Witcher 3 Graphics

[kenjigreat]

This is getting beyond tired.

I Love this game , spent 52 hrs and barely touched the main story.

Bought the Collector's Edition and the GOG Version . I don't think its unreasonable to ask for HD Textures and lighting tweaks for People with higher end rigs.

No one can deny the SoD Trailer looked gorgeous its the reason why everyone wants the game to look like that.

---------- Updated at 05:53 AM ----------

This is getting ridiculous. Every couple of hours another one of these. They can't do it plain and simple. The rendering engine shown in that trailer wouldn't work for the whole world. TO do what you ask they'd have to redo the engine. That's a lot of work and money for little if any payoff. Also it would literally burn your gfx card.

What this game need is Lighting tweaks and OPTIONAL UHD Meshes and Textures . Facial textures are off on even female leads.

Thats not a whole engine redo.

 

[MrMida]

I have to agree. When the Crones came into the scene, there was no fog to be seen. And I also came to notice that the game doesn't seem to have the same dynamic lighting/colour contrasting like that the TW2. The swamp in the game didn't look as sinister or dangerous as it did in the demo. A shame.

 

[Tarikko]

Well said Millian...

If they are so dismayed by us, why visit such threads?

No one complaining about the game. the game is without a smidgen of a doubt an ARTWORK...

But if it can be even better, WHY NOT?

 

[Laphin]

You guys are ridiculous... this game is a novel idea and the details and writing over-shadow anything that should even be talked about on the graphical front. A majority of the people playing can connect to the game's 'story-telling' which is done with some extraordinarily written characters... and just LOADS AND LOADS of characterization and lore.... and you guys sit... whining about graphics. This is just embarassing. But I guess this is what the younger generation of gamers have become... Such a shame.

People worked hard to put this game together. You guys nitpick the graphics, but I don't see you nit-picking anything else..
You never see arguments about how something could have been written better.. you never see arguments on the performance of the actors. ... Always graphics, graphics, graphics... Sometimes I just don't get you guys. You'd die in a grave, if only you could have something look better.

20 Years from now when video games look TRUE TO LIFE.. I swear some of you will STILL find 'something' to nitpick about. But thank god, hopefully it will have died down by then.

 

[kenjigreat]

You guys are ridiculous... this game is a novel idea and the details and writing over-shadow anything that should even be talked about on the graphical front. A majority of the people playing can connect to the game's 'story-telling' which is done with some extraordinarily written characters... and just LOADS AND LOADS of characterization and lore.... and you guys sit... whining about graphics. This is just embarassing. But I guess this is what the younger generation of gamers have become... Such a shame.

I'm sure there are people here who have played RPG since Baldur's Gate and KOTOR but like Tarikko said no one is saying the game looks awful ,we want it to look better , VGX was clearly the game at its full potential.

 

[Millian]

I think the reason people keep "nitpicking" the graphics is that the rest of the game is so awesome. If the game sucked, nobody would care about it or the graphics.
Also, if you go to Steam or GOG and check the Witcher 3 store pages - what do you see? Amazing screen shots from the VGX trailer and possibly the 35 minute play trailer. So CDPR is still advertising the game with one level of fidelity, while in reality the game does not live up to this.

Everyone loves to say that the game couldn't run with these extra details, because it's an open world and it would bring even mighty rigs to their knees. First of all, this is false The game world is streamed, not fully kept in memory all the time. Even if it would bring extra performance issues, then those things - like chimney smoke and once again properly modeled walls (lol) - could simply be options in a menu.

Graphics DO matter. CDPR invested a lot of time and effort into making the game look beautiful. There's a reason why they put their best foot forward in the trailers and game play videos. Because graphics matter to them. I'm also sure most of the people here who claim graphics do not matter, would probably not be happy playing this if it had Daggerfall level graphics.

It's a great game and it looks great. We just want them to patch in the missing content/options, to at least match the 35 minute gameplay trailer, so it is available to those of us who can use it now - or who want to use it down the road when better hardware is available.

 

[SofaJockey]

There is nothing stopping CDPR from implementing soft particles in that particular area for the fire seen in the VGX trailer. It wouldn't affect the whole world at all. There is also nothing stopping CDPR from updating the game to the standards of the 35 minute trailer, because that one was NOT a vertical slice.

PS: To everyone who moans at people complaining about the graphics -- just do something else with your time. Do you really feel it is necessary to add your moaning on top of people's honest opinions? Does it contribute to the thread at all? No.

I think many people unhappy with the complaints about the graphics are not particularly concerned by the wish for graphics to be 'better still', but by the way in which many of such complaints are articulated. If such complaints were all made intelligently and constructively, then I don't think very many people would have a problem with them. If on the other hand such concerns (and many are) are angry rants, or claims that 'CDPR lied' or that 'Consoles ruined it', or how 'easy' it is to fix, then they deserve constructive challenge. In short, there's challenging and moaning, one contributes to the thread, the other does not.

 

[TheOnlyDoor]

Crysis 3 anyone?

 

[eskiMoe]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-face-off

Finally.

Overall, CD Projekt Red's legacy as a developer is deeply entrenched in PC, and to a great extent it shows in this version's extras. Everything from hair physics to broader draw distances make it a cut above console - a sharper, richer-looking release that also benefits from superior textures and effects. The ability to hit and hold 60fps is, to our minds, the PC's best advantage though. Even with its camera stutters, combat is far more responsive than the console's circa-30fps, and on limited GPUs we'd gladly give up the above visual extras up for it.

 

[Millian]

@ Jazios: The promotional screen shots on GOG and Steam are not two years old... Plus it wouldn't hurt to moderate your language, unless you're purposefully trying to shut down the thread? Hopefully mods will just edit as appropriate though.

 

[Gordyne]

I think many people unhappy with the complaints about the graphics are not particularly concerned by the wish for graphics to be 'better still', but by the way in which many of such complaints are articulated. If such complaints were all made intelligently and constructively, then I don't think very many people would have a problem with them. If on the other hand such concerns (and many are) are angry rants, or claims that 'CDPR lied' or that 'Consoles ruined it', or how 'easy' it is to fix, then they deserve constructive challenge. In short, there's challenging and moaning, one contributes to the thread, the other does not.

Except that in this case it is exactly what happened. They even tried to blame it on Youtube compression. If you know a bit about compression it becomes clear that it won't reduce the number of particles and lighting quality, it's clear that it wasn't a compression issue. Sorry man but I don't think there is any other way of saying this, and that's why it looks like ranting.
They stated until the end that PC would be able to reproduce SoD level of fidelity, and now it became clear that it's not even close to that.
It's hard to give constructive criticism in this case, the only one I can think of is:
"Ok CDPR I understand but please patch the game to come close to the 2014 trailers."

Then a lot of ppl will try to change the subject and say: "but the game is good", that argument isn't valid because it's not what's being discussed, no one is denying that.
I have some experience and I know a bit about how games are made and it's hard to believe what they said about graphics vs open world settings. It's just like the "compression" excuse.
And it's not a vocal minority either. If you search around the web you'll see lots of dissapointed people. Most of them know about official statements and can see the difference.

People are sad and dissapointed at this behavior and if you do an honest search and try to understand why, you'll see that they have every reason to feel that way. Please try to understand that.

 

[andykww]

The main thing that's missing imo is the lack of global illumination in shadowed areas and indoors, making these areas look kinda flat since it's relying on default and direct lighting. Though I understand GI is a heavy penalty on renderers. Indoor cut scenes like in the Baron's room don't look too great.

 

[Gordyne]

You guys are ridiculous... this game is a novel idea and the details and writing over-shadow anything that should even be talked about on the graphical front. A majority of the people playing can connect to the game's 'story-telling' which is done with some extraordinarily written characters... and just LOADS AND LOADS of characterization and lore.... and you guys sit... whining about graphics. This is just embarassing. But I guess this is what the younger generation of gamers have become... Such a shame.

People worked hard to put this game together. You guys nitpick the graphics, but I don't see you nit-picking anything else..
You never see arguments about how something could have been written better.. you never see arguments on the performance of the actors. ... Always graphics, graphics, graphics... Sometimes I just don't get you guys. You'd die in a grave, if only you could have something look better.

20 Years from now when video games look TRUE TO LIFE.. I swear some of you will STILL find 'something' to nitpick about. But thank god, hopefully it will have died down by then.

I don't think it would be the case. No one was complaining/nitpicking about the graphics in 2014, in fact ppl were praising it to the heavens. The complaints and doubt came when 2015 videos arrived.

---------- Updated at 02:32 PM ----------

The main thing that's missing imo is the lack of global illumination in shadowed areas and indoors, making these areas look kinda flat since it's relying on default and direct lighting. Though I understand GI is a heavy penalty on renderers. Indoor cut scenes like in the Baron's room don't look too great.

Yes, I believe that is the most glaring issue.

 

[dragonbird]

@Jazios - make your points without the ad hominem attacks please.
@Millian - please respect the rights of other to have and express different opinions.

We've been trying to keep moderation light in this thread. Please don't make that change.

 

[jon7882]

I Love this game , spent 52 hrs and barely touched the main story.

Bought the Collector's Edition and the GOG Version . I don't think its unreasonable to ask for HD Textures and lighting tweaks for People with higher end rigs.

No one can deny the SoD Trailer looked gorgeous its the reason why everyone wants the game to look like that.

---------- Updated at 05:53 AM ----------



What this game need is Lighting tweaks and OPTIONAL UHD Meshes and Textures . Facial textures are off on even female leads.

Thats not a whole engine redo.

TO make the game look like the image above from the trailer would require more than Lighting Tweaks and UHD Meshes and Tweaks. It was taken on a DIFFERNT rendering engine. Also the face textures on females look fine.

 

[spacehamsterZH]

and you guys sit... whining about graphics. This is just embarassing. But I guess this is what the younger generation of gamers have become... Such a shame.

You know, I've been playing videogames since the Atari 2600 days (I'm 38), and I've always thought graphics were an important part of the experience. I really don't see what "the younger generation of gamers" has to do with this, and I'll never understand why people can be so dismissive of graphics. The whole time you're playing the game, you're looking at the graphics. If this doesn't impact your enjoyment of the game, fine, good for you probably, but I really don't see what's so crazy and irrational about caring about something I'm literally exposed to THE ENTIRE TIME I'M PLAYING THE DAMN GAME.

That said, I do think the game is beautiful, the writing is amazing, the attention to detail is borderline insane, and I love it to pieces. Just to be clear here. But I don't see what's wrong with caring about graphics.

 

[Gordyne]

You know, I've been playing videogames since the Atari 2600 days (I'm 38), and I've always thought graphics were an important part of the experience. I really don't see what "the younger generation of gamers" has to do with this, and I'll never understand why people can be so dismissive of graphics. The whole time you're playing the game, you're looking at the graphics. If this doesn't impact your enjoyment of the game, fine, good for you probably, but I really don't see what's so crazy and irrational about caring about something I'm literally exposed to THE ENTIRE TIME I'M PLAYING THE DAMN GAME.

That said, I do think the game is beautiful, the writing is amazing, the attention to detail is borderline insane, and I love it to pieces. Just to be clear here. But I don't see what's wrong with caring about graphics.

There is nothing wrong in caring about graphics. I find it interesting that some ppl get the idea that if someone expected more from graphics they atuomatically don't care about gameplay. It simply doesn't make any sense. But what I reay dislike is when they just insult and don't provide any logical argument, just assumptions like("You are just a graphic wh***").

 

[iCeDMeTaL]

Nitpicking is like me saying the shadows on Geralt's armor is not detailed enough, or the cloud textures not showing enough volume depth. Pointing out major discrepancies between what was advertised and what we were sold is not nitpicking! No one is saying that the lack of certain graphical features is killing the game, but it certainly doesn't feel good to be misled. At worst, people get upset and rage, and at best, I was left confused and wondering if my game was bugged. Because that was not what I saw before, not even close.

 

[SofaJockey]

*snip* People are sad and dissapointed at this behavior and if you do an honest search and try to understand why, you'll see that they have every reason to feel that way. Please try to understand that.

I still have a different perspective, but you articulated your point well.

Is this more about the marketing then?
On the technology we have, Is it really possible to release a game across 3 platforms that is playable and scales to the HD levels seen in the 2013 trailer? That's what CDPR are saying surely, that no, it is currently not possible to sustain that.

And just on the notion of misleading, the 'new' graphical standard has been shown in gameplay for some months hasn't it, so that should be the expectation for pre-order or purchase.

 

[Millian]

And just on the notion of misleading, the 'new' graphical standard has been shown in gameplay for some months hasn't it, so that should be the expectation for pre-order or purchase.

They still use the "old" screens on the new store pages on Steam and GOG. So basically they're showing graphics that blow your mind (from several years ago), while what you get is "merely" a really good looking game. So the expectation is mind blowing graphics, for anyone who hasn't been myopically studying the forums and following every single trailer in chronological order.

They have stated themselves that it would be entirely possible to make the game look much better on PC, if that was the only platform they developed for. So it follows that all reductions in graphical fidelity are because of console parity. Very sad, even if necessary.

However, the upshot is that CDPR may eventually patch in some of the missing functionality/upgraded models that they *used* to have, to the benefit of PC players, since according to themselves the PC platform could handle it.