Heavy Popping of objects/npc/shadows/meshs/textures

[sno0ks]

Mustaches/beards coming in as you approach people. Shadows on buildings coming in when you're a couple feet away. Flag/Laundry shadows same deal. Light through windows going away as you approach it. Seriously, this sh!t seems obvious and fixable. I don't know how you could play your own game and not notice these things, or if you did notice them and think it was acceptable for an immersive RPG like W3. Since I haven't run into any gamebreaking bugs, the presentation shortcomings are the only thing keeping this from perfection (besides the CPU black hole in that one little area of Novigrad that CDPR customer service refuses to acknowledge).

 

[SigilFey]

@vesemas228,

So, you were able to fix pop-in of assets that were all "single" texture maps only. That's interesting. Perhaps the reason it doesn't work for NPCs is because they are assemblages of multiple different assets. I bet you the game engine procedurally generates the various bits (face, clothing, hair, hats, etc.) of each and every NPC in the game (minus unique NPCs like Yennefer, the Baron, Roche, etc.). I wonder if the simultaneous call for specific texture assets (like the texture of a specific shirt or pair of shoes, for example) on 2 or more NPCs is what initiates the bug...

I wish I could wave a magic wand and make your anger over this issue go away. I hear what you're saying about the developers "nerfing" the detail levels, but I really do not believe, in any way, that it is a malicious act. Nor do I believe that it's because they are trying to increase the popularity of one platform over all of the others. What sense would that make as a business model?

"Good morning, board-members. We have a new approach to increase revenue flow! It's based on alienating 66% of our targeted markets. See, XBox is best, obviously, so we are purposefully creating technical issues for all of our other users across PS4 and PC. That should keep only this one corner of our consumer base satisfied. We only stand to gain!"

What I would believe is intentionally focusing on only 1 platform at a time. Make an adjustment based on rectifying issues for XBox...and see how that works out overall. Makes sense -- "chase two hares; both will get away."

Remember, too, that no amount of QA for PC will ever be enough. It's hard enough to QA for a console that has universally standard hardware. It's almost impossible to QA for the literally millions of hardware configurations for PC. Point in case: I hardly ever encounter any severe pop-in, no matter where I am in the game. Once in a while, it will happen for a few seconds, then go away. Once in a very great while, it'll go absolutely ape. As soon as I save and reload...no issues.

My big issue with the game is actually all of the "auto" functionality: auto camera-centering, auto weapon-draw, auto enemy-targeting, auto gear-equipping...

 

[vesemas228]

@SigilFey

I enjoyed reading your more level headed view of the situation, and its valuable you've given the technical problems some excellent thought.

To add to them so to perhaps spark something new from your experiences..

Regarding the NPC's.. i'm almost certain its not a resource and processing issue. Two experiences back this up.. For the popin npc's, depending on the scene you can see other npc's rendered even up to a great distance behind where the ones that pop are. More telling is.. if you go a regular spot where this happens and dismount, you can actually mouse target these npc's while they are invisible. You can stand there forever, and target them, switch targets. You can walk a bit away, do what you want, watch the world go by the sun set, and these npc's will still be targetable. The only way to get them to draw is to walk within a certain range of them, and then they usually appear instantly. This to me indicates that they've ADDED code since release to selectively NOT DRAW npc's until you're within an uncomfortably close range. We can only speculate that this was done for some performance reason for some unknown platform (perhaps some unoffended console user who's tracked the performance over the patches can share some experiences)... but the fact that the range of this, or the ability to enable or disable this selective npc hiding is "criminal". The technical way they've done is spooky also.. i've set the background npc's to low, then to zero, with visibly less npc's.. but it still occurs.. this isn't a lowering of usage, they've just flagged classes of npc's as only seen as popin. Mandatory popin code. Honestly removing the npc's altogether would have been the certain option. But you gotta wonder. Sure that would completely and totally be an admission of them literally downgrading the pc version to support consoles but i would have preferred that to an technically broken cheat. At least give us the option? That's not civilized.. thats.. insanity in my mind.

I can't believe the developers are so incompetent that they via mistake made that only hardcoded, there must be marketing clauses somewhere that this omission must be satisfying.

Which leads to... your imaginary scenario.. yes something like what you visualized certainly happened. They received something from microsoft during development. Enough for them to completely break 10 years of hard earned ethics and release something platform specific (you can find them on ebay for more than the cost of the game, go figure, awesome fans they must have). When i first booted up w3 i was horrified as well.. but over the course of a month fixed it to look like the most magnificent 3d space ever imagined. I like the graphics. But the lies and misrepresentation cannot be excused. Especially since they don't even care that everyone did notice they.. i don't care but that certainly isn't excusable.

EDIT: 2 spots which are guaranteed to npc pop are Winespring grange near the very top right of velen, and within the village of rannvaig in skellege.. Good luck!

 

[SigilFey]

@vesemas228,

1.) Pop-in Issue:

I'm wondering, based on your description of code specifically written to NOT draw certain NPCs within a certain distance, if this was an attempt to "ripple" the draw of nearby NPCs that didn't load in time. Imagine this: the pop-in bug can't be fixed -- it's too deep in the source code, and they'll bloody well have to rewrite the entire rendering system...again...to squash it. So, for the interim, you introduce code that will aesthetically "cheat" the bug. Don't allow the nearby NPCs to draw in if they're within a certain distance...until they're off-screen. Then load the texture assets. It would make sense as a sort of work around, but would probably be very difficult to paint over the existing code. I don't think I get the bug enough to try this out, but the next time you encounter an invisible NPC, stop moving, turn away, and then turn back. See if the entire scene has populated in that direction.

I'm even more convinced that it's an attempt at optimizing a very uncooperative part of the engine. (Although, for all we actually know, it could also be a disgruntled employee trying to get back at the company for something...)


2.) Microsoft's Unstoppable Monopoly of Corruption

I guess anything is possible, but this idea that they "sold out" to Microsoft is quite the speculation. What I will say is that I think they found themselves in quite the pickle when they switched graphics engines. They knew it didn't look anywhere near as good as the old engine used in the trailers, and they knew it couldn't be helped, and they knew fans would go nuts if they "announced" the change. So, rather than being honest, they decided to "plead the 5th", more or less...and said nothing. I have yet to see any evidence that CDPR ever, at any time, made an official publicized statement, that the game would look exactly like the E3 trailers. Especially not after the rendering system was swapped. Do I agree with such tactics...no. I, myself, am all about walking head-first into that type of sh*tstorm when confronted by one. I've also paid the price for it repeatedly. (And probably will again in the future. Sometimes, the only "good" thing that comes from honesty like that is being able to sleep soundly at night -- everything else burns to the ground.) So, they played the great game of life and banked on customer dissatisfaction after release to be less of a problem. Based on the success of the game, it seems they made the right decision (however dubious the honesty) in the end.

3.) Regarding the EDIT

Then don't go to Winespring or Rannvaig, man! I mean -- no else ever seems to go there! Not until you're TWO FEET FROM THEM, at least!!!

 

[vesemas228]

@SigilFey

1) I woudnt find that likey from evidence a) My cpu isnt to 100% load on any cores 2) my hdd light isn't thrashing around at all 3) i tried that, waiting around in range for any streaming/loading to have a very good chance to get though all it would like to. Idle hdd light. Reading again, yes id say you're spot on that the root of what was done was constrained pc resources.. but certainly wasn't our platform. Geez if only the engine waited to do popin until you turned the camera around.. what a blessing that would be. Yeah no its definitely not a loading issue. You could even suggest that its not even trying to because doing so causes issues... Actually seeing how the trouble platforms fall over would complexly explain it.. just thinking over the history of console feedback.. its mostly fps.. the graphics cost savings from not drawing any of the npc's assets must have been where they had to go to (similar to them nerfing the grass on the pc version.. some platforms can't handle the npcs even).

Sometimes thinking it thought is not positive. Thats' exactly what they're doing. We got consoled.

2) Dislaimer im not that disappointed.. and further after all the lies and deception coming out of cdpr i'm not sure what to believe.. but from my experiences with modded skyrim it does add up.. the super realistic lighting - makes a better image - is more expensive - but also has the side effect of making nights completely black. Its realistic lighting. In modded skyrim you do need a torch or lantern to see at night. As you should. If you get a realistic lighting mod, you also do need mods that add many more lamps/lights to world.. which is exactly what they said.

Now.. if this was pc only game... they probably could have done this, like they probably started doing before they got the final console hardware... and as they said realized it was impossible. Yeah i guess even with screwing with global illumination constants its still going to be dark enough to not be a mainstream (xbox player) game at night anymore... who knows.

The crap is completely their fault though. Broken expectations are the definition, the only way, any human is disappointed with anything, so if they updated expectations and told everyone 'we downgraded the graphics because of consoles' no issue. Instead as people have mentioned they sold it and claimed it could be unconsoled upon release. They put the kindling at their door. And whats amazing is they just using mountains of cash to shield themselves from the pain instead of getting a fire hose. Lol.

3) noooo!!!! I was happy turning the npc count to below the low setting. Having areas break immersion and avoiding them because of the existence of consoles is a far worse second option Also!!! Popin wasnt there in patch 1.03. No apologies.. i've played no popin witcher 3. Lets go back there. If you only bought your copy recently and have a weekend afternoon free you can get the old patches via google. 1.03 and 1.04 are interesting milestones in the graphics. Just copy the witcher 3 directory somewhere else to keep a backup, you can just drop it back in place of another version once you're done.

---------- Updated at 06:44 AM ----------

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2015-the-witcher-108-improves-console-performance

1.07 was the pc patch perhaps? Until cdpr start communicating even its not what we want to know... well maybe the assumptions we're making are correct so they're not bothing to correct us.

 

[essenthy]

@essenthy,

I'm sorry, man, but "everything" is nowhere near "in place". This video was released almost 1 full year before the game was released. Game-time doesn't pass, there are no random encounters, frame-rate is inconsistent, there is no looting system... This is nothing but a tech demo of a single quest (which is likely one of the ONLY major quests they had mostly finished at that point.)

i wouldnt go as far as to call it a " tech demo" considering the context of it presentation, the duration and how the final game is close to this minus the graphic fidelity, and how CDPR themselves call it " gameplay demo ",its a superior version of the same game that i have, that i pre ordered because i watched this ( the delay wasnt announced yet ) but whatever

Plus, it's using the old rendering engine. That engine was scrapped because the team couldn't get lighting for both days and nights looking up-to-spec. The engine we have now was selected as the superior option. I'm afraid it's not possible to make it look like that anymore.

i dont want to go in game and take a screen shot of the swamp zone and show you a comparison, i thin that you would forget the word " superior " very quickly , but i got it that its a " superior " solution in their context where potatoes consoles couldnt handle the old engine, thats more accurate than some night TOD lighting problems

As for the pop-in, again, it will be fixed when it's fixed. You can be patient and enjoy the game as is until then, or you can just shelve it and go play something else. Nothing else to be done until it's fixed. CDPR has shown nothing but dedication to improving the game since release. If you are not happy with that effort, you are well within your rights to demand a refund.

am not mad or something like, i have no interest in discussing the downgrade actually, but the footage is there, i have no choice but to use that as an example, i am enjoying the game greatly and have no doubt that i will again with the season pass ( that i pre ordered too ), i defended CDPR a lot telling peoples that they are going to fix all this stuff, but we have yet to hear a single word or some ETA since that Eurogamer interview, i dont care about lighting or whatever, just fix the POPPING and increase the LOD distance, and let us play with the locked ini settings instead of locking them

i will do the rest with Redkit

Metal Gear Solid V :
2013 vs. 2015

Texture fidelity drastically increased. More accurate lighting engine. Added much more detailed specular maps. Massive depth of field improvements. Much cleaner animations and speech modeling. That's just graphics; can't even imagine how many gameplay changes were made over time.

thats expected stuff that i already noticed and thats why i used the word " nearly ", this is very very far from W3 case

 

[MUPPETA]

Ideally id be back to 1.04, i was completely happy with that patch until i got excited one weekend. But now i have to suffer consoles as a cost of my curiosity. Remeber that when dealing with cdpr kids.

do you have this lines in user.ini--------------(under-budget-setting from 1.01 )- this is my combined user.ini 1.01-1.08
tomorrow I'l upload some pics

Spoiler

[Gameplay/EntityPool]
SpawnedLimit=150-------------------------------------ultra- didn't change
[Hidden]
HasSeenDLCMessage=true
HasSetup=true
uiVerticalFrameScale=1
uiHorizontalFrameScale=1
[Localization]
RequestedSpeechLanguage=
SpeechLanguage=EN
RequestedTextLanguage=
TextLanguage=EN
[Viewport]
VSync=false
Resolution="1920x1080"
FullScreenMode=2
VSyncThreshold=0
OutputMonitor=0
[System]
HWPreset=0
[Budget]
cvMaxAllowedLightsShadowTime=1
cvMaxAllowedApexDestroTickedTime=0.2
cvMaxAllowedGrass=30000
cvMaxAllowedDecalsDynamic=10
cvMaxAllowedDynMeshes=104857600
cvMaxAllowedChunksSkinnedTime=2.5
cvMaxAllowedTrianglesSkinned=100000
cvMaxAllowedDecalsSSTime=0.5-------------------------------------time to stay on screen--------origin 0.2
cvMaxAllowedLightsShadow=3-------------------------------------- lower -better performance
cvMaxAllowedApexTicked=60
cvMaxAllowedActiveEnvProbesTime=0.1
cvMaxAllowedStatTextures=314572800
cvMaxAllowedSpeedTree=5000---------------------------------------------- more trees if you want
cvMaxAllowedLightsNonShadowsTime=0.2
cvMaxAllowedSpeedTreeTime=1.2------------------------------------this is speed of moving tree adjusted to my liking-better fps ( i.e slower)
cvMaxAllowedChunksStatic=1500
cvMaxAllowedTrianglesStatic=500000
cvMaxAllowedHiresChunks=25
cvMaxAllowedDecalsDynamicTime=1-------------------------------------- origin 0.5 (more decals)
cvMaxAllowedLightsNonShadows=40-------------------------------------- lower -better performance
cvMaxAllowedChunksStaticTime=1.5
cvMaxAllowedChunksSkinned=400
cvMaxAllowedApexDestroTicked=20
cvMaxAllowedStatMeshes=209715200
cvMaxAllowedHiresChunksTime=0.2
cvMaxAllowedApexTickedTime=0.5
cvMaxAllowedCharTextures=209715200
cvMaxAllowedParticlesCountTime=0.2
cvMaxAllowedParticlesCount=2000---------------------------------------- origin 1000-----------I love particles
cvMaxAllowedGrassTime=1.3------------------------------------------this is speed of moving grass adjusted to my liking-better fps ( i.e slower)
TerrainTileMipDataBudget=400--------------------------------------------------- origin 200
TerrainTileMinTimeout=2
TerrainTileTimeout=10
OcclusionQueryAdditionalMemory=15-------------------------------------------origin 5
TerrainTileLoadingTimeout=2.5-------------------------------------------origin 5
[ContentManager/Mods]
MaxNameLength=64
Enabled=true
[Audio]
Subtitles=true
[LoadingScreen/TCR]
ShowProgress=true
[Game]
DoNotPauseWhileStopped=false
[Scripts]
DebugScriptsForceFlush=true
DebugScriptsLogDir=
[PostProcess]
AllowChromaticAberration=false
SharpenAmount=1
MotionBlurPositionTreshold=0.05
AllowVignette=false
MotionBlurRotationTreshold=1
AllowMotionBlur=false
AllowAntialias=true
SSAOSolution=2
[Input]
PadVibrationEnabled=true
KeyboardCooldownSpeed=0.1
InvertCameraXOnMouse=false
InvertCameraYOnMouse=false
CameraAutoRotX=true
InvertCameraX=false
UIMouseSensitivity=1
CameraAutoRotY=true
RightStickCameraSensitivity=1
InvertCameraY=false
RightStickAimSensitivity=1
MouseSensitivity=1
[DLC]
DlcEnabled_dlc_010_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_015_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_005_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_007_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_013_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_004_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_006_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_001_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_008_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_011_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_002_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_014_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_012_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_003_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_016_001=1
DlcEnabled_dlc_011_002=1
[Gameplay]
Difficulty=1
[LevelOfDetail]
SwarmHideDistance=400----------------------------- origin 200
DecalsHideDistance=180----------------------------- origin 80
DimmerHideDistance=160-----------------------------origin 60
DynamicDecalsHideDistance=240-------------------origin 40---------------------blood or barrels more time on screen?
StripeHideDistance=160--------------------------------origin 60
[General]
ConfigVersion=2
[LoadingScreen/Editor]
Disabled=false
[LoadingOverlay/TCR]
FadeOutCooldownExtraTime=1
FadeInSpinnerTime=1
NoninteractiveSpinnerTime=3
FadeOutSpinnerTime=1
NoninteractiveEndCooldown=1
[Visuals]
InventoryBgColorScaleB=0.036
InventoryFixedLuminance=0.25
InventoryBgColorScaleG=0.034
MovieFramerate=60
GammaValue=1
InventoryBgColorScaleR=0.02
[Rendering]
GrassDensity=2600--------------------------------------ultra 2800
DecalsSpawnDistanceCutoff=10
TextureStreamingHeadsDistanceLimit=10
GlobalOceanTesselationFactor=64
TextureStreamingCharacterDistanceLimit=150--------------------------origin 50
CascadeShadowFadeTreshold=1
HairWorksGlobalWidthLimit=2.25
CascadeShadowDistanceScale2=1.8
MaxTextureAnizotropy=16
TextureStreamingDistanceLimit=40000
HairWorksGlobalStrandSmoothness=2
HairWorksGlobalDensityQuality=0.75
TextureMemoryBudget=2800-----------------------------------------origin 800
CascadeShadowDistanceScale3=1.5
HairWorkstGlobalDensityLimit=0.35
MeshLODDistanceScale=3--------------------------------------------1 origin(why not)
ScaleformTextureUnstreamDelay=2.5
DecalsChance=1
TerrainReadAheadDistance=40000---------------------------------------800 origin(why not-see pic)
HairWorksLevel=0
TerrainScreenSpaceErrorThreshold=0.6--------------------------------------------1.6 origin
TerrainScreenSpaceErrorThresholdFar=2.5---------------------------------------3.5 origin
MaxTerrainShadowAtlasCount=4
HairWorksGlobalDetailLODFactor=0.65
TextureMipBias=-0.7
TextureInFlightCountBudget=12
TerrainErrorMetricMultiplier=6
CascadeShadowmapSize=3072
CascadeShadowDistanceScale0=1
MeshRenderingDistanceScale=1
CascadeShadowQuality=1
HairWorksAALevel=0
CascadeShadowDistanceScale1=1
[Input/Gestures]
EnableSwipe=true
EnablePan=true
EnableGestures=true
EnablePinch=true
[LoadingScreen]
FadeInTime=3
SkipShowWithAnyKey=true
GameRevealTime=3
SkipHideDelay=3
SkipInputDelay=0.25
FadeOutTime=1.5
SkipAutoshow=false
[Engine]
LimitFPS=60
[Rendering/SpeedTree]
GrassGenerationEfficiency=0.075
GrassDistanceScale=1.4
FoliageDistanceScale=1.8
FoliageShadowDistanceScale=84----------------------------------------------origin 54
GrassRingSize=16777216--------------------------------------------------------ultra this is not changed
[Save]
ShowCompatWarning=true
[Kinect]
Kinect=true
[Foliage]
MaxVisibilityDepth=68------------------------------------------origin 48
[Streaming/Textures]
UseMipRefiner=true

---------- Updated at 08:34 AM ----------

i dont want to go in game and take screen shot of the swamp zone and show you a comparison, i thin that you would forget the word " superior " very quickly , but i got itthat its a " superior " solution in their context where potatoes consoles couldnt handle the old engine , thats more accurate than some night TOD lighting problems

And don't forget how Johhny looks before and now.
And , yes no one here is talking about downgrade
- we want the chance to play more with settings because w3 is near to masterpiece -but is not -yet.

 

[Vigilance.492]

No further Platform War rubbish thanks.

It doesn't serve any purpose in this thread, which is primarily about PC Pop-In, and other issues related to that.

 

[vesemas228]

do you have this lines in user.ini--------------(under-budget-setting from 1.01 )- this is my combined user.ini 1.01-1.08
tomorrow I'l upload some pics

Hey, yeah i just found the compendium thread last night and tried the settings that was suggested to get rid the popin, head distance and the other two, and unfortunately those had no effect for me.

Re the other settings, i'm happy i've found the sweet spot for my config.. i'm only running a 780ti (oced) but at 2560x1600 with sweetfx, forced quality ambient occlusion, and asmodeans long forgotten cutscene mod (i'd still say that's the best one available, kng certainly hasn't copied at least something from Asmodeans which adds alot of value).. anyways if i'm getting 40fps i'm happy... turning up any of those lod related constants i, certainly don't want to do. Well that's a lie, the really late hq texture streaming would be good to fix, but happy to leave that for a more bored day

If someone from that thread has managed to fool the popin machine would be great to hear what to try.

 

[D@tChM@n52]

No further Platform War rubbish thanks.

It doesn't serve any purpose in this thread, which is primarily about PC Pop-In, and other issues related to that.

True but that has nothing to do with platform wars, pure about why they downgraded this game for the pc, after almost really every patch, and why we get no anser from CD Projekt RED that kinda bothers me really, console get there priority first, and thats a big fact.

Its just ridicilous why we need to edit or own user.settings to get a somewhat reasonable graphic setting after al those patches.

 

[muh3yxap4e]

It is not only that the pops are horrible but with 1.07 it gave me horrible stutering. now currently play the game with 1.06.... if update to 1.08 would it bring again that horrible sutttering ?!

 

[SigilFey]

@essenthy,

The developers called it the "superior" option, not me. My opinion? There were many parts of the old rendering system that looked much better than the present one. The swamp area was one. The softer lighting was another. There are many parts of the new system that look better -- especially metallic surfaces and the vibrancy of special effects.

Agree? Disagree? It doesn't matter. It's all opinion.

Here are some facts. The old engine is gone. The new engine has pop-in issues. The issues will take time to be repaired. Much (most) of the game works amazingly well. Given the obvious talent of the team, "just fixing things" (like the pop-in) is not as simple as some may think.

As for comparison between Metal Gear and the Witcher and any other title that we could throw out there...they are all very, very far from every other case. Each project is unique, and none of them begin and end on the same note. No creative venture ever does. (Except the ones that flop.)

 

[Vigilance.492]

True but that has nothing to do with platform wars, pure about why they downgraded this game for the pc, after almost really every patch, and why we get no anser from CD Projekt RED that kinda bothers me really, console get there priority first, and thats a big fact.

It was a general warning. I'm not going to completely stop people from discussing consoles, or the effect they might have had on the engine/game, whatever. But there's been some comments that veer just a little too far into straight up bashing territory, and completely off-topic entirely.

Ultimately I don't see the situation as Consoles "receiving priority", I see it as CDPR simply failing to meet PC expectations. They failed to meet PC expectations in general, with a game that didn't live up to its promotional material and demos. And perhaps they've failed to meet PC expectations here again, with patches causing more graphical issues, pop-in etc.
It simply comes down to bad decisions being made by CDPR, when it comes to the PC version.

That said, I'd still really love to see some actual video footage, screenshots etc, showcasing the difference in LOD/Pop-In from those earlier patches and the couple recent ones. I did my entire playthrough back on 1.3, and noticed plenty of pop-in and LOD issues, and I'm still personally of the belief that it's mostly placebo and such issues have always been just as bad, but I'd have no issues with being completely wrong on that.
Regardless, I absolutely agree and believe in the topic in general. Unlocking more of the currently locked settings would be wonderful, as someone with bloody Titan X's and a hugely OC'd 4790k, I'd kill a million bunnies for the ability to crank shit well beyond what we currently can.

 

[SigilFey]

It is not only that the pops are horrible but with 1.07 it gave me horrible stutering. now currently play the game with 1.06.... if update to 1.08 would it bring again that horrible sutttering ?!

You'll have to try it for yourself. Every system is different. I've been able to defeat the stutter in every version of the game. It's usually just a matter of systematically going through the options one at a time, both in-game and through your GPU's control panel, until you find the sweet spot.

For myself, I must run Fullscreen, in-game V-sync ON, Frame Limit set to 60. My game is perfectly smooth almost everywhere. Hardly any pop-in. That same config leaves other players with an unplayable, stuttering mess.

This is what you open yourself up to when you say, "Today, I'm going to spend $1,000+ on a gaming computer!" (But I think it's worth it. You should see Skyrim on my system today...:smoke

---------- Updated at 03:12 PM ----------

It was a general warning. I'm not going to completely stop people from discussing consoles, or the effect they might have had on the engine/game, whatever. But there's been some comments that veer just a little too far into straight up bashing territory, and completely off-topic entirely.

Ultimately I don't see the situation as Consoles "receiving priority", I see it as CDPR simply failing to meet PC expectations. They failed to meet PC expectations in general, with a game that didn't live up to its promotional material and demos. And perhaps they've failed to meet PC expectations here again, with patches causing more graphical issues, pop-in etc.
It simply comes down to bad decisions being made by CDPR, when it comes to the PC version.

That said, I'd still really love to see some actual video footage, screenshots etc, showcasing the difference in LOD/Pop-In from those earlier patches and the couple recent ones. I did my entire playthrough back on 1.3, and noticed plenty of pop-in and LOD issues, and I'm still personally of the belief that it's mostly placebo and such issues have always been just as bad, but I'd have no issues with being completely wrong on that.
Regardless, I absolutely agree and believe in the topic in general. Unlocking more of the currently locked settings would be wonderful, as someone with bloody Titan X's and a hugely OC'd 4790k, I'd kill a million bunnies for the ability to crank shit well beyond what we currently can.

I don't know if CDPR made "bad" decisions for the PC, just decisions that weren't in the sole interest of that version of the game. They, themselves, said that the game was so massive they could never have afforded it if they had marketed it to only one platform. I imagine it was very much a rolling snowball for the programmers -- every time they added a platform, the game would expand in features and size, which meant more game code, which meant more balancing for each different platform...

Building a game as massive as TW3 for multiple systems simultaneously is like building:

Yeah...now let's change something, right?

Pop-in has always been there to some degree. But whether or not the tweaks are placebo has a lot to do with each person's individual hardware, I think. I was a huge advocate of the placebo effect early on. Then I was convinced by another member of the forums to try the TextureMemoryBudget tweak and, viola. My pop-in is largely gone. It's not placebo, as I can toggle the value between 800 and 1600 and see night and day difference. At 800, pop-in occurs everywhere...constantly. At 1600, I can play for 2 hours without ever seeing it once. Will others get the same results? I don't think so -- not everyone. Why? No idea. Karma, maybe. Who knows...

 

[perablenta]

It very much dependent on the place you look. The world seems to be divided into parts that have much more texture streaming and much less. And it's all hard coded. I ran across that village house that has it's roof change texture quality as I move an inch past 3m away from it. And then it comes back as I move that inch back. Some NPC guards will pop in at 1m NO MATER what settings or ini file is edited.

It's a mess.

 

[SigilFey]

Yup. There are a few places like this. I can confirm I still get it to some degree (either major or minor) whenever I move through the battlefields southwest of Oxenfurt. In general, it always seems worst in areas where there are many "similar" NPCs (like lots of guards wearing the same armor.)

It doesn't seem to be a big problem for me in either of the cities (Oxenfurt or Novigraad), where there are many more NPCs overall, but there is also much more variety in their clothing, hairstyles, etc.. Leads me to believe even more strongly that it's caused by the game receiving simultaneous calls for a texture asset that's already being threaded to many other NPCs.

 

[cyberpunkforever]

changing texturememorybudget from 800 to 1600 didn't solve it for me

 

[essenthy]

texture memory budget has no effect at all unless someone show a difference with 800-1600, its locked and cant be changed like alot of other settings

@SigilFey : its a thing to defend CDPR ( wich i do too occasionally ) but claiming that ther's no pop in after some tweaking is just silly, false and untrue

 

[SigilFey]

texture memory budget has no effect at all unless someone show a difference with 800-1600, its locked and cant be changed like alot of other settings

@SigilFey : its a thing to defend CDPR ( wich i do too occasionally ) but claiming that ther's no pop in after some tweaking is just silly, false and untrue

I'm afraid this is simply wrong, @essenthy. The 800 vs. 1600 setting makes a drastic difference on my rig and many others. It is not locked in any way -- any change that you make to the user.settings file will stick, even for those lines which truly do not have an active effect on gameplay (like the ones that control auto-centering of the camera...*grumble*...). Proof of this is when I apply the tweak, my Texture Quality setting will appear as "Low" in the game options menu, even though my quality is still very much Ultra. The game is definitely recognizing the change. I'm sorry if it does not work for you.

I also never claimed that there was absolutely zero pop-in. I was very clear in stating that at rare times, it would happen to a minor extent, and at very rare times, it would still go crazy, with every single NPC nearby drawing in 2 feet from me. What I said was, I could play for well over an hour at times without seeing it at all. If it did occur, a quicksave/reload cleared it up completely. This holds true until today:

If it makes you feel any better, I just had it go haywire in Midcopse earlier today when I was testing something out about the Jenny o' the Woods quest for someone else. (And...after I saved/reloaded, it didn't occur again until I shut the game down 45 minutes later.)

 

[essenthy]

I'm afraid this is simply wrong, @essenthy. The 800 vs. 1600 setting makes a drastic difference on my rig and many others. It is not locked in any way -- any change that you make to the user.settings file will stick, even for those lines which truly do not have an active effect on gameplay (like the ones that control auto-centering of the camera...*grumble*...). Proof of this is when I apply the tweak, my Texture Quality setting will appear as "Low" in the game options menu, even though my quality is still very much Ultra. The game is definitely recognizing the change. I'm sorry if it does not work for you.

I also never claimed that there was absolutely zero pop-in. I was very clear in stating that at rare times, it would happen to a minor extent, and at very rare times, it would still go crazy, with every single NPC nearby drawing in 2 feet from me. What I said was, I could play for well over an hour at times without seeing it at all. If it did occur, a quicksave/reload cleared it up completely. This holds true until today:

If it makes you feel any better, I just had it go haywire in Midcopse earlier today when I was testing something out about the Jenny o' the Woods quest for someone else. (And...after I saved/reloaded, it didn't occur again until I shut the game down 45 minutes later.)

that still dosnt prove anything, i can also tel you that meshdistancescale does increase LOD without any before/after comparison, but thats not the case, and even if texturememorybudget did truly reduce the pop in ( wich i highly doubt ) it still no where near an acceptable state

i guess i will have to make a video showing all the poping that i encouter with latest patchs/drivers without any mod and default ultra settings