game still playable and nicelooking for them. Those who were filthy rich, CDpr gave them their treat to drool over too. And it was plain normal thing to do, stronger the machine, better the results.
The important thing is that going skyhigh with visuals was in the code. For PC. On consoles… Sorry, no bonus, in a world of open architecture, such travesties with closed and automatically limited effectiveness, IMO, should be declared illegal.

2. CDpr is not Ubisoft nor the game is being published by JoWood.
Everyone remembers Gothic3, especially it's release version. Stutters, stutters and microstutters. And we know that it wasn't incompetent developer but the rushed out product case. Fast forward to recent years…
You might not played it, but heard about it. It's Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. Sure it does look beautiful. But just like Gothic 3, it has microstutters. On any PC. Even the most expensive one at the market. Was it a rushed product? Was it a case of incompetence? No it was not. It was Ubi's middlefinger to PC audience. And it didn't stop there as AC:Unity is even worse.
Why am I saying it's not incompetence - because there is AC:Rogue that is perfectly polished, looks as beautiful as AC4 yet there are no performance problems anywhere!
So I don't believe really that CDpr would do the Ubisoft thing. Unless of course Ubisoft didn't secretly buy CDpr.

zahratustra said:

I wonder why CDPR doesn't react to the rumours about the downgrade though. If they really needed to implement it, NOW will be a time to tell us the reason why!

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I'll disagree, sorry.
We're about 10 days close to the game release and we know from official statement that the game is ready2play with only a small day1patch prepared (apparently a few minor bugfixes plus some datebased unlock file). Since it's not weeks or months of wait, until we see an actual product and not youtube videos, I see no reason to surrender into rumors.
Honestly I don't think CDpr downgraded anything. I just hope we won't be seeing WASD tactical view idiocy, forced 30 FPS or DX crashes during cutscenes on PC.

Looks like the Middle East will be able to tell us how crap the game looks on console. Stores in UAE broke street dates one week early...

The difference is huge. Frankly I got serious doubts the game could have possibly looked so astonishingly good and run on anything reasonably priced without becoming the Crysis of this generation.

Well, hopefully Boris will come through and shore up yet another game's lax consolized visuals with ENB.

vurt said:

The reason is always the same, performance.. there's been a lot of talk about 60 FPS and that it should basically look the same on all platforms, this is the "fruit" of that.

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The thing I don't understand is that why won't this give PC gamers the uber option? I know 90% of all PC gamers won't be able to run the game on this option but some can and why deny them?

lostforever said:

The thing I don't understand is that why won't this give PC gamers the uber option? I know 90% of all PC gamers won't be able to run the game on this option but some can and why deny them?

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I think it could be simply because it's too much work to develop, test and create assets for a separate version.

They probably want to put all their effort into getting the same version to run properly before creating an 'uber' version.

I think this downgrade is likely the cause of needing to have the game run on consoles.

However, maybe CDPR will release a free DLC or super texture pack to increase the visuals again for high-end PC users.

Well hopefully they'll have a HD release for the PC.

lostforever said:

The thing I don't understand is that why won't this give PC gamers the uber option? I know 90% of all PC gamers won't be able to run the game on this option but some can and why deny them?

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Multiple factors:
- time and effort to make those mesh/texture work properly and to design a system to switch between them compared to the size of potential users
- download/installation size, for example, Skyrim crappy HD texture pack takes over 4GB.
- "can't have console gamers cry"

It's also speculative that "some can" run what was shown in 2013...

Kostas said:

The difference is huge. Frankly I got serious doubts the game could have possibly looked so astonishingly good and run on anything reasonably priced without becoming the Crysis of this generation.

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Yeah i remember that second screen so well. The lightning of the landscape in the distance is incredibly natural, very unlike, for example, Skyrim. I think that type of graphics is years away, where an open world game can process the light correctly even in the very far distance (even thousands of trees and other objects). Talk about a giant strain on performance..

It can be tested in Skyrim if you up the ugridstoload value a lot, the game will render light and objects very far and performance will go from 60 to way under 20.. i know, it's not the same engine, but those open world engines tend to use the same kind of tricks in the end. The first image looks very similar to Skyrim (lightning and overall quality of the rendering, perhaps a bit better).

For less money (than game + computer upgrades needed) you can get yourself to a hill like this and get to see a lag free most realistic view