nobody says the witcher 3 isn´t good is amazing but B&W with his improvements is not better than some trailers, screenshots or gameplays demo showed time ago...
https://youtu.be/ztruDvW2Rj8
yeah Toussaint definitely look better, i think they clearly listened to what peoples complained about, like too much fog and weird colorgrading choices from vanilla ( its mainly tonemapping parameters from what i discovered recently ), i personally knew that the engine could do that but i didnt though that they would do it, but they just did, so at least they took our feedback into consideration
the problem with the base game is that its way too big, and they used many " tricks " to fix/hide some stuff, you also have to take in consideration everysingle cutscene from the main game when tweaking the lighting not just the zones themselves
while am not a fan of the current lighting system its ok, it does its job well for 3 different platforms, UE4 and CryEngine as you mentioned all have superior solutions than whats the current lighting in RedEngine 3, but her's the thing, they have an alternate lighting system that they used for the old demo wich was dynamique IBL, but it got scrapped by the time the game got released, and it looked miles ahead of the current lighting system, a perfect beauty
so its matter of how much they want to invest again in the game, changing the lighting system is no easy task and it would require lots of work so actually its not even worth it to update the current one to B&W level for example, the work is so big that they could just simply change it to IBL at that point, BUT this is all just assumptions, am just talking out of my ass ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I agree with you about the excessive fog and color grading choices. They both really diminish the beauty of the base game. Regarding the size, I think that's the reason why they used so much fog. They had to drastically tone down the level of detail over distance because of the consoles, and so they used the fog to hide or cover it.
But with this latest RedEngine 3 version, the engine has been optimized to a greater extent so it performs better on the consoles, and they can increase the LoD...
Unless they decided to use separate tomes for the PC and the consoles for B&W. One of my greatest criticisms for the Witcher 3 is that CDPR used the same tomes from Umbra 3 for the consoles and the PC. This is why the consoles and the PC have the same draw distance and LoD for everything except shadows and vegetation, as the tomes dictate which assets are loaded depending on camera position/direction and it is BAKED..
If I recall, they did this primarily to save time and resources. But with the vastly increased cash flow coming from a successful Witcher 3 (the PC version earning them the most money), they may have given the PC it's own separate settings.. They may have done this, because the footage from B&W looks so good I can't imagine the consoles being able to run it at that quality.
They probably scrapped it for performance reasons if I had to guess. But yeah, it did look a helluva lot better!
I think it's worth it. The Witcher 3 will have a very long shelf life on PC, so it will continue to generate sales for years to come. Witcher 3 looks great, but it has so many compromises that it's long term graphical appeal isn't as high as it could, or should be.
Continually updating the engine and rolling these improvements back into their games would be a great mark of favor for CDPR, as it would reinforce their reputation for strong post launch commitment to supporting their games
yea umbra occlusion is baked PER individual asset i believe, when we asked for a lod slider a dev told us the game does not have a global lod controller ( but it used to have one and some of its code is still in ) so it was pretty much impossible without some work
the PC version definitely deserve better Lod at the very least, it might not be as problematic on consoles since its played on TV far away, but we play close to monitors, its very annoying, if i had to chose one single improvement it would be just that, let the game crash, let it stutter, arnt we used to these things anyways, just give us options
as for the game longevity, i really hope for an EE, but since they cant really do that on consoles ..
the PC version definitely deserve better Lod at the very least, it might not be as problematic on consoles since its played on TV far away, but we play close to monitors, its very annoying, if i had to chose one single improvement it would be just that, let the game crash, let it stutter, arnt we used to these things anyways, just give us options
i really hope for an EE, but since they cant really do that on consoles ..
Honestly, I wouldn't get excited for any sort of major graphical overhaul. The game's graphics engine has not exactly been "cooperative" since release. Now that the devs have it in a pretty good place, I can feel the fear and hesitation of adding things or trying to push the engine a little farther.
Besides, I think the game looks great as is. Very atmospheric; wonderful levels of detail.
The least they should do is provide a HD Texture pack because there are some VERY LOW RES textures in the game that look pretty awful. And this CAN be done. Modders can do it, so how come CDPR haven't yet done it?
Besides, High Res packs are best suited for people with really powerful rigs, and the consoles likely won't be able to benefit from it. The game's performance struggles as it is for many PC users.
Me, for me that's a poor decision.
Just because some player cannot move the controller of every graphic option to the right, the graphics should be standstill ?
However, regardless, it is a fair decision. If the game's graphics were improved far beyond the range of what an average gaming machine could handle, many people would complain loudly of being excluded. For these players, who (through no fault of their own) can only afford machines which are less than state-of-the-art, they would most probably gaze at the Graphics Options menu in despair, and curse the fact --and CDPR -- that they could not slide the bars all the way to the right.Me, for me that's a poor decision.
However, regardless, it is a fair decision. If the game's graphics were improved far beyond the range of what an average gaming machine could handle, many people would complain loudly of being excluded. For these players, who (through no fault of their own) can only afford machines which are less than state-of-the-art, they would most probably gaze at the Graphics Options menu in despair, and curse the fact --and CDPR -- that they could not slide the bars all the way to the right.
However, regardless, it is a fair decision. If the game's graphics were improved far beyond the range of what an average gaming machine could handle, many people would complain loudly
Time and resources. They have plans and a budget. Besides, I'm hard pressed to call any of the graphics in the game "ugly". Would you rather have the money and man hours spent on slightly better grass textures...or the Blood and Wine expansion?
Besides, High Res packs are best suited for people with really powerful rigs, and the consoles likely won't be able to benefit from it. The game's performance struggles as it is for many PC users.
However, regardless, it is a fair decision. If the game's graphics were improved far beyond the range of what an average gaming machine could handle, many people would complain loudly of being excluded. For these players, who (through no fault of their own) can only afford machines which are less than state-of-the-art, they would most probably gaze at the Graphics Options menu in despair, and curse the fact --and CDPR -- that they could not slide the bars all the way to the right.
Time and resources. They have plans and a budget. Besides, I'm hard pressed to call any of the graphics in the game "ugly". Would you rather have the money and man hours spent on slightly better grass textures...or the Blood and Wine expansion?
Besides, High Res packs are best suited for people with really powerful rigs, and the consoles likely won't be able to benefit from it. The game's performance struggles as it is for many PC users.