So after testing the game on X1X and PS4 Pro (yes I own this game on three formats that I've picked up over the years since release) it seems the HDR & 4k upscale patch has made the colour banding (which was there on all formats including PC from day 1), somewhat more egregious here.
The banding is fairly bad in normal SD/4K but in HDR it really highlights it in certain scenes, mainly on dark loud etc. Some TV's can compensate the banding while tinkering with some settings (if you're lucky enough to own one of Sony's A1 line they can eliminate it completely with their gradient colour control) and reduce it significantly, others sadly can't. TV's better suited are ironically some of the older models where their gamma settings aren't as high. If you happen to own one of Samsung's Ultra bright Q range they sadly show the banding chronically and can't reduce the gamma enough. I tried all sorts with my Q7F to no avail.
My older 4k set however is a Panasonic 700B and using the "true cinema" setting seems to mesh the gradients of subtle colour in the sky together to more of a solid change of shade and this with a lower gamma setting of 2.2 (something Samsung's can't reduce to sadly) leaves no banding remaining. This is a smaller set however being just over 40 inch (my Samsung is 65) and the HDR is weaker and not true 10 bit, so playing on there is less than ideal. I've gone back to my PC where due to the 1080 ti on the Samsung I have minimal banding if at all to contend with.
So if you are pulling your hair out wondering why you have this banding on your new 4K TV with Witcher 3, it's not your console or TV's fault, it's sincerely the game.
I'm not sure if they will ever sort this as it's baked into the game's engine and messing with the sky box would probably effect performance even more on console. That and there's no team working on this anymore, all hands will be on Cyberpunk'.
The banding is fairly bad in normal SD/4K but in HDR it really highlights it in certain scenes, mainly on dark loud etc. Some TV's can compensate the banding while tinkering with some settings (if you're lucky enough to own one of Sony's A1 line they can eliminate it completely with their gradient colour control) and reduce it significantly, others sadly can't. TV's better suited are ironically some of the older models where their gamma settings aren't as high. If you happen to own one of Samsung's Ultra bright Q range they sadly show the banding chronically and can't reduce the gamma enough. I tried all sorts with my Q7F to no avail.
My older 4k set however is a Panasonic 700B and using the "true cinema" setting seems to mesh the gradients of subtle colour in the sky together to more of a solid change of shade and this with a lower gamma setting of 2.2 (something Samsung's can't reduce to sadly) leaves no banding remaining. This is a smaller set however being just over 40 inch (my Samsung is 65) and the HDR is weaker and not true 10 bit, so playing on there is less than ideal. I've gone back to my PC where due to the 1080 ti on the Samsung I have minimal banding if at all to contend with.
So if you are pulling your hair out wondering why you have this banding on your new 4K TV with Witcher 3, it's not your console or TV's fault, it's sincerely the game.
I'm not sure if they will ever sort this as it's baked into the game's engine and messing with the sky box would probably effect performance even more on console. That and there's no team working on this anymore, all hands will be on Cyberpunk'.
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