Witcher 3 Graphics

[Amioran]

E3FX mod already has ambient lighting: http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/23/

That's the fake HDR I was talking about in the above post, but it is not a real lightning from objects, it is a very crude simulation. Btw, imo, E3FX doesn't mimic the E3 look at all. The author clearly added a lot of blue to try to simulate that look but the colors in the E3 demo are almost the same as the ones in the retail, actually. It is the lightning that's different, not the color scheme. This is an error that the majority of authors of presets trying to replicate the E3 look do (myself included at the beginning), but adding blue does nothing, and actually it is one of the best way to make your preset to look totally different when compared in similar contexts. Simply go on the road of Novigrad and look at images from that mod with the preview and then you will see how different the colors are from it (I did it with my mod, when I was still making that error myself, so I know).

 

[essenthy]

Yes. This is quite evident in certain times of the day (especially during a storm). You can see clearly a beam of light (like a bulb) following everywhere you go and lightning the area around Geralt (with him being naturally the focus).

I dissected the E3 video a lot in the last week trying to recreate its color scheme for my preset and what I found is that the colors of the release and the preview aren't actually changed that much (just a little bit more blue on the preview, but it is almost imperceptible). The major difference is the lightning that was completely different. The only way to recreate a little that feeling with SweetFX is to add the fake HDR that contrast the image more and this added with other little changes can simulate that lightning, but it is a very very poor method and the result is neither close to it.

that was my conclusion too when i tried to replicate the colorgrading from the 35mn demo, the coloring itself isnt really differrent, its the lighting solution, and since colors are affected by the lighting ...

the closest i got ( but still poor ) was with MasterEffect ,the shader in it are really really good, but the problem is that you'll have one single color/light correction for all the different zone

 

[Witcherman]

@zefs
I've tried to use ambient lighting but I've only been able to wash out the image, really. I wanted to use it to make the lighting in caves look less last-gen and I kind of did but the moment I stepped outside it all went south. It's a really good shader for some games but not so much for this one, as far as my ability has shown anyway.

 

[Amioran]

@zefs
I've tried to use ambient lighting but I've only been able to wash out the image, really. I wanted to use it to make the lighting in caves look less last-gen and I kind of did but the moment I stepped outside it all went south. It's a really good shader for some games but not so much for this one, as far as my ability has shown anyway.

If you want to use it then you must contrast it with other things (as gamma and exposure) or in the day it will be too bright. However using HDR is the only way to simulate a little the lightning of the preview (albeit very crudely) if that's what you want to do. I did three different presets, one for a medieval look, one for the E3 look and one for the VGX one, and the E3 one uses HDR. Naturally the only real good one is the first (because it is the most realistic of the three as far as colors go) but the other two are fun to use anyway.

https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/3818/
https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/3817/
https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/3851/

Sadly at this point I know much too well that recreating the lightning as in the preview (or even worse the VGX trailer) is impossible with SweetFX, but it was fun anyway trying to do it.

 

[essenthy]

nice work @Amioran, really like the medieval preset

 

[Witcherman]

@Amioran
I know how to use it, I was just saying that for this game it's a no-go from my findings. Probably because it already has a good HDR. And the exteriors were too dark, not too bright.
Trying to replicate removed graphics with shaders is silly to begin with though, most of the presets I've seen including yours just kind of side-step away from the vanilla aesthetic instead of simply improving what we've got(which is all you can do). You'd need a mod like ENB to restore or at least vastly improve the visuals. Just look at Dark Souls II, its mods, and that downgrade as an example.

 

[Amioran]

nice work @Amioran, really like the medieval preset

Thanks. As I said, that's the serious preset, the others were mostly for fun

---------- Updated at 06:13 PM ----------

@Amioran
I know how to use it, I was just saying that for this game it's a no-go from my findings. Probably because it already has a good HDR. And the exteriors were too dark, not too bright.
Trying to replicate removed graphics with shaders is silly to begin with though, most of the presets I've seen including yours just kind of side-step away from the vanilla aesthetic instead of simply improving what we've got(which is all you can do). You'd need a mod like ENB to restore or at least vastly improve the visuals. Just look at Dark Souls II, its mods, and that downgrade as an example.

I know. I said myself that the there's no way to simulate the look of E3 or VGX. The only thing you can do is to try to replicate the atmosphere with some tricks but it will never be the same thing, neither remotely. The only real presets are those that, in fact, tailor the color scheme (as for example to remove the too cartony look as I did with the medieval one), the others are more a gimmick than anything else.

As for ENB the author for now is working on GTA V and it is not known if he will ever start to work on W3. Directx 11 is much less malleable than DX9, and so everytime he has to work with a DX11 title it takes time.

 

[doktor1]

most of the presets I've seen including yours just kind of side-step away from the vanilla aesthetic instead of simply improving what we've got

I stay with vanilla aesthetics...
With some tweaks so swamp is "swampier", grass i "grassier"







Interior difference:
Vanilla --- SFX

 

[Witcherman]

I know. I said myself that the there's no way to simulate the look of E3 or VGX. The only thing you can do is to try to replicate the atmosphere with some tricks but it will never be the same thing, neither remotely. The only real presets are those that, in fact, tailor the color scheme (as for example to remove the too cartony look as I did with the medieval one), the others are more a gimmick than anything else.

I think the ones that change the scheme aren't doing a good job. Adding AA, sharpening, balancing the colors(since there are general tints of certain colors during most scenes), and removing a bit of contrast and maybe adding a bit of linear tonemap is all I've found to do a good job at making the game easier to look at. Whenever I try a preset or add an overlay the game doesn't feel the same and most importantly to me Geralt's skin gets changed too much and it doesn't look right. That or the grass which the game is full of.

 

[madmax112]

I use the first preset from the first post. 2 things i want to know if i can change. I can see my game stutters a bit after installing. Can i see FPS in any way?
2. Too sharp for my taste. What should i do?

 

[jonwd7]

Let's just be honest here. The Witcher 3 graphics are underwhelming and nothing to write home about. They failed to set a new standard.

The Witcher 3 has become THE standard for open world games. I am guessing that Bethesda will not be able to come close to it for Fallout 4 or TES VI. Especially making a game so gorgeous have completely open interiors and seamless city-wilderness transitions.

Many yes, but I cancelled my order so not me. It won't do much, but I am not buying the game until I see some genuine PC graphics.
What I see now is just nothing impressive.

Oh, so you haven't seen the game in person then. As in completely uncompressed video footage. After seeing all the promotional videos, images, and the early copies released to YouTubers, I was still blown away when I saw it for myself. It is without doubt the most gorgeous game I've seen.

Anyway, the graphics are underwhelming. Back on-topic please

You're hilarious. "Underwhelming", pray tell, by what benchmark? Can you provide a list of open world games with better graphics? Or are you from the future and have you seen Witcher 4 and Elder Scrolls VIII? Or are you one of the delusional people who believed you were promised the unreleased, unfinished builds that barely ran 30FPS on two GTX Titans? Based on you "cancelling your order" I would guess that is the case.

I'm doing a Step-Up upgrade to the GTX 980 Ti (from a 980) just to be able to run the game as I have it configured now at 60FPS sometimes (I don't expect the Ti to always stay above 60)... I get about 45FPS on average at 1440p. I'd certainly rather have the game as-is than be forced to buy a 2nd GTX 980 Ti to run it at reasonable FPS.

Also, how exactly is graphics discussion off-topic? Am I in the wrong thread?

And to quote you from earlier:

Yes the game looks great on PS4. But it almost looks identical on PC. While a PC can handle much, MUCH more.
So the downgrade thing is a huge disappointment.

What?

That upper left corner in each shot... Really the entire upper half. If you'd have cropped just that, I would have guessed it was a PS3 or Xbox 360 game. Or Oblivion-era PC game.


Anyway, I leave you with:

Ugliest. Game. 2015. 0/10. #DowngradeGate.

 

[Amioran]

I use the first preset from the first post. 2 things i want to know if i can change. I can see my game stutters a bit after installing. Can i see FPS in any way?
2. Too sharp for my taste. What should i do?

Open the file SweetFX_settings.cfg under the Reshade folder with a text editor (as Notepad++).

1. If it stutters, remove SMAA. That's the major factor on FPS. Simply search the line #define USE_SMAA and put a 0 (instead of 1 as now) to it. As for seeing the FPS you need an external program to look at them. For example Fraps or Afterburner, but be sure to load them after the game elsewhere they can make it crash with SweetFX.

2. Remove the sharpen. Search the line #define USE_LUMASHARPEN and put a 0 to it.

Different people have different tastes so it is good to know how to change things on your own for little tweaks. Then, as a general rule: put shadows to low if you lack FPS. The downgrade in visual quality is practically unnoticeable and you easily get 10-15 FPS by it.

---------- Updated at 06:42 PM ----------

Whenever I try a preset or add an overlay the game doesn't feel the same and most importantly to me Geralt's skin gets changed too much and it doesn't look right. That or the grass which the game is full of.

This I don't understand very well. What does it mean "feel the same"? There's a trademark to how the game must look like, that it must look like that or elsewhere is it "wrong"? I, for example, don't like the too cartony look of the colors (I have always been a more "realistic like" guy and I always preferred dark tones than colorful ones in games) and especially don't like the orange filter of the game. I don't think at all that removing the too much vibrance and yellow filter makes the game "wrong looking", simply because for me it is wrong looking at is in the default (since from the beginning I played it I didn't like the color scheme and in fact I appositely learned how to use SweetFX to change it). Same in art: I prefer Caravaggio to Delacroix.

As for AA and sharpening: both are present in the vanilla game, only that the AA in SweetFX is better looking (it doesn't blur and it works better) and the sharpening is tailorable to personal preference (and also in this case it is better looking).

 

[Witcherman]

@jonwd7
As someone who has played the game I do agree with him that it is underwhelming. A lot of the time the game looks outright bad to me, specifically during the rain or at night/dusk running through woods. Grass in those conditions(as well as some others) looks no different than it looks in games that are very old and that, to me and probably others, really detracts from the visuals of the otherwise amazingly crafted world. The lighting and weather as well are done much better in many other games. For instance Kingdom Come, GTA V, several modded games, many racing games, Crysis, Watch Dogs, and the list goes on. Even The Witcher 2 does it better occasionally. I've messed around a lot with Jim's cheat table blasting through the TOD and I'm pretty unimpressed, I actually like a modded Morrowind's lighting better.

There is not a lot of variety in TW3 when it comes to lighting and sometimes it's flat especially at night or in interiors which make the game look downright bad. Touched up bullshots are also not representative of the game we're looking at and there are thousands of images of other games that look significantly better. It's a gorgeous game to be sure but to be a pinnacle of open worlds it has a lot left to improve. I consider GTA V or Kingdom Come to do everything better while being in the same genre.

And he is right about the PS4 version being similar. The PC version is of course better but the lighting is the same and the textures in our PC version still aren't that good(though significantly better than the consoles). Draw distance is waay better than the consoles but not at the point it should be on PC, if you stand outside of Crows Peak where you fight that Shrieker you can see how the manor looks like it's from a PS2 game which is really bad even by Skyrim standards. There aren't many other improvements beside that, CDPR was right in saying all versions look "good".

Some other points I'd like to make is that it wasn't delusional to have faith in CDPR since they did promise those visuals to us and that this game is pretty damn unoptimized especially for Keplar so boasting about upgrading for it, and your overkill tweaks, is a bit silly. It's cool you think it's a visually stunning game but that really is your opinion, there are a lot of lacking aspects such as the water, lighting, textures, draw distance, weather, and grass.

 

[Amioran]

That upper left corner in each shot... Really the entire upper half. If you'd have cropped just that, I would have guessed it was a PS3 or Xbox 360 game. Or Oblivion-era PC game.

So are you telling me that you are perfectly happy with the fact that the only difference between a PS4 and a PC is better water, a little more LOD distance and density in vegetation when a PS4 is practically a 3-4 years old enthusiast PC? To everyone his/her own, I guess, but I would have preferred a little more difference between PC and consoles given the HUGE gap in technical possibilities between the two.

I don't personally know if the level of visuals of the E3 demo are achievable by today standards if not with uber hardware (nobody can know but CDPR), what I know for sure is that between Ultra on PC and PS4 visuals there's minimal difference in visual quality (and just the fact that you had to take a shot from high above in a well defined context to take water - that is the only thing that clearly looks better as everyone knows - already demonstrates this) and given the great difference in capabilities of hardware evidently something more could have been done for those that have high-end rigs of last gen (sorry but it is depriment to have bought a new PC just for this game and see it look like it does on a console).

Ultra settings in W2 really pushed PC hardware hard, while in this game it simply doesn't. I can play on Ultra with a R9 280, surely not high-end status,without any issue at all and I never could have expected that before playing the game (I thought I would have had to play on medium or medium/high).

 

[OlekKing]

So are you telling me that you are perfectly happy with the fact that the only difference between a PS4 and a PC is better water, a little more LOD distance and vegetation when a PS4 is practically a 3-4 years old enthusiast PC? To everyone his/her own, I guess, but I would have preferred a little more difference between PC and consoles given the HUGE gap in technical possibilities between the two.

I don't personally know if the level of visuals of the E3 demo are achievable by today standards if not with uber hardware (nobody can know but CDPR), what I know for sure is that between Ultra on PC and PS4 visuals there's minimal difference in visual quality (and just the fact that you had to take a shot from high above in a well defined context to take water - that is the only thing that clearly looks better as everyone knows - already demonstrates this fact) and given the great difference in capabilities something more could have been done for those that have high-end rigs of last gen.

Ultra settings in W2 really pushed PC hardware hard, while in this game it simply doesn't. I can play on Ultra with a R9 280, surely not high-end status,without any issue at all and I never could have expected that before playing the game (I thought I would have had to play on medium or medium/high).

Uh the PS4 is not a 3-4 year old enthusiast PC at all. It's a 3-4 year old medium end PC.

 

[Witcherman]

There's a trademark to how the game must look like, that it must look like that or elsewhere is it "wrong"?

A lot of people will argue that " this is the way the developers intended for it to look" when downplaying the benefits of shader injection or other graphical mods and before it was a pretty stupid argument but now, with PBR, it's a solid one. The developers truly did craft the game to look a specific way and I feel that now more than ever if you change it too much the whole intended look falls apart. The game will now simply look like it has an overlay on it -- a sepia as an example, one adjustment people make is to increase the contrast and that drives me up the wall since it seems to smear texture detail on bright surfaces and make the darks get too dark. I don't like when that happens personally so I stick to the vanilla aesthetic and only subtly enhance it.

SMAA and lumasharpen both can work in tandem with what the game supplies. the sharpening CDPR released is either subtle as everything or overblown and it also doesn't do the "luma" part of lumasharpen so I use that instead and SMAA gets some aliasing their TAA misses. Also I've seen people mention an orange filter before but I don't see anything like that, there is a subtle hue of green though. I have a standard gamut IPS, what about you?

Anyway it's all subjective, I was just sharing my opinion. One more question I have for you though is how do you figure the world is dark and desaturated?? TW3 is way less colorful than this spring day where I'm from

---------- Updated at 07:18 PM ----------

I don't personally know if the level of visuals of the E3 demo are achievable by today standards

He said himself that it was running with two Titans at 30fps(I don't know where he got this from) so it seemingly was. Other games look better though, for instance Star Citizen. But yeah there's nothing wrong with future proofing your game anyway, it's a good thing.

 

[Amioran]

Uh the PS4 is not a 3-4 year old enthusiast PC at all. It's a 3-4 year old medium end PC.

Gave it a little of leeway for the sake of the discussion

 

[OlekKing]

A lot of people will argue that " this is the way the developers intended for it to look" when downplaying the benefits of shader injection or other graphical mods and before it was a pretty stupid argument but now, with PBR, it's a solid one. The developers truly did craft the game to look a specific way and I feel that now more than ever if you change it too much the whole intended look falls apart. The game will now simply look like it has an overlay on it -- a sepia as an example, one adjustment people make is to increase the contrast and that drives me up the wall since it seems to smear texture detail on bright surfaces and make the darks get too dark. I don't like when that happens personally so I stick to the vanilla aesthetic and only subtly enhance it.

SMAA and lumasharpen both can work in tandem with what the game supplies. the sharpening CDPR released is either subtle as everything or overblown and it also doesn't do the "luma" part of lumasharpen so I use that instead and SMAA gets some aliasing their TAA misses. Also I've seen people mention an orange filter before but I don't see anything like that, there is a subtle hue of green though. I have a standard gamut IPS, what about you?

Anyway it's all subjective, I was just sharing my opinion. One more question I have for you though is how do you figure the world is dark and desaturated??? TW3 is way less colorful than this spring day where I'm from

---------- Updated at 07:18 PM ----------


He said himself that it was running with two Titans at 30fps(I don't know where he got this from) so it seemingly was. Other games look better though, for instance Star Citizen. But yeah there's nothing wrong with future proofing your game anyway, it's a good thing.

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/the-witcher-3-gtx-780ti-could-push-35-45-fps-at-max.html

780ti running the old VGX build at 35-45 fps in 1080p with X8 MSAA. That's a lot of AA, X8 MSAA is around a 40-50% performance hit, meaning the the 780ti was running the game at 47-67 fps 1080p if we disabled or turned down MSAA, that's about in line with the performance of the release build since there's no real AA in the game.

 

[Witcherman]

http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/the-witcher-3-gtx-780ti-could-push-35-45-fps-at-max.html

780ti running the old VGX build at 35-45 fps in 1080p with X8 MSAA.

"If it is up to Gametechs claims"
I recall CDPR denying that rumor and it still doesn't sound right to begin with. What modern game uses MSAA and even if it did I doubt it could get 45fps with 8x heh.

 

[OlekKing]

"If it is up to Gametechs claims"
I recall CDPR denying that rumor and it still doesn't sound right to begin with. What modern game uses MSAA and even if it did I doubt it could get 45fps with 8x heh.

Almost every modern game has MSAA...It clearly says 35-45, min and max, average performance would be somewhere in the middle.

The config files have MSAA entries so it clearly was in the game at some point.