Witcher 3 - Interview @ Gamereactor

Gamerreactor talked to CD Projekt Red's Senior Technical Artist José Teixeira about development, Bethesda, and the backlash over The Witcher's graphical downgrade.

"There was a lot of discussion about graphics before the game was released, but when it finally came out, we found numerous forums and comments praising the game's stunning graphics. Especially now that we allowed access to all the graphics settings in the PC version. Problem is, there seems to be nothing we can say to please some people, and I find that genuinely scary. Have games today really become this? To see a long, hard and sweaty investment to create a great story, world and characters, suddenly under attack and even threatened with boycott... because the grass density is not the same, or a visual effect was removed since the trailer? This is scary, and honestly, a bit depressing, especially after we spent endless hours trying to create the best game possible."

"Here at CD Projekt Red, we worry a lot about the quality of the game, and we knew The Witcher 3 would be very complicated from a game mechanics standpoint. In fact, we often joke the 'game testers' are the ones that suffer the most here in the studio. A game so big, based on a open world, with a non-linear story... there are so many ways of doing things that it's impossible to test all the variables. There were some ridiculous errors, problems that would only occur at a certain time of day, or if Geralt wore a specific armour. Things that are completely impossible to predict and test. In any case, it was crucial to launch the game without any error that would prevent the player from completing the game, and since launch we have released several updates with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of adjustments and fixes."

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Thanks Eye.

More information.

Can't believe there are no comments (yet).

José Teixeira basically dodged the question about graphics "downgrade" and redirected it to QA process.
I was clear back when it started and I didn't change my mind. The game is beautiful. Stunning IMO. However some people took one CDpr's employee statement (some Marcin guy) about whatever obviously 3D Studio Max video and created a whole conspiracy theory on it accusing one whole company of being liars. And it's going on and on and over and over, for god's sakes.
Honestly, CDpr should sit down, write a proper statement, even if it's "yes, we're goddamned liars" just to end the totally irrelevant thing about the game. Just so the question about promotional videos gets over with already.

Next thing I can't believe noone commented: "It was a great year with fantastic games like Bloodborne, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Fallout 4 and Batman: Arkham Knight, among many others, including The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt."
Excuse me? Bloodborne that's consoley grinder? Batman:AK that was (and still is) utterly broken on PC? Great games? Okay okay, maybe the statement ment to be halfsarcastic.

Finally the line: "Bethesda makes absolutely great games, no doubt about that, and everything they do serves as inspiration for us, although we hope that the opposite is also true.".
Now this is definetly a lie. TW3 had it's fair share of bugs. It definetly did. But if Bethesda's games were inspiration for TW3, Batman:AK wouldn't be the only unplayable PC release this year because of broken state.
Next interwiew with Warner: "Bethesda and Ubisoft are our inspiration".

Bloodborne is console, that's right, but 'grinder'? If you grind a FROM game you're not playing it right

Elwro said:

Bloodborne is console, that's right, but 'grinder'? If you grind a FROM game you're not playing it right

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Dunno, I've heard it's just another Dark Souls clone which places it into "grinders".
Unless you're saying it's totally different from Dark Souls and is more like DX:HR where something you kill is dead for eternity and never reappears.

Sigh…this guy tries to pin the blame on the users…"seems to be nothing we can say to please some people". This is the third CDPR guy to accuse users of being the problem. Incoming rant!!!

No, CDPR, YOU LIED. YOU LIED about the graphics. You put out a GAMEPLAY trailer and labeled it in-game footage. Then you downgraded those graphics massively. Then your sin was you LIED and said for months that there was no downgrade. Your LYING was the problem. If you'd explained things and said you were sorry about the necessary downgrade, most people would have supported you.

But now CDPR has revisionist history, painting themselves as the poor innocent victims. Gamers, and people in general, hate, HATE false advertising. And we hate even more when you then LIE to cover up your false advertising. Then we hate it EVEN MORE when you put out conniving articles like this one where you blame us users for being the problem.

…phew, breathe, calm down…deep breaths…

[Gamers will remember CDPR's false advertising and lies and subsequent cover-up interviews, but we'll also remember your free DLC program and how awesome Geralt is in general...]

Well, I'm not quite so agitated about it, Brumbek, but I essentially agree with you. I like CDPR and the work they do, but I don't respect the PR nonsense they've deployed to cover this problem.

It's a pretty simple situation - the graphics (in particular, the quality of lighting) were markedly reduced compared to their promotional materials. If they had come clean up front, and explained that they had to cut back because only powerful PCs could handle their original vision, fair enough. But to try and minimise it by describing the difference as "a few blades of grass", and "there's no pleasing some people"? I'm not impressed by that at all.

...what's wrong with the graphics of Witcher 3?

Monolith said:

…what's wrong with the graphics of Witcher 3?

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Nothing "wrong", as such. But they showed more advanced graphics in their promotional videos than they released in the final game.

I think most of us agree that it was still an excellent game, regardless. But those of us who are very interested in graphics (and invested lots of time in creating mods to improve them in other games), were a bit disappointed. They've rather compounded that disappointment with their dismissive spin.

So they have taken what Bethesda and Co. have done in the past (fake screenshots) to the next level?

Anyway, it's no surprise. CDProject has become too much of a "by console gamers for console gamers" sort of company to acknowledge the PC crowd in any other way than "ah, that smaller chart on the left?".

This thread is crazy.

First off, they already addressed the moronic "downgrade controversy" head on. They met with Eurogamer guy and hashed it out, there is a whole article where they admit the game looks different compared to some early trailers and they will try to avoid this in the future.

Second, the game actually WAS NOT DOWNGRADED! Shocking I know! It was CHANGED.

BUT you can download a mod right now, that makes the game look almost identical to the old trailers, that changes the lightning back and extends the draw distance.

And guess what ? It does not cost any performance !

So if they wanted to downgrade it because of consoles or older PCs or whatever, why would they do it in a way that does not actually add any frames per second ? That would be pretty stupid huh ?

It's scary and depressing to be caught lying and compounding lies upon lies. Do they think we would forget?

Imagine that. Is this the slavic way?

They should have immediately disabused the PR statements that PC quality would be even better than presented in-game footage.

Loved the game, but now have no trust for the developer.

BTW, it's this controversy that caused Vurt to become scarce, I think.

Paul said:

Second, the game actually WAS NOT DOWNGRADED! Shocking I know! It was CHANGED.

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Yes, that is what they told us, and those who work with graphics are annoyed by it, because it is such obvious nonsense.

Paul said:

BUT you can download a mod right now, that makes the game look almost identical to the old trailers, that changes the lightning back and extends the draw distance.

And guess what ? It does not cost any performance !

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There is currently no mod that achieves this. There are various profiles that attempt to recolour the game (badly), and hence have no performance impact.

Brumbek said:

Sigh…this guy tries to pin the blame on the users…"seems to be nothing we can say to please some people". This is the third CDPR guy to accuse users of being the problem. Incoming rant!!!

No, CDPR, YOU LIED. YOU LIED about the graphics. You put out a GAMEPLAY trailer and labeled it in-game footage. Then you downgraded those graphics massively. Then your sin was you LIED and said for months that there was no downgrade. Your LYING was the problem. If you'd explained things and said you were sorry about the necessary downgrade, most people would have supported you.

But now CDPR has revisionist history, painting themselves as the poor innocent victims. Gamers, and people in general, hate, HATE false advertising. And we hate even more when you then LIE to cover up your false advertising. Then we hate it EVEN MORE when you put out conniving articles like this one where you blame us users for being the problem.

…phew, breathe, calm down…deep breaths…

[Gamers will remember CDPR's false advertising and lies and subsequent cover-up interviews, but we'll also remember your free DLC program and how awesome Geralt is in general…]

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Truly, a lot of gamers are level headed, like the good ol' Brumbek here.
Seriously dude, relax...no one is accusing you of anything here.
They could have handled this better and kept their expectations in check, no doubt about it...but it works both ways, concerning player's reaction reaction to this "fiasco". It's still a gorgeous and one of the best looking games out there and perhaps only Fox Engine would be able to keep up with it.

Honestly, I have not followed that stuff at all. But CDP mopping up after some marketing mishap is an old story. Do you remember the loading between locations disaster of Witcher 1? When I took a look at the Enhanced Edition during Games Convention once they told all the jerking off "journos" attending (me included, they had free beer after all) that when they had been showing the original Witcher a year or so earlier people had needed to wait a lot longer because of the loading times. That was totally different with the enhanced edition because "they have improved that". Afterwards, I interviewed (after too many beers, I agree) CDP Red owner Michał Kiciński who then told me that "it was all a misunderstanding". They kinda tested the game on a specific set of PCs and it worked well on those. They didn't know about the loading problems. When I pointed out that his developers had told a different story during the presentation earlier (note: the GC was pre-release) he just gave me his best business smile and another beer. He was a nice fella, but we concluded afterwards that it's better if I send in interview questions by e-mail to redo the interview.

Ripper said:

Yes, that is what they told us, and those who work with graphics are annoyed by it, because it is such obvious nonsense.



There is currently no mod that achieves this. There are various profiles that attempt to recolour the game (badly), and hence have no performance impact.

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Have you missed Essenthy's work ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6YLpPOzNcU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFNgvXmbu6w

Extremely close to those E3 vids with no performance penalty.

It is not obvious nonsense. They changed it, for whatever reason. Could be they simply thought it would look better or more consistent, or they ran out of time tuning the original lightning for all conditions, whatever.

In any case, modded or unmodded, TW3 is the best looking RPG ever made and bitching about it half a year after release makes this community look extra childish, especially since they already apologized for it.

Paul said:

Have you missed Essenthy's work ?

Extremely close to those E3 vids with no performance penalty.

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No, I've been following Essenthy's work quite closely. It makes some interesting changes, which look a bit more like the original shots in some scenes, but it is nowhere close to restoring the original effects. Essenthy himself has made quite clear that restoring the original engine is impossible. He took down his mod some time ago, and is currently working on an unreleased version 2.0, which he hopes will be better (and comes with a performance hit.)

Boris, the creator of ENB, has also said that the engine downgrade is obvious, and that he is not prepared to attempt the work to restore it.

So, please, don't lecture us on something you don't really understand.

In regards to our attitude on this forum, an article was posted in which CDPR discussed the issue. Brumbek let off some steam, and some others expressed their opinion. If you are not interested, please just avoid the thread, and don't drag it down with charges of "insanity" and "childishness".

Ripper said:

If they had come clean up front, and explained that they had to cut back because only powerful PCs could handle their original vision, fair enough. But to try and minimise it by describing the difference as "a few blades of grass", and "there's no pleasing some people"? I'm not impressed by that at all.

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Totally agree. Despite what it may seem like, I'm very forgiving of necessary downgrades and other visual stuff IF they were honest about it. Bottom line is they chose to lie in order to sell more copies. It was a strategic business decision to lie for months. How anyone could support that type of behavior...

Paul said:

Second, the game actually WAS NOT DOWNGRADED! Shocking I know! It was CHANGED.

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NO. Just NO. You do realize one of the CDPR owners already confessed to the game being downgraded...although he waited until after release to say all this of course.

BoboTheMighty said:

Truly, a lot of gamers are level headed, like the good ol' Brumbek here.

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This is the only part of your post I can completely agree with. Anyway Bobo, you really don't need to defend CDPR. They aren't saints. They got caught lying and covering-up their lies. Simple as that.

Ok, Brumbek...obviously you are evenly critical of all developers and have a point here.
We can only hope to finally see some spears in the next TES, with their new engine offering more modern, state-of-the-art capabilities. And no loading screens, since Betsy never promised that.

Meh.. so they downgraded the visuals and weren't honest about it at first. *Yawn*

I never understood why some people got so bent out of shape about it. The game looks amazing on the higher settings. I could understand that level of complaining if it turned out to be a mediocre looking game, but that's not the case.

If the visual were more than what they are, only the gamers with high-end systems would be able to run the game at all. As it is now, you still need a pretty beefy rig to run TW3 even with moderate settings.

Apparently you missed the point. It's the denying and continued lying that have us bent out of shape.