A compendium of tweaks and fixes for the PC version

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I think there is a problem with the rendering and occlusion cameras not being perfectly synchronised, leading to objects streaming in when they should have been already loaded, or it might be that the game's streaming system is not properly configured to deliver objects and textures on time.

THIS. @Verrenus You are absolutely correct. I searched on Youtube about Umbra 3 engine and how it works and it all makes sense now. This is the reason for the pop-ins. However, I'm thinking CDPR didn't tweak and tune the software fully which is why we're getting these pop-ins. Makes sense too cause on almost every patch, they talk about "Optimization" when in fact, they're probably tweaking Umbra 3 engine so it works better on Witcher 3.

Now I tried to fiddle with the .INI files for anything that had to do with Umbra 3 rendering. Unfortunately it seems CDPR has hard locked Umbra 3's engine so no matter how much value you input in the .INI file, it doesn't change anything. Words like "Streaming", "Rendering", "LOD", "Distance" and all the values associated with it are for the most part, related to Umbra 3 engine. If only we could find a way to unlock the engine, we could tweak the values and possibly get more distance LOD, more NPC spawning and no more popping effect. Why wouldn't CDPR unlock these stuff and let us tweak it on PC is beyond me.
 
Thank you so much for putting the time and effort into testing out these tweaks, berserker, I really appreciate it! :cheers2:

It's a shame none of them worked in the end, but I think it was worth giving them a shot. I should probably remove EnableHighPrecision=true from my "user.settings" file then, if only just to keep it as lean as possible. ;)

P.S. Did your post contain screenshots as well, since the links appear to be broken if that is the case? ???



Apparently, increasing the value of GlobalOceanTesselationFactor in your "user.settings" file makes waves bigger during stormy weather! According to MUPETTA, raising it to "128" seems to bring back the waves seen in the VGX trailer from 2013. I've yet to test this for myself, but maybe it's worth giving this tweak a shot as well? :p

---------- Updated at 01:11 AM ----------

Alright guys, after extensive tweaking and reading several posts from the Witcher 3 PC thread on NeoGAF (especially this one), I have come to the conclusion that the best way to combat the game's framepacing issues is to disable the game's internal frame limiter and VSync and set it to run in fullscreen (i.e. set "Maximum Framer Per Second" to "Unlimited", "VSync" to "Off" and "Display Mode" to "Full Screen"), then open NVIDIA Control Panel and force on both Adaptive VSync (regular or half refresh rate, depending on your maximum desired framerate) and Triple Buffering.

This combination of settings gave me the smoothest frame pacing I've seen thus far, without any tearing and even without the added input lag associated with traditional VSync! Suffice it to say, I gave up on using RTSS entirely and couldn't be happier about it. I'm not sure what Durante was on about earlier, but I think he's been proven wrong by quite a few people since his PC Gamer article went online... ;)

Please give Adaptive VSync + Triple Buffering a try, guys, I'm enjoying the game a lot more now that I've sorted out these problems! :p

Helped in my case. Thank you.
 
THIS. @Verrenus You are absolutely correct. I searched on Youtube about Umbra 3 engine and how it works and it all makes sense now. This is the reason for the pop-ins. However, I'm thinking CDPR didn't tweak and tune the software fully which is why we're getting these pop-ins. Makes sense too cause on almost every patch, they talk about "Optimization" when in fact, they're probably tweaking Umbra 3 engine so it works better on Witcher 3.

Now I tried to fiddle with the .INI files for anything that had to do with Umbra 3 rendering. Unfortunately it seems CDPR has hard locked Umbra 3's engine so no matter how much value you input in the .INI file, it doesn't change anything. Words like "Streaming", "Rendering", "LOD", "Distance" and all the values associated with it are for the most part, related to Umbra 3 engine. If only we could find a way to unlock the engine, we could tweak the values and possibly get more distance LOD, more NPC spawning and no more popping effect. Why wouldn't CDPR unlock these stuff and let us tweak it on PC is beyond me.

It makes more sense the more we think about it, doesn't it? Sadly, I couldn't find any values to tweak either, so they must all be locked on the engine side. CDPR need to dedicate some serious time towards correctly implementing their occlusion tech, because it's certainly not working properly at the moment. :(

Helped in my case. Thank you.

No problem, I am really glad to hear that! Have fun playing your game now! :D
 
I think CDPR should allow for more extensive user tweaking on PC. Maybe even with their own little guide.
It would be something the PC players would welcome and be very grateful for.

Right now i find it pretty annoying how NPCs lose A LOT of visual quality just by moving the camera a bit further from them. This makes hair and textures have a visible loading on characters while on a dialogue/cutscene, simply because the camera moved a bit further away and then came back to a closer position.

A good example is Johnny. His hair becomes rock solid and low quality just with an arguably very small camera distance change. It would be awesome to be able to tweak things like this. This wasn't present in the 35min demo (simply using this as comparison, not trying to go into any downgrade debate) or any other gameplay released during that time.

(I know it was actually present, everything will lose detail within a certain distance, i'm just saying that in the final version of the game this became noticeable to the point of being an annoyance)
 
THIS. @Verrenus You are absolutely correct. I searched on Youtube about Umbra 3 engine and how it works and it all makes sense now. This is the reason for the pop-ins. However, I'm thinking CDPR didn't tweak and tune the software fully which is why we're getting these pop-ins. Makes sense too cause on almost every patch, they talk about "Optimization" when in fact, they're probably tweaking Umbra 3 engine so it works better on Witcher 3.

Now I tried to fiddle with the .INI files for anything that had to do with Umbra 3 rendering. Unfortunately it seems CDPR has hard locked Umbra 3's engine so no matter how much value you input in the .INI file, it doesn't change anything. Words like "Streaming", "Rendering", "LOD", "Distance" and all the values associated with it are for the most part, related to Umbra 3 engine. If only we could find a way to unlock the engine, we could tweak the values and possibly get more distance LOD, more NPC spawning and no more popping effect. Why wouldn't CDPR unlock these stuff and let us tweak it on PC is beyond me.


nice deduction about the umbra engine, wonder if console version have the same poping problems, if it does , it just mean that we're playing with consoles based settings and not a proper PC optimized version

this is mindblowing 0.0
if what you guys are saying is true, then that means that the version we have of the game is not showing all what it can do. i wonder if there's anyway to unlock further settings by using a 3rd party software ? does this Umbra 3 have something equivalent to a game engine software kind of deal ?
 
nice deduction about the umbra engine, wonder if console version have the same poping problems, if it does , it just mean that we're playing with consoles based settings and not a proper PC optimized version

That would be a very rude awakening indeed, if only we could prove it beyond any doubt. It's already obvious to us that the PC version is not exactly up-to-par, but CDPR have refused to comment on the LOD and pop-in problems since launch and their silence is starting to become more than a bit bothersome to many people here, myself included. :eek:uch:

this is mindblowing 0.0
if what you guys are saying is true, then that means that the version we have of the game is not showing all what it can do. i wonder if there's anyway to unlock further settings by using a 3rd party software ? does this Umbra 3 have something equivalent to a game engine software kind of deal ?

I pretty much suspected that when I saw that tweaks such as "UseMipRefiner" were hidden away from us, even though it produces markedly better visuals at no additional performance cost. If someone could find a way to access the Umbra 3 parameters we could surely fix at least some of the annoying pop-ins and LOD problems. :dry:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4HrTXhfMt4

Watch this video about Umbra 3, how it works and affects Witcher 3 and take particular note on the wordings of the announcer at the beginning. Like when he says "Early on in development or in the final stretch". Now compare that to how relates to Witcher 3's development cycle. We can assume that Witcher 3's early development cycle were smooth sailing where we had the better looking 2013 trailer and numerous screenshots. Then CDPR got their hands on the actual potato consoles and they had to scrap/downgrade all that 2013's rendering engine (cause the consoles weren't powerful enough) and rely on the cheaper Umbra 3's rendering solution which can still process the game's visuals (at lower quality of course) without sacrificing too much FPS.

So basically CDPR used Umbra for the sake of consoles and we PC users had to suffer for it. Also, making two versions of Witcher 3 where the consoles having Umbra renderer and PC having 2013 renderer would've be ridiculous amount of work. (Also graphics parity maybe?) That's where CDPR's statement of needing more manpower and console holding back PC graphics comes into play. I think that's what caused the delay into May 2015 so both consoles and PC ran the game at their best with Umbra 3.

nice deduction about the umbra engine, wonder if console version have the same poping problems, if it does , it just mean that we're playing with consoles based settings and not a proper PC optimized version

@essenthy To answer your question, yes, there is texture and NPC pop-ins just like in PC. Basically PC users got shafted cause of console, Umbra and possibly CDPR's inexperience with this tech? Article below about the texture pop-in on consoles

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-witcher-3-wild-hunt-performance-analysis

---------- Updated at 02:47 PM ----------


That would be a very rude awakening indeed, if only we could prove it beyond any doubt. It's already obvious to us that the PC version is not exactly up-to-par, but CDPR have refused to comment on the LOD and pop-in problems since launch and their silence is starting to become more than a bit bothersome to many people here, myself included.

@Verrenus CDPR can't comment on it cause if they do, they'd have to reveal how their engine works which would basically be admitting that "Next Gen" consoles weren't powerful enough to render the game with all the bells and whistles and admit to the downgrade and THAT would just put more fuel to the already raging downgrade fire. Also they were funded by Sony and Microsoft and well.....you don't bite the hand that feeds you basically. If Witcher 3 was developed first on PC then moved to console like in Witcher 2, it would've been an entirely different story and we would've gotten that sweet sweet 2013 visuals. i guess now it's either CDPR unlocks the Umbra engine for PC and lets us tweak more or the release the RedKit 2 and we do the tweaking and modding ourselves. Or if someone understands how Umbra 3 is implemented on Witcher 3 and brute forces the way to unlocking it......now that would be genius indeed.

In the end however, even with Umbra 3, consoles still struggle to maintain constant 30fps and goes down to 20s. Shows you how "Next gen" these consoles really are. I don't know how capable Umbra 3's engine is but I bet CDPR gimped its rendering distance a lot to suit the console and not have FPS tank below the 20s. We could technically increase the rendering distance on PC in the user.settings INI file (These lines probably TextureStreamingHeadsDistanceLimit, TextureStreamingCharacterDistanceLimit and most importantly TextureStreamingDistanceLimit) but since its hard locked......well, someone should see if it can be "Bypassed".

P.S Sorry for my long rambling about this issue but I think it needs to be addressed and be done something about on PC.
 
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only a question anyone knows how to disable or reduce the cartoon aspect in the game? any tweak? thanks, i read your posts and maybe all of you have reason this game is good but could be very better but is that we have... +-50 € have the fault, maybe CDR do an enhanced edition and take this game to the next level on PC...or maybe soon who knows the question is that if the consoles don't have the powert for more it is all they gave a game for them and patch to resolve bugs now the pc version is that can do more do it... sorry for my english answer my question please
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4HrTXhfMt4

Watch this video about Umbra 3, how it works and affects Witcher 3 and take particular note on the wordings of the announcer at the beginning. Like when he says "Early on in development or in the final stretch". Now compare that to how relates to Witcher 3's development cycle. We can assume that Witcher 3's early development cycle were smooth sailing where we had the better looking 2013 trailer and numerous screenshots. Then CDPR got their hands on the actual potato consoles and they had to scrap/downgrade all that 2013's rendering engine (cause the consoles weren't powerful enough) and rely on the cheaper Umbra 3's rendering solution which can still process the game's visuals (at lower quality of course) without sacrificing too much FPS.

So basically CDPR used Umbra for the sake of consoles and we PC users had to suffer for it. Also, making two versions of Witcher 3 where the consoles having Umbra renderer and PC having 2013 renderer would've be ridiculous amount of work. (Also graphics parity maybe?) That's where CDPR's statement of needing more manpower and console holding back PC graphics comes into play. I think that's what caused the delay into May 2015 so both consoles and PC ran the game at their best with Umbra 3.



@essenthy To answer your question, yes, there is texture and NPC pop-ins just like in PC. Basically PC users got shafted cause of console, Umbra and possibly CDPR's inexperience with this tech? Article below about the texture pop-in on consoles

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-witcher-3-wild-hunt-performance-analysis

---------- Updated at 02:47 PM ----------




@Verrenus CDPR can't comment on it cause if they do, they'd have to reveal how their engine works which would basically be admitting that "Next Gen" consoles weren't powerful enough to render the game with all the bells and whistles and admit to the downgrade and THAT would just put more fuel to the already raging downgrade fire. Also they were funded by Sony and Microsoft and well.....you don't bite the hand that feeds you basically. If Witcher 3 was developed first on PC then moved to console like in Witcher 2, it would've been an entirely different story and we would've gotten that sweet sweet 2013 visuals. i guess now it's either CDPR unlocks the Umbra engine for PC and lets us tweak more or the release the RedKit 2 and we do the tweaking and modding ourselves. Or if someone understands how Umbra 3 is implemented on Witcher 3 and brute forces the way to unlocking it......now that would be genius indeed.

In the end however, even with Umbra 3, consoles still struggle to maintain constant 30fps and goes down to 20s. Shows you how "Next gen" these consoles really are. I don't know how capable Umbra 3's engine is but I bet CDPR gimped its rendering distance a lot to suit the console and not have FPS tank below the 20s. We could technically increase the rendering distance on PC in the user.settings INI file (These lines probably TextureStreamingHeadsDistanceLimit, TextureStreamingCharacterDistanceLimit and most importantly TextureStreamingDistanceLimit) but since its hard locked......well, someone should see if it can be "Bypassed".

P.S Sorry for my long rambling about this issue but I think it needs to be addressed and be done something about on PC.

and now her's a very interesting video, check what he says about this tool, he clearly state that he made it ( camera tool ) :


blablabla it was umbra, nevermind

and now they confirmed the new game+ ... i cant see myself re watching all the cut scene with huge amount of poping, once you notice it, it completely break the immersion

also i wouldnt be surprised if they just dont want to unlock the settings so they can make an enhanced version themselves
 
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if the consoles don't have the powert for more it is all they gave a game for them and patch to resolve bugs now the pc version is that can do more do it... sorry for my english answer my question please

I would like that too. Work more on bringing the graphics up on the PC version cause clearly PCs can handle it but I don't think that's how it works. I mean if they made the PC version's graphics a lot better, console fanboys are gonna start crying and scream at CDPR for not giving the console that extra graphical fidelity. Also the reality of the situation is that CDPR finished making Witcher 3 (At least the main game) for consoles and PC. Unless there's a significant demand for PC players for better graphical option, they're not gonna do it and even if there's demand, they still might not do it cause it's a lot of work to redo all the things to bring back that 2013/2014 look of the game.

What they can (AND SHOULD) do is unlock their engine/renderer, give us the option to tweak all the graphics settings to our hearts desire so we can bring up the graphical fidelity up as best as possible AND give us REDKIT 2 ASAP so people can start modding and bring back that extra graphics. Have you seen Skyrim with mods? The graphics are so good with mods in that game, it's jaw dropping. CDPR needs to release their REDKIT 2, make it more user friendly so we can start working on mods.

---------- Updated at 08:31 PM ----------


wich mean that yes, as you said they had their own object occluding solution at a certain point in time before switching to umbra , wich make me think now that the 35mn demo was using their own solution and not umbra

EXACTLY THIS. I went back, downloaded the uncompressed footage of the 35 min demo and I did notice a few texture popping issues but none of the NPC popping. So like you said, CDPR might've been using their own occlusion culling engine (Maybe the same as Witcher 2's cause that game has a few popping issues as well) before moving on to the cheaper Umbra 3 solution. The results is what you see today. We didn't spends thousands of dollars on PCs so we can experience console level graphics and all the issues that goes with it. CDPR if you're reading this please for the love of GOD and for the sake of all the PC gamers out there, unlock the rendering engine and let us tweak the damn thing. All these texture and NPC popping is really immersion breaking not to mention annoying.

---------- Updated at 08:44 PM ----------


wich mean that yes, as you said they had their own object occluding solution at a certain point in time before switching to umbra , wich make me think now that the 35mn demo was using their own solution and not umbra

EXACTLY THIS. I went back, downloaded the uncompressed footage of the 35 min demo and I did notice a few texture popping issues but none of the NPC popping. So like you said, CDPR might've been using their own occlusion culling engine (Maybe the same as Witcher 2's cause that game has a few popping issues as well) before moving on to the cheaper Umbra 3 solution. The results is what you see today. We didn't spends thousands of dollars on PCs so we can experience console level graphics and all the issues that goes with it. CDPR if you're reading this please for the love of GOD and for the sake of all the PC gamers out there, unlock the rendering engine and let us tweak the damn thing. All these texture and NPC popping is really immersion breaking not to mention annoying.

Also, Enhanced Edition would take so long. We need to do something about this issue now.
 
and now her's a very interesting video, check what he says about this tool, he clearly state that he made it :


wich mean that yes, as you said they had their own object occluding solution at a certain point in time before switching to umbra , wich make me think now that the 35mn demo was using their own solution and not umbra

is umbra able to go higher than what we already have ? i have no idea or the knowledge to tell, but they AT THE VERY LEAST could unlock the settings and let us tweak it if we want, playing with consoles settings is just bad, so freaking bad

and now they confirmed the new game+ ... i cant see myself re watching all the cut scene with huge amount of poping, once you notice it, it completely break the immersion

also i wouldnt be surprised if they just dont want to unlock the settings so they can make an enhanced version themselves, or maybe with some luck they will re integer their better solution ( dream on.. )

The guy in the video said that he wrote the camera tool that he's moving around so artists can easily see occlusion bugs,but its still using umbra 3. But nevertheless its still retarded to see buildings upgrading to a higher quality version if i take 1 step forward and revert if i go back 1 step.
 
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The guy in the video said that he wrote the camera tool that he's moving around so artists can easily see occlusion bugs,but its still using umbra 3. But nevertheless its still retarded to see buildings upgrading to a higher quality version if i take 1 step forward and revert if i go back 1 step.

oh you're right, its still umbra, damn , just unlock the settings CDPR wtf this is so depressing
 
Alright. I found this interesting file called "umbraoptimizer64.dll" in the Witcher 3's x64 folder. It has to do with Umbra 3. You have to use a decompiler to see the code and hopefully change it. (Requires some programming knowledge). More info below. We might just be able to change the code ourselves.......Someone with programming knowledge please take note of this.

http://www.wikihow.com/Open-DLL-Files
 
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Updated the OP with instructions on how to best solve the game's frame pacing issues by enabling NVIDIA's Adaptive VSync and Triple Buffering (section 11). A million thanks go to everyone here and on NeoGAF for their invaluable feedback in testing these settings and confirming they bring a sizable improvement to the game's smoothness! :cheers2:
 
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Updated the OP with instructions on how to best solve the game's frame pacing issues by enabling NVIDIA's Adaptive VSync and Triple Buffering (section 11). A million thanks go to everyone here and on NeoGAF for their invaluable feedback in testing these settings and confirming they bring a sizable improvement to the game's smoothness! :cheers2:

Is there an AMD equivalent on this? Thank you.
 
for normal vsync and triple buffering I suggest using a program called D3DOverrider, it has worked in every single game Ive tried for many years, no exception.

but for adaptive vsync, (and many other uses) you can use RadeonPro.
 
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