A compendium of tweaks and fixes for the PC version

[MUPPETA]

NICE!!

I'm searching for quite a while for the option to increase rain drop count. Anyone knows where it is? if it exist...

Try changing these in user. ini (not sure is it hardcoded)
cvMaxAllowedParticlesCountTime=0.2 life of particles -snow, fire
cvMaxAllowedParticlesCount=1200 number of particles seen on screen i.e. snow particles and maybe rain?

 

[berserker66666]

Try changing these in user. ini (not sure is it hardcoded)
cvMaxAllowedParticlesCountTime=0.2 life of particles -snow, fire
cvMaxAllowedParticlesCount=1200 number of particles seen on screen i.e. snow particles and maybe rain?

Nope, it's hard coded. Changing the value does nothing. Why is everything hard coded in this game?

 

[Verrenus]

I tested this + additional terrain tweaks on the page and... sadly nothing changed. I compared 3 screenshots and the only thing that changed between them was the position shadows originating from clouds were.

I tested these tweaks several weeks ago, LOD was by no means improved and it might make my game more unstable.

Nope, it's hard coded. Changing the value does nothing. Why is everything hard coded in this game?

Hmmm, all of the parameters that could really improve the overall fidelity of the game on more than capable PC hardware are either deftly hidden or hard-locked on the engine side. This is anything but acceptable on a platform that we chose specifically due to its openness and sheer rendering power, and for a game that we already know can potentially be tweaked into the tiniest details given the chance.

---------- Updated at 02:17 PM ----------

Updated the OP by removing a section made redundant by patch 1.07 (i.e. former section 15, detailing how to manually tweak HairWorks antialiasing levels) and including two new sections:

Section 7: Fix stuttering caused by too frequent garbage collection, detailing a tweak to mitigate stuttering associated with garbage collection in crowded areas, most notably Novigrad.

Section 16: Personal working configuration, featuring a collapsible list of all of the tweaks and fixes I am personally using to play the game with!

Thank you very much for your continued feedback and support! :cheers2:

 

[tamodolo]

Somehow, I get the feeling that CDPR is abiding with some sort of graphics parity between consoles and PC judging from all the silence, locking threads down when mentioning the "D" word, not responding to threads about letting PC gamers tweak more and porting console's level of graphical details being almost as same as on PC

I don't think that's correct. They stated already that the red tools will be coming (which will actually unlock the game's engine) and a configuration tool for fine tune the config files is on the way too. If I was in the lead of this game I would give high priority in fixing the game instead of atend this miscelaneous things. Whitcher 3 works good but there is a lot of minor bugs that need to be fixed like the infamous "can't talk to [put some random NPC or quest NPC here]" bug.

But thanks for the info! I don't like the extreme dark that that mod do so I'll try to mess with the game file.

 

[berserker66666]

Section 7: Fix stuttering caused by too frequent garbage collection, detailing a tweak to mitigate stuttering associated with garbage collection in crowded areas, most notably Novigrad.

Do I have to put the file to "Read Only" mode after tweaking?

 

[Verrenus]

Do I have to put the file to "Read Only" mode after tweaking?

No file needs to be set to "Read Only" after tweaking, as long as you remember not to touch any in-game graphics slider that has been reset to "Low" as a result of your tweaks!

 

[berserker66666]

No file needs to be set to "Read Only" after tweaking, as long as you remember not to touch any in-game graphics slider that has been reset to "Low" as a result of your tweaks!

Cool. However, CDPR announced their 1.08 patch coming sometimes this week. So after the patch, all values will be reset and we'd have to tweak those settings again.

 

[Verrenus]

Cool. However, CDPR announced their 1.08 patch coming sometimes this week. So after the patch, all values will be reset and we'd have to tweak those settings again.

Oh wow, I didn't even know that, thank you very much for the update!

Yes, of course we will have to re-apply the "user.settings" tweaks if the patch refreshes the file. Even if it doesn't do that, it's a very good idea to delete your "user.settings" and "user.settings.bak" files yourself after any patch, set all of your in-game settings back to what they were before and then finally re-apply all of your manual .ini tweaks, because that can eliminate a lot of hard-to-diagnose performance problems in the long run!

 

[berserker66666]

Yes, of course we will have to re-apply the "user.settings" tweaks if the patch refreshes the file. Even if it doesn't do that, it's a very good idea to delete your "user.settings" and "user.settings.bak" files yourself after any patch, set all of your in-game settings back to what they were before and then finally re-apply all of your manual .ini tweaks, because that can eliminate a lot of hard-to-diagnose performance problems in the long run!

I do that for every single patch. I also delete/reset any mods I do back to default cause the patch usually modifies files that are related to mods as well as original files.

BTW, I've seen your section 17 and if you're interesting in improving the graphics even further (More than K-Putt's sweetfx) then check out this mod. This as well as it's complimentary Cutscene Lighting mod or Yet Another Lighting Mod will really bring out the atmosphere of the game. All descriptions are inside the link.

http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/146/?

---------- Updated at 06:00 PM ----------

Also a question about GrassRingSize. Do you know what changing the value actually does?

 

[perablenta]

Since CDRP always changes the lines inside the user.settings file it's best to keep it read only so the GOG Galaxy can't override it without your knowledge. Then when it asks you to to let it do it, you first copy the file so you can save all your tweaks. Then you uncheck read only, let the client update the game and the files, go into the new user.settings open your old one and compare what is new or changed. Then just copy paste your own tweaks from the saved old user.settings.

 

[FANTADEFENDER]

Good work! Loving it

 

[JGPlisken]

10. Set the "Witcher3.exe" process to "High Priority" in Task Manager to win some extra frames-per-second

It would appear that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is not making effective use of CPU power and that setting the "Witcher3.exe" process to "High Affinity" in Task Manager can help alleviate this problem and win you some extra frames-per-second!

With the game running, Alt-Tab back to the desktop and then press Ctrl-Alt-Del to bring up Task Manager. Find the "Witcher3.exe" process, right-click on it then select "Set Priority > High". After that, you can simply close Task Manager and Alt-Tab back into the game!

Source: TheRaidenPT


Alternatively, if you want the game to always run at a high priority, then open Notepad and copy/paste the following in a new .txt file:


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\witcher3.exe]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options\witcher3.exe\PerfOptions]
"CpuPriorityClass"=dword:00000003


Then save the file with the extension .reg (e.g. "witcher_priority.reg") wherever you want, double-click on it and select "Ok" to add the new key to your registry!

Source: Black_Iris

This doesn't work in Windows 10. It says the specified file is not a registry script.

 

[Verrenus]

I do that for every single patch. I also delete/reset any mods I do back to default cause the patch usually modifies files that are related to mods as well as original files.

BTW, I've seen your section 17 and if you're interesting in improving the graphics even further (More than K-Putt's sweetfx) then check out this mod. This as well as it's complimentary Cutscene Lighting mod or Yet Another Lighting Mod will really bring out the atmosphere of the game. All descriptions are inside the link.

http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/146/?

---------- Updated at 06:00 PM ----------

Also a question about GrassRingSize. Do you know what changing the value actually does?

From one of my earlier posts:

GrassRingSize has been identified by jonwd7 to cause some stutter when setting Foliage Distance to "Ultra", which is why he recommended reducing it from "16777216" (i.e. the "Ultra" value) down to "8388608", which quality-wise is right in between the "High" and "Ultra" preset values.

Since CDRP always changes the lines inside the user.settings file it's best to keep it read only so the GOG Galaxy can't override it without your knowledge. Then when it asks you to to let it do it, you first copy the file so you can save all your tweaks. Then you uncheck read only, let the client update the game and the files, go into the new user.settings open your old one and compare what is new or changed. Then just copy paste your own tweaks from the saved old user.settings.

Of course, that is also a perfectly valid way of doing things. As long as you don't forget what tweaks you had before refreshing the file, all should be well in the end regardless of your chosen method!

Good work! Loving it

Thank you so much for the kind words, I really appreciate your support! Have a blast playing your tweaked/fixed game! :cheers2:

This doesn't work in Windows 10. It says the specified file is not a registry script.

Thank you very much for letting me know! I will update the relevant section in the OP with a warning until a better solution is found (edit: DONE)!

 

[Dprelate]

@Kidoki; please refer to my earlier post about tweaking CascadeShadowDistanceScale. that should solve your problem.

 

[berserker66666]

Here's something interesting. I went inside Witcher 3's Shader/Speedtree folder and deleted all grass related files. Here's what it looks like lol.

Now, seeing as how deleting these files have immediate effect on visuals, if someone can make better grass texture, rename the files to that inside the Speedtree folder and put it there, I bet the game will load it. Same with trees and other floras. Just a thought.

 

[Kidoki]

@Kidoki; please refer to my earlier post about tweaking CascadeShadowDistanceScale. that should solve your problem.

I have them at 3, 3, 4 and 4 in the respective order of Cascade 0, 1, 2 and 3. Should i increase values? What values do you use? I thought this setting only improved the shadow pop-ins.

 

[berserker66666]

Where did all the trees go? lol. Messing about with Speedtree files. I wonder if something can be done about those damn distant fogs like this.

 

[Dprelate]

I have them at 3, 3, 4 and 4 in the respective order of Cascade 0, 1, 2 and 3. Should i increase values? What values do you use? I thought this setting only improved the shadow pop-ins.

I thought the same, however it had another side effect for me. mine are 2, 2, 2.5, 2.5 respectively.
I suggest downloading my user.settings file and give it a try; use this one instead of yours. if it helps then you may compare them line by line and we will find the missing piece of the puzzle.
Good Luck

http://www.mediafire.com/download/rkkchq5c0vvtzjj/user.settings

 

[berserker66666]

Alright folks, found a possible scenario where those distant fog effects could be removed hence increasing the draw distance. I extracted one of the bundle file inside content0 and found this. However, after extracting I don't know to repack these loose files after extraction. If someone knows how, please let me know. Anyway, the file called lowlands_fog.w2p is interesting and maybe has something to do with the fog. I can delete this file but don't know how to rebundle it so yea....P.S there are other interesting files out there like rain/wave splash effect on screen. You could turn them off by simply deleting those files...but again...will have to rebundle them which I don't know how. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Dprelate]

Thank you so much for all your research and labor. although I don't know how to help, judging by your spirit and enthusiasm I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of this.
best wishes.
:faith: