A compendium of tweaks and fixes for the PC version

[IrregularJohn]

So the graphics thread was closed because two people kept going on and on about consoles Vs. PC so I'm posting this here:

Anyway, to all you grass-centered folk - the grass on Skellige and at Kaer Morhen looks great. The draw distance at Kaer Morhen is mind-blowing and what is worse is that this is the draw distance and quality the gamers see right at the beginning of the game and they think: "downgrade? there's no downgrade. the game looks awesome". And then when you get to White Orchard you're brought back down to earth with that horrible blue fog.

"Maybe it was our bad decision to change the rendering system," he mulls, "because the rendering system after VGX was changed." There were two possible rendering systems but one won out because it looked nicer across the whole world, in daytime and at night. The other would have required lots of dynamic lighting "and with such a huge world simply didn't work".

What rubs me the wrong way in that statement (especially that part in bold) is the fact that there is such huge graphical disparity in the game it makes you wonder if that is the rendering system that looks nicer across the board. How in the hell does it look better ?!


Even Kaer Morhen though is not exempt from this blue fog later in the game. Jesus!

 

[kilyan82]

yet another lighting mod, increases the draw distance a bit,did you try it?

 

[insomnia_jt]

It doesn't increase draw distance... It forces a specific type of weather to all defined regions. And that specific weather has less fog than the rest of the weather types.

As far as I know the draw distance is still locked in the engine.

 

[IrregularJohn]

It doesn't increase draw distance... It forces a specific type of weather to all defined regions. And that specific weather has less fog than the rest of the weather types.

As far as I know the draw distance is still locked in the engine.

I thought so too - I believe it enforces Skellige weather to all other regions. The mountains in the distance are still foggy and not visible though.

 

[kilyan82]

I thought so too - I believe it enforces Skellige weather to all other regions. The mountains in the distance are still foggy and not visible though.

I think that simulates reality, at a certain distance the eye doesn't see things clearly. The example are the houses, they are far,but not a lot, so you can still see them clearly.. The mountains are way farer, so blurring does give the sense of long distance. I have also depth of field activated ingame though, i don't know without how it looks, but i like this way, it simulates how it is really..You don't like the fog, how than would you do that blurring effect?

reality:

look at the far mountains

 

[IrregularJohn]

yet another lighting mod, increases the draw distance a bit,did you try it?

I think that simulates reality, at a certain distance the eye doesn't see things clearly. The example are the houses, they are far,but not a lot, so you can still see them clearly.. The mountains are way farer, so blurring does give the sense of long distance. I have also depth of field activated ingame though, i don't know without how it looks, but i like this way, it simulates how it is really..You don't like the fog, how than would you do that blurring effect?

reality:

look at the far mountains

You can still discern patches of snow on these while on that game screenshot they are just foggy blue without any detail. Besides the distance here is at least twice is large than on that in-game screenshot.

 

[kilyan82]

You can still discern patches of snow on these while on that game screenshot they are just foggy blue without any detail. Besides the distance here is at least twice is large than on that in-game screenshot.

When they will find a way to blur things without losing details....

 

[S-a-y]

Quick question... How can I reset settings to default? Deleting user.settings do nothing, it create new file with same values. Thanks.

Second question... Is it possible to turn off/on specific post-process effect (DoF, vignette) in debug console mode? Thanks.

 

[svichupocentru]

delete user.settings.bak too

 

[AlphaGamer]

Two quick questions

TextureMemoryBudget
I have gtx 980, how high can I set this ?

Is it true I need to make my user.settings file writable every time I update my game? It's been read-only since day 1 and everything is working fine, including all DLCs.

 

[Wulfric5]

Two quick questions

TextureMemoryBudget
I have gtx 980, how high can I set this ?

Is it true I need to make my user.settings file writable every time I update my game? It's been read-only since day 1 and everything is working fine, including all DLCs.

That's not even possible. Either you manually enabled dlcs by adding new lines or you're forgetful.

 

[AlphaGamer]

That's not even possible. Either you manually enabled dlcs by adding new lines or you're forgetful.

I definitely didn't add the lines.
2nd option is more likely, but still, all dlcs I've tested are working, I can't possibly have forgotten to re-enable/disable the read-only feature all times. But let's suppose I have. When I install a new update, does it reset all my manual tweaks to default values?

 

[kilyan82]

Two quick questions

TextureMemoryBudget
I have gtx 980, how high can I set this ?

Is it true I need to make my user.settings file writable every time I update my game? It's been read-only since day 1 and everything is working fine, including all DLCs.

i suggest before patching to get the read only flag off, because you can' tget eventually some changes they make from patch to patch.
Back up your user settings before patching! After that have patience and copy paste back the changes you made to user settings, so far.

 

[AlphaGamer]

i suggest before patching to get the read only flag off, because you can' tget eventually some changes they make from patch to patch.
Back up your user settings before patching! After that have patience and copy paste back the changes you made to user settings, so far.

If the updates do indeed alter this particular file, I probably haven't been getting those changes, even though I'm on 1.06

 

[Wulfric5]

I definitely didn't add the lines.
2nd option is more likely, but still, all dlcs I've tested are working, I can't possibly have forgotten to re-enable/disable the read-only feature all times. But let's suppose I have. When I install a new update, does it reset all my manual tweaks to default values?

If it is set to read-only while updating, it'll give some sort of an error. It'll ask you to stop, try again or skip that particular file. At that point, if you untick read-only and press try again, it won't remove the existing tweaks you've made but just add new stuff. That happens when you launch the game.

 

[kilyan82]

If it is set to read-only while updating, it'll give some sort of an error. It'll ask you to stop, try again or skip that particular file. At that point, if you untick read-only and press try again, it won't remove the existing tweaks you've made but just add new stuff. That happens when you launch the game.

On steam, it updates even i f you have the flag read only for me.
But than i took the flag off and done an integrity check to fix things, added my backuped settings and never EVER used read only.
If yuou don't change the ingame settings related to the particular sentence in the user.settings, it doesn't revert anithing.

 

[Wulfric5]

On steam, it updates even i f you have the flag read only for me.
But than i took the flag off and done an integrity check to fix things, added my backuped settings and never EVER used read only.
If yuou don't change the ingame settings related to the particular sentence in the user.settings, it doesn't revert anithing.

Forgot to mention that I was talking about GOG Galaxy.

 

[AlphaGamer]

If it is set to read-only while updating, it'll give some sort of an error. It'll ask you to stop, try again or skip that particular file. At that point, if you untick read-only and press try again, it won't remove the existing tweaks you've made but just add new stuff. That happens when you launch the game.

Kinda funny, I've never had any sort of errors and I'm definitely getting stuff added to my files, but nothing is ever reset to default values. I mean, I have all DLC working and have never had to redo any of my tweaks, they're all there, intact. The only change I've ever noticed is the TextureMipBias going from 0 to -1.0 when I updated to 1.04. I always run patches and dlc installers as administrator.

If yuou don't change the ingame settings related to the particular sentence in the user.settings, it doesn't revert anithing.

I'm beginning to suspect this as well. The only occasion I've seen lines being reset is when you change the ingame settings related to the particular sentence in the user.settings

 

[kilyan82]

I'm beginning to suspect this as well. The only occasion I've seen lines being reset is when you change the ingame settings related to the particular sentence in the user.settings

well, i know that shit can happen for no reason, but i don't think in this case. Who ever spreaded that bullshit,that is to say, if you don't flag the user.settings with read only the game resets settings no matter what, didn't use his brain while saying such. Just thinking a second is logical, if you don't touch the ingame settings, how the hell things can reset themself? And why would anyone keep the readonly flag while updating the game..to not get the changes (to be honest they were not many so far, but who knows for the future) eventually will be done in that file? I feel smart sometimes, just sometimes ...so people, leave that flag alone(that reminds me something...), that is my suggestion

 

[StuntZA]

I know this doesn't count for anything even vaguely as valuable as the solutions and tweaks you legends post on the daily, but it has some value to it.

For those Green Team early adopters like myself who find themselves on Windows 10 IPB (Rev. 10130) running a crappy driver (352.84), Nvidia just released their latest Windows 10 Driver (353.30) and it is phenomenal!


Write Up:
http://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2015/06/22/batman-arkham-knight/


Download:
http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/86510


I literally went from playing Witcher 3 on 1080p with some features toned down to High, whereas now I can QHD it on Ultra with no dips lower than 50 in Novigrad (which is a resource intensive area). This all while running the exact same application version of Witcher 3, namely 1.06 and without a single tweak.


I still play on QHD because 4K makes things super tiny, though this proves how good the latest driver is. It might be the fact that it's the Batman Driver. It might not be the driver that we need right now, but it definitely is the driver that we deserve.