A compendium of tweaks and fixes for the PC version

[BrotherCool]

Here's another tweak
Water, on low and medium lack dynamic simulation, however in your rendering.xml file you can turn it on by changing
<Entry varId="UseDynamicWaterSimulation" value="false"/> to true for low and medium water quality, this should on non-900 series card give a decent performance boost
http://giant.gfycat.com/AccurateFloweryHydatidtapeworm.webm Enabled simulation
http://giant.gfycat.com/FrankPowerlessCero.webm Disabled
http://international.download.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-water-quality-interactive-comparison-1-ultra-vs-low.html Comparison of low water quality with ultra water quality

 

[natty.dread.011]

Thanks for the reply Verrenus. I finally fixed it going through the fresh user.setting and tweaking it again. I was missing that new line "MaxTextureAnisotropy" that got introduced in 1.03 if I recall correctly since I did my tweaks before that. But it wasn't an issue before I installed the new GPU. Totally weird.
BTW, what's up with "MaxTextureAnizotropy" and "MaxTextureAnisotropy"? Why two?

 

[Domhnallaich]

@BrotherCool Does the water quality setting still affect performance even when on land?

 

[web-head91]

greetings !
thanks to the moderator @Sardukhar , i managed to obtain some useful feedback concerning the new AMD Driver, which he tested on his rig (i think he uses two R9 M290X) and here's his feedback, which is quite encouraging:

Okay, just installed the 15.5 update for the WIndows 10 driver - some nice fellow extracted the necessary dlls - and I can tell you I went from 35-45 to 45-50 FPS in the first minutes of testing. Will do more after work. Right now, looks good!

Okay, runnign around outside Oxenfurt, staring across the Water, at Ultra on 4K, AA off, Vsync..on? I get 48-52 FPS. Very nice. YEah, let anyone know.

so there you have it gentlemen ! if you got an AMD GPU, this update might be just what you need. (in the meanwhile nvidia's still snoring XDDDDD)

 

[TearOfTheSun]

On GoG launcher when you finish playing game in My activity log they show you your achievements and total play time. But after couple of days I noticed that timer freezed under 47 h and dont count anymore playing sessions. I know this is not a game breaking glitch but does anybody have it to?

 

[shishimaru1000]

Here's another tweak
Water, on low and medium lack dynamic simulation, however in your rendering.xml file you can turn it on by changing
<Entry varId="UseDynamicWaterSimulation" value="false"/> to true for low and medium water quality, this should on non-900 series card give a decent performance boost
http://giant.gfycat.com/AccurateFloweryHydatidtapeworm.webm Enabled simulation
http://giant.gfycat.com/FrankPowerlessCero.webm Disabled
http://international.download.nvidi...ty-interactive-comparison-1-ultra-vs-low.html Comparison of low water quality with ultra water quality

Isn't that heavier than "off"?

 

[IrregularJohn]

On GoG launcher when you finish playing game in My activity log they show you your achievements and total play time. But after couple of days I noticed that timer freezed under 47 h and dont count anymore playing sessions. I know this is not a game breaking glitch but does anybody have it to?

I did but it's probably because I launched it via GOG Galxy on the day the game was released. The next time and pretty much every time after that I launching it from a desktop icon.

---------- Updated at 07:46 PM ----------

Has anybody succeded in making NPCs anf grass pop up less than it does in 1.04?

 

[Domhnallaich]

Anyone know how to fix this shadow problem?

https://youtu.be/z3GoiZ4tI0I

 

[Halfmead]

Anyone know how to fix this shadow problem?

https://youtu.be/z3GoiZ4tI0I

Have you set the:

MaxCubeShadowSize=512
MaxSpotShadowSize=512

to higher value than the 512 maybe ?

 

[BrotherCool]

@BrotherCool Does the water quality setting still affect performance even when on land?

Well, as long as you're close to water you have to render water, with this you will still have the nice simulation, but the water won't be as tessellated

Isn't that heavier than "off"?

Of course, but prior to this you had to use high or ultra water which is heavily tessellated (32-64x) to have the nice dynamic simulation

 

[Domhnallaich]

Have you set the:

MaxCubeShadowSize=512
MaxSpotShadowSize=512

to higher value than the 512 maybe ?

No because of issues reported by others, it has been advised to not set those values higher than 512.

 

[DustinMock]

Don't know if anyone has touched on this yet, but it would seem the bin/config/resources.ini file is responsible system memory allocation. Careful not to tweak it too high though, as once you hit ~ 8 gb of system memory usage by the game itself, it crashes on you.

Also

The texture budget setting in users.settings appears to become problematic at around 3200 for a setting. (base is 800 so changed the totals using that as the base multiplier). Crashes quick and often with it at 3200, but at 2400 it's smooth as silk. Not hardware related, using 12gb of Vram and I've yet to see the usage of Vram get above 5gb.

 

[kilyan82]

Hi, see this video about water physx: https://youtu.be/7K9DE7Ve7TE?t=62
This was during E3..Now ugly water and zero physx
Is there any chance to get back that kind of environmental interacion via ini tweaking?

 

[IrregularJohn]

Hi, see this video about water physx: https://youtu.be/7K9DE7Ve7TE?t=62
This was during E3..Now ugly water and zero physx
Is there any chance to get back that kind of environmental interacion via ini tweaking?

I doubt it. By the way has anyone noticed that Lesser Chernobog Runestone is bugged? In its properties it reads "0 Attack power". It's no use now or is it supposed to be that way?

 

[Verrenus]

This thread is very much in the spirit of The Witcher community, I just wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone for their tweaks and ideas, I love this community. Thanks for all your help.

Thank you very much for your kind thoughts and for supporting our efforts! While The Witcher 3 is one of the biggest games ever, there is no limit to what we can make of it if we pool our knowledge and help one another out. Rock on, guys, you are simply the best!

:victory:

Here's another tweak
Water, on low and medium lack dynamic simulation, however in your rendering.xml file you can turn it on by changing
<Entry varId="UseDynamicWaterSimulation" value="false"/> to true for low and medium water quality, this should on non-900 series card give a decent performance boost
http://giant.gfycat.com/AccurateFloweryHydatidtapeworm.webm Enabled simulation
http://giant.gfycat.com/FrankPowerlessCero.webm Disabled
http://international.download.nvidia.com/geforce-com/international/comparisons/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-water-quality-interactive-comparison-1-ultra-vs-low.html Comparison of low water quality with ultra water quality

Thanks a lot for the info, BrotherCool!

Luckily, I had already included some information about this in the OP, but it's great to know how people can force water simulation on lower "Water Quality" levels!

Thanks for the reply Verrenus. I finally fixed it going through the fresh user.setting and tweaking it again. I was missing that new line "MaxTextureAnisotropy" that got introduced in 1.03 if I recall correctly since I did my tweaks before that. But it wasn't an issue before I installed the new GPU. Totally weird.
BTW, what's up with "MaxTextureAnizotropy" and "MaxTextureAnisotropy"? Why two?

Great to hear you managed to sort this out, natty.dread!

I'm not sure why we've got two variables for anisotropic filtering, but I'm fairly certain the first one was a typo and the latter one was introduced in one of the recent patches as a fix. It seems the devs forgot to remove the "Anizotropy" variable in the process and just left it there! :teeth:

greetings !
thanks to the moderator @Sardukhar , i managed to obtain some useful feedback concerning the new AMD Driver, which he tested on his rig (i think he uses two R9 M290X) and here's his feedback, which is quite encouraging. so there you have it gentlemen ! if you got an AMD GPU, this update might be just what you need. (in the meanwhile nvidia's still snoring XDDDDD)

A big thank you to you and Sardukhar for sharing this information with us! It seems the latest AMD beta drivers are indeed beneficial and everyone should update to them. I've already linked the driver download page in the OP!

NVIDIA, on the other hand, need to get their act together ASAP because AMD is currently beating them with real quality driver support...

I doubt it. By the way has anyone noticed that Lesser Chernobog Runestone is bugged? In its properties it reads "0 Attack power". It's no use now or is it supposed to be that way?

I managed to find one yesterday and saw that for myself! It's most certainly a bug and needs to be addressed by CD Projekt RED, since I'm not sure we can fix this kind of problem yet.

 

[Senteria]

Thank you very much for this guide. Is it possible I got a big FPS increase when I updated my video card drivers?

 

[kilyan82]

don't sing to victory too early,because the game story and quest wise, is broken as fuck....there are majorissues that prevent to go on.
Anyway, i see shadows popping in and out,a nd no tweaking seems to get rid of that...for example if i get close to a house, i see the shadows popping in, while if i go in the opposite direction,or turn the camera, that shadow magically disappears...same happens to decals

 

[AVMC]

Hey kilyan82, that was driving me nuts as well. There's a setting in the user.settings file called CascadeShadowDistanceScale0= that controls the scale at which shadow lod is loaded... or seems to at least. By changing that to 4, or 2 if it slows your fps down too much, it will effectively load the higher detailed lod further out.
No more walking up to a window and only seeing true shadows appear when you're 5 feet away. There's also CascadeShadowDistanceScale1= which I usually set from 1 to 2.
These are in the geforce experience tweak guide and make a HUGE difference to close shadows. It's night and day. You will take an FPS hit, but I've found it to be acceptable relative to the huge increase in IQ. Unfortunately, nothing I do seems to remedy the fact that shadows and lighting are always unloaded once they get to the edge of your fov. That pop in and out from lights exiting view, it doesn't fix.
Hope this helps!

 

[kilyan82]

Hey kilyan82, that was driving me nuts as well. There's a setting in the user.settings file called CascadeShadowDistanceScale0= that controls the scale at which shadow lod is loaded... or seems to at least. By changing that to 4, or 2 if it slows your fps down too much, it will effectively load the higher detailed lod further out.
No more walking up to a window and only seeing true shadows appear when you're 5 feet away. There's also CascadeShadowDistanceScale1= which I usually set from 1 to 2.
These are in the geforce experience tweak guide and make a HUGE difference to close shadows. It's night and day. You will take an FPS hit, but I've found it to be acceptable relative to the huge increase in IQ. Unfortunately, nothing I do seems to remedy the fact that shadows and lighting are always unloaded once they get to the edge of your fov. That pop in and out from lights exiting view, it doesn't fix.
Hope this helps!

YUP, i know,i already messed with those without results..waiting this to be fixed

 

[AVMC]

Ah, okay, sorry if I missed something. Other than that, I'd wonder if you changed any of the ShadowMap values to higher than 512. But I've mainly seen that glitching interior lighting. It glitches close shadows so when you walk from one to the other it flicks out... no fading. I know it's been posted on this thread and even page, so sorry if you've tried this. I'm just lurking the forums because I'm not able to play the game properly, so figured I'd try to help out.
If it's just a weird bug, I feel for you. I still haven't been able to run down why I crash randomly in Velen and White Orchard only. I've tried everything I can do myself. I've even swapped hardware and put in a brand new GPU. Nothing. Nada. And no word from the devs if they're planning a fix for the driver reset crashes. If I put in an older series GPU, problems disappear... put my 970s back in... crash.