A compendium of tweaks and fixes for the PC version

[Black_Iris]

wher do i find those profiles, just google and hopes?XD

The best way is to create one yourself but you need special tools. I said to you that the thing is not yet mainstream and there's a reason for it, as it involved a process more complicated than just "plug & play".

Then, sincerely, if you don't do photography or similar it's completely unnecessary to do it, since, as I've already explained, the majority of games don't support ICC profiles yet in full screen mode. So for gaming it serves nothing for now, for normal usage it serves practically nothing, the only real motive you NEED to use a ICC profile is if you have to do some professional work with your monitor (as printing something that in screen looks exactly as what you get out of the printer).

 

[JPulowski]

wher do i find those profiles, just google and hopes?XD

Here is a detailed article about monitor calibration by Andrew Burnes.

For some monitors there are color profiles available online if you don't have a calibration device.
Normally, monitor calibration should be done with the help of additional tools such as Datacolor Spyder or X-Rite i1Display Pro.

Color calibration is an important aspect. In my opinion, gamers need to use it as well. Without proper color calibration, even a simple SweetFX preset will look entirely different on each monitor. Also it is the reason why so many games have "very dark nights" or "not very dark caverns" problem.

 

[Black_Iris]

Color calibration is an important aspect. In my opinion, gamers need to use it as well. Without proper color calibration, even a simple SweetFX preset will look entirely different on each monitor. Also it is the reason why so many games have "very dark nights" or "not very dark caverns" problem.

You can calibrate your monitor as much as you want, but at last if that calibration cannot be done entirely via the hardware (that's usually very difficult) and so you need to create an ICC profile then for many games you will be out of luck anyway as when in full screen mode they reset the profile, especially if you own a Nvidia card when then you are also screwed with utilizing an external program to fix the thing.

 

[Asmodean778]

Have ye tried using CPKeeper. Have it minimized to the task tray while the game is running. It usually works fine. I can't confirm if it in fact works with this particular game, though.

 

[jonwd7]

@jonwd7 , what would you recommend for lower FoilageDistanceScale values, such as 1-1.5. Assume using CascadeShadowMapSize=3072.

Well, AFAIK, the Ultra presets for Shadows and for Foliage Distance go well together. FoliageDistanceScale @ Ultra is 1.8 and for Shadows @ Ultra, the CascadeShadowDistanceScale2/CascadeShadowDistanceScale3 values are only 1.5.

So if your Foliage Distance is below Ultra, you really don't need to increase your CSDS2 and CSDS3 values much at all. Cascade 2 *does* shadow a lot more than just trees though, so I would still recommend 3/2/2/2 or 3/2/2/1.

The thing is about my Cascade 3 figures... They are pretty much arbitrary because as far as I can tell, Cascade 3 has no shadows.

Surely Cascade 3 is used for something one would think, but when I set C0/C1/C2 to 0.01 to minimize their size, if I set Cascade 3 to any scale, large or small, I just don't see anything that it's actually doing. There might be a few really large things that cast shadows in C3, but I haven't seen any yet. I have even entered free cam mode and zoomed about the map but I really don't notice it doing anything. I thought maybe it depends on the Cascade 2 scale so I've been testing that out, but when it gets so far away from the camera it's hard to tell anything.

So, for Cascade 3 I would just say to set it equal to Cascade 2 until someone actually figures out what it does.

Based on this, I guess 3/2/1.5/1.0 would be a good setting?

If you have Ultra or higher foliage distance, you might want to increase C2 to 2. But otherwise it's fine. I am still testing what all distant LOD casts shadows in C2, so you might want C2 to be 2 anyway.

 

[BrotherCool]

If you have Ultra or higher foliage distance, you might want to increase C2 to 2. But otherwise it's fine. I am still testing what all distant LOD casts shadows in C2, so you might want C2 to be 2 anyway.

I'm not getting the results I want from shadows in this game
How does it really work? I'm mostly having trouble with shadows seeming "incomplete", what setting does that? What does cascadeshadowfadetreshold actually do?

 

[bombeybox]

@jonwd7
So, in your opinion, best Cascade settings for ultra preset ( 2400\1.5\1.8 ) is:
CascadeShadowDistanceScale0=3
CascadeShadowDistanceScale1=2
CascadeShadowDistanceScale2=2
CascadeShadowDistanceScale3=2
?

 

[KNGRSM]

some progress on reading the .env files here. cutscen_definition_global.env values for variable m_sky

 

[jonwd7]

I'm not getting the results I want from shadows in this game
How does it really work? I'm mostly having trouble with shadows seeming "incomplete", what setting does that? What does cascadeshadowfadetreshold actually do?

I would revisit this post and make sure you are grasping points 9 and 10, and understanding the effect that changing the values has on the pictures. I would also re-read this post, especially the second 1/1/1.5/1.5 vs 3/2/2/2 comparison. Also make sure you understand the colorized cascade breakdown I did.

Is the "incompleteness" like the comparison I just linked? If so, this has to do with objects that are only seen in one cascade and not another. Thus you only see a partial shadow when the object is straddling two cascades. Increasing C0 and C1 puts these transitions further away. If it's something that is still bothering you with C0/C1 scaled to above 4/3, then you can start increasing your shadowmap size and C0/C1 even further. Or just wait for the eventual mods which will force more objects to render in C1, which may be less performance intensive than upping your shadowmap size to 8192 and increasing C0 to 8.

--

Re: CascadeShadowFadeTreshold, I'm honestly not too sure yet because I have been unable to notice any differences. At first, I was expecting to see a difference in the dithered area between each cascade, but it remains the exact same.

The Nvidia guide says:

CascadeShadowFadeTreshold= [Ultra Value: 1] - Decrease the value to improve the maximum view distance of shadows

But if this is the case, 0.5/1.0/2.0 must all already exceed the shadow cascades' total distance because I have tried at 1/1/1/1 and then changed CascadeShadowFadeTreshold and the total shadow distance remains the same. I've also tried at 3/2/2/2. I've tried at 4/4/4/4. I go into free cam and go very high in the sky and take photos to compare if CascadeShadowFadeTreshold actually changes the maximum distance of shadows and so far I haven't seen a single difference among CascadeShadowFadeTreshold values.

I thought maybe it was because \bin\config\platform\pc\rendering.ini or the other rendering.ini in config\base were overriding the value in user.settings for some reason, so just to make sure I also changed the values in all the rendering.ini.

In any case I've tried 0.1, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 10.0 ... and I've yet to find what it's doing.

If anyone could please try on their own, with image comparisons, because as far as I can tell changing the value is broken for me. Same with CascadeShadowQuality. The Nvidia article shows a difference with this value but I couldn't replicate it either. I'm beginning to think they broke reading these INI values between patches.

Luckily I have 1.02 separately installed on my system so I could test for regressions like this. Maybe I will be able to see if CascadeShadowQuality/CascadeShadowFadeTreshold does anything for me on 1.02.

@jonwd7
So, in your opinion, best Cascade settings for ultra preset ( 2400\1.5\1.8 ) is:
CascadeShadowDistanceScale0=3
CascadeShadowDistanceScale1=2
CascadeShadowDistanceScale2=2
CascadeShadowDistanceScale3=2
?

If your CascadeShadowmapSize=3072, then yes those are good values. I won't say best because the term "best" is too subjective for shadows. It's about a balance of distance covered and spatial resolution. For people who are extremely picky about seeing the cascade transitions, those values probably aren't best for them. If loss of spatial resolution (sharpness) bothers you less than the cascade transitions, just increase C0 a bit.

BTW, the only relevant value to Shadows for the Foliage Distance settings is 1.8 (FoliageDistanceScale). And also FoliageShadowDistanceScale which does shadows for small bushes and things. Increasing FoliageDistanceScale will give you shadows on trees further away, as long as your cascades stretch far enough. If you make FoliageDistanceScale=3 or higher, then 3/2/2/2 might not stretch quite far enough. I've yet to test at what exact values the cascades do not reach far enough, but I do know for certain that 3/2/2/2 is plenty for 1.8, because the Ultra preset (1/1/1.5/1.5) appears to cover enough distance. I wouldn't personally ever put CascadeShadowDistanceScale2 less than 2 though.

 

[kilyan82]

CascadeShadowFadeTreshold

I remember that was said to set it at 0.1, because does nothing currently. @jonwd7 From what you are saying, it seems really this way

 

[Black_Iris]

Have ye tried using CPKeeper. Have it minimized to the task tray while the game is running. It usually works fine. I can't confirm if it in fact works with this particular game, though.

Yes, it works (at last on my AMD card). It keeps the profile fine. Thanks!

 

[marvelmaster]

some progress on reading the .env files here. cutscen_definition_global.env values for variable m_sky

Can you give me Ingame Commands for that to change?

 

[kilyan82]

The best way is to create one yourself but you need special tools. I said to you that the thing is not yet mainstream and there's a reason for it, as it involved a process more complicated than just "plug & play".

Then, sincerely, if you don't do photography or similar it's completely unnecessary to do it, since, as I've already explained, the majority of games don't support ICC profiles yet in full screen mode. So for gaming it serves nothing for now, for normal usage it serves practically nothing, the only real motive you NEED to use a ICC profile is if you have to do some professional work with your monitor (as printing something that in screen looks exactly as what you get out of the printer).

What i did, was installing for my samsung syncmaster ls24a300bl,drivers and firmware from the official site, and after that i found a new icc profile to select. I'm using a similar tool to force the profile ingame..I don' notice much difference from before, maybe it was already set correctly

 

[Black_Iris]

What i did, was installing for my samsung syncmaster ls24a300bl,drivers and firmware from the official site, and after that i found a new icc profile to select. I'm using a similar tool to force the profile ingame..I don' notice much difference from before, maybe it was already set correctly

It's strange. Usually when you get a corrected ICC profile for your monitor there's a huge difference (so huge in fact that you have to accustom to it a couple of minutes and often times you actually hate the new profile at the very beginning) so it is very difficult to get unnoticed. It is very rare for a monitor to already have calibrated colors on your particular setup.

 

[joloxx9]

Could anybody tell me How can I Edit .bundle files? Many people edit them but there is no guide how to do that. Yhx

 

[marvelmaster]

Could anybody tell me How can I Edit .bundle files? Many people edit them but there is no guide how to do that. Yhx

http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/m...er3/ajax/moddescription/?id=14&preview=&pUp=1

 

[natty.dread.011]

some progress on reading the .env files here. cutscen_definition_global.env values for variable m_sky

Did you manage to find the curve values? ScalarEditScale sound to me like a global scale for that curve to proportionally scale all the values on it.
That dataCurveValues under DoF looks interesting.
It would be great if we could edit the curves and add points on it.

Here's how it looks like in the previous REDkit:

 

[KNGRSM]

Did you manage to find the curve values? ScalarEditScale sound to me like a global scale for that curve to proportionally scale all the values on it.
That dataCurveValues under DoF looks interesting.
It would be great if we could edit the curves and add points on it.

Here's how it looks like in the previous REDkit:

When I see this, I really just wanna wait for the Redkit to come out. But yeah, it's exactly like at what I'm looking at.

 

[natty.dread.011]

Oh wow. That's it.
...but man, it's going to be a pain tweaking it like that, packing the files, running the game, comparing, quitting, unpacking and all over again.

Working with one value for the whole range (00.00 - 24.00) is somewhat doable but we can't make anything "fancy" like that.

If you want to know what each var does I can only suggest installing that old REDkit. Maybe even the values are comparable so you can get an instant feedback to how it will look.

 

[marvelmaster]

I would love to browse these files too...small tutorial how to read them? Or do i need to have massive programming knowledge?