No facial animations outside cutscens.

[Jameu]

No facial animations outside cutscens.

Hi,

For some reason the facial animations suddenly stops working outside the cut scenes for no obvious reason. I have no idea what causes it and I have two different versions of Witcher 3 on my computed. I have tried to force the problem to occur but without success. Sometimes Geralt can have facial animations prior to a cut scene... after the cut scene, his face is completely still, not grins, no eye blinking, nothing. Same with NPC. But the issue can occur at any given time. I have both Steam and GoG-version of the game and same problem on both versions and no mods installed that could cause this. I have looked around on the web trying to find if anyone else has this problem but doesn't seem like it's something people have noticed... or at least not posted about.

Any ideas?

 

[Riven-Twain]

Any ideas?

I've not seen this issue before -- at any rate, not on the Forums. How often does this occur? Frequently? Only occasionally? If it's completely random, and cannot be replicated consistently, unfortunately, this makes it very difficult for RED Tech to track and correct. It may simply be a random error in the game -- and there are still a few of these.

 

[Jameu]

I've not seen this issue before -- at any rate, not on the Forums. How often does this occur? Frequently? Only occasionally? If it's completely random, and cannot be replicated consistently, unfortunately, this makes it very difficult for RED Tech to track and correct. It may simply be a random error in the game -- and there are still a few of these.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to replicate the error. And trust me, I've been looking all around the web to find anyone else with the issue. Might be something people don't pay attention to either, but still.

It occurs pretty much every play session. It feels completely random. A restart of the game won't solve it, not a computer restart or different saves. It just now happened when I shut down the game and loaded the save file again. The animations worked just fine after a cut scene, then I quit the game, loaded the save file and now Geralt has no facial animations. A few mins later, I look back at Geralts face and the animations are back again. So I quick saved, and reloaded the save file. Back in the game... no animations. It's driving me nuts.

 

[Riven-Twain]

It's driving me nuts.

That is rather frustrating. This may be a long shot, but, if you're playing through GOG Galaxy, you could try the verify/repair function.

 

[SigilFey]

Are you using any mods?

Read too quickly. Sorry.

On the same token, mods may have unforeseen side effects. Which ones are you using?

 

[Jameu]

Already tried that. And like I said, same issue with both Steam install and GOG Galaxy installation. The animations just comes and goes with no apparent pattern, other than if i save the game while the animations are working, and quit out and load the save file... he has no animations when i load the game back up.

---------- Updated at 07:39 PM ----------

I had this issue long before I even started putting mods in, and my steam version of the game has the same issue... and I have no mods installed on that one.

 

[Riven-Twain]

Well, that about exhausts my ideas, and I'm not sure Support can do much with this one either. (Although you can still contact them about this, here.) I'm very sorry I can't be more help. Looks like it's over to you again, @SigilFey .

 

[Jameu]

Well, that about exhausts my ideas, and I'm not sure Support can do much with this one either. (Although you can still contact them about this, here.) I'm very sorry I can't be more help. Looks like it's over to you again, @SigilFey .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycWIwLH9cCM Here can you see. First seconds, you can see Geralt do his grin face. After i reload the save file... no animations.

Might contact them and see if they have any idea what's going on.

 

[Vykhodzev]

Good thing I stumbled upon this thread. I realized that I've got the same bug as Jameu.
When I load my save Geralt won't have any facial animations. Only after a cutscene, such as talking to a merchant, he would regain his facial animations. When I save the game and load it he won't display any facial animations again, only until I view another cutscene. Seems to only ever restore his facial animations when I view a cutscene.
I thought mods may be the culprit of it but it's appearing after I uninstalled all of them recently and since Jameu said that the problem is occuring in his non-modded game too, there is the possibility that it could be widely occuring issue but people simply don't notice or pay attention to. To be fair, it's a very subtile bug. No wonder we have barely anyone else reporting it.

 

[doktor1]

Same here....

 

[Sandis]

Same as well, this need to be fixed ASAP, can't play this way, CDPR we need hotfix, Roche tail and this facial animations, I was waiting long time for new patch to roll out, now sadly have to wait again, til they address these issues, thank you in advance!...

 

[Jameu]

ave Geralt won't have any facial animations. Only after a cutscene, such as talking to a merchant, he would regain his facial animations. When I save the game and load it he won't display any facial animations again, only until I view another cutscene. Seems to only ever restore his facial animations when I view a cutscene.
I thought mods may be the culprit of it but it's appearing after I uninstalled all of them recently and since Jameu said that the problem is occuring in his non-modded game too, there is the possibility that it could be widely occuring issue but people simply don't notice or pay attention to. To be fair, it's a very subtile bug. No wonder we have barely anyone else reporting it.

I am utmost certain that this is a problem which has been since the very beginning. But people just don't tend to pay attention to these small details. Or they just won't bother adress them. I've had this issue for as long as I can remember and I started playing Witcher 3 at the release. But it has been bothering me way more lately when I've come to pick up on how to recreate the problem. Just like you wrote. A cutscene restores the animations, but also, checkpoint after cutscene or anything save-related seems to remove them again. Like fast travel.

 

[Vykhodzev]

I am utmost certain that this is a problem which has been since the very beginning. But people just don't tend to pay attention to these small details. Or they just won't bother adress them. I've had this issue for as long as I can remember and I started playing Witcher 3 at the release. But it has been bothering me way more lately when I've come to pick up on how to recreate the problem. Just like you wrote. A cutscene restores the animations, but also, checkpoint after cutscene or anything save-related seems to remove them again. Like fast travel.

Can confirm that fast travel breaks the face animations too.

And it even occurs in a new game. I just started a new game and see the same bug. Face animations work at the start. When I save and reload, they're gone. After talking to Yennefer the face animations are back.

Unless someone proofs that his game isn't affected by it, I'm inclined to believe that everyone should be having the bug and it shows the same patterns.

 

[Jameu]

Can confirm that fast travel breaks the face animations too.

And it even occurs in a new game. I just started a new game and see the same bug. Face animations work at the start. When I save and reload, they're gone. After talking to Yennefer the face animations are back.

Unless someone proofs that his game isn't affected by it, I'm inclined to believe that everyone should be having the bug and it shows the same patterns.

All it takes is to get Geralts facial animations going after a loaded save or fast travel or ended conversation is to air punch once or swing once with the sword and Geralts face animations comes to life. So silly. I'm baffled how few people have brought this to attention over a year after release. At first i thought it had to do with my setup or something. But obviously it's this for everyone, through every patch.

 

[SigilFey]

This is likely due to something system-specific. I have never encountered this, nor do I see it in my game now. If you can reliably re-create it, make a short vid and send that and a saved game into CDPR Support.

 

[Jameu]

Feels wierd if it's system-specific. I mean. Since I created the thread I have gone from a 290x to a GTX 1080 and a fresh windows 10 installation and I have the same issue on both Steam version and GoG version. And when I for example start a new game... his face animations are working. Then, all I have to do is save game, quick or manual, load that particular save and when I'm back into the game, his face has no animations. Right mouse click once to air punch and he get's that angry grin face and facial animations are working after that, until either a cutscene or a savefile is loaded. I'm so confused.

Just like seen in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycWIwLH9cCM

 

[SigilFey]

Hm. No idea. I can confirm it does not happen here. Are you using any mods. Texture replacers, animation packages, etc.?

 

[davidtt]

Feels wierd if it's system-specific. I mean. Since I created the thread I have gone from a 290x to a GTX 1080 and a fresh windows 10 installation and I have the same issue on both Steam version and GoG version. And when I for example start a new game... his face animations are working. Then, all I have to do is save game, quick or manual, load that particular save and when I'm back into the game, his face has no animations. Right mouse click once to air punch and he get's that angry grin face and facial animations are working after that, until either a cutscene or a savefile is loaded. I'm so confused.

Just like seen in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycWIwLH9cCM

Yes, absolutely right. No facial animation... but after a punch or a sword strike, the face come to life

(no mod, gog 1.30)

 

[Jameu]

Hm. No idea. I can confirm it does not happen here. Are you using any mods. Texture replacers, animation packages, etc.?

Nope, no mods, nothing. The fact that it's confirmed that It doesn't happen to you, like in the video i posted makes me even more confused about what's going on with the animations. I mean, a few people in this particular thread have the same issue, and the game have sold a few million copies and been out for over a year without a fix for this, quite frankly, stupid and ugly bug.

 

[Guest 2364765]

Nope, no mods, nothing. The fact that it's confirmed that It doesn't happen to you, like in the video i posted makes me even more confused about what's going on with the animations. I mean, a few people in this particular thread have the same issue, and the game have sold a few million copies and been out for over a year without a fix for this, quite frankly, stupid and ugly bug.

It's not a bug, lack of mimics during gameplay is a deliberate optimisation choice. There is a hack to bypass that but it's ugly and mostly not suited for actual gameplay.

As far as Geralt goes, he's the only exception but i still assume he's susceptible to triggers which disable mimics for NPCs after dialogues. You can potentially force him back into mimic mode by swinging a sword, since that should force him to look angry.