Patch 4.01 — list of changes

[Alicja.]

Patch 4.01 for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is being rolled out on PC, PlayStation and Xbox. It improves the overall stability and performance of the game on next-gen consoles and PC, and brings various fixes to all platforms.

Here's the list of changes for this update:

PC-SPECIFIC

• Fixed an issue where the Screen Space Reflections setting wasn't working on PC despite being turned on. Players who had previously set their SSR setting to high may notice a performance impact.
• Added a new performance mode for ray-traced global illumination, which can be toggled by players with compatible hardware. It improves frame rate by prioritizing performance over range and precision.

CONSOLE-SPECIFIC

• Fixed an issue where consoles could create a higher amount of saves than their set limit, resulting in various issues with saving the game or user settings being reset.
• Improved Screen Space Reflections quality on next-gen consoles.
• Optimized ray-traced global illumination on next-gen consoles to improve the performance of Ray Tracing Mode.

QUESTS & GAMEPLAY - Available on all platforms

• Battle Preparations - Fixed an issue where it could be impossible to interact with Avallac'h during the objective "Let Avallac'h know everything's ready."
• Family Matters - Fixed an issue that could cause the game to crash during the transition to Ciri's Story: Out of the Shadows when speaking to the Bloody Baron.
• King's Gambit - Fixed an issue where it could be impossible to participate in the fistfight with the second Vildkaarl due to an invisible obstacle.
• Wine Wars: Belgaard - Added a retrofix for the issue we fixed in 4.00, where the quest couldn't be completed if the player destroyed one of the required monster nests during exploration.
• A Dangerous Game - The armor in Caesar's room should now change its appearance when the Alternate Nilfgaardian Armor is turned on.
• Axii Puppet - Increased the health and damage dealt by the puppet.
• Adrenaline Rush mutation should now work according to its description.
• Various small fixes to quests and cutscenes.

LOCALIZATION - Available on all platforms

• Fixed various issues with Arabic localization.
• Added the localized versions of Orianna's song "Lullaby of Woe" in Korean and Simplified Chinese.
• Adjusted Priscilla's lip-sync animation to match her voice-over in Simplified Chinese during the song "The Wolven Storm".

Please note: these are only the most notable changes. The patch contains other minor fixes that didn't make it into this list.

 

[mechanix1]

• Battle Preparations - Fixed an issue where it could be impossible to interact with Avallac'h during the objective "Let Avallac'h know everything's ready."
  
  YES!!! Thanks CDPR

 

[GonzaEv]

No turning off vignette on consoles? Big L

 

[CptMarkski]

Thanks for the continued support for this incredible game!
I was wondering if you are aware of the issue with the Legendary Feline Armor? Once you engage in combat you get this bell ringing sound in the background. In order to stop it you have to unequip the armor. Once you put it back on the sound stops until your next fight. It gets a bit annoying after a while!
EDIT: Not to worry! It seems like it's fixed!!! That's a relief. I'm not keen on the Bear armor so I tend to use the other 3 when I hit the right levels. The Wolvern armor is by far the best looking, Griffin has the "fat Geralt" issue lol. But legendary Griffin has probably the best 6 set perk to it.

Big, big thanks for fixing this!

Would like a visual rework of the Griffin armor but I know that takes a lot more effort and time so I understand why.

Keep up the good work!

 

[nolankotulan]

No turning off vignette on consoles? Big L

Please give us the option to remove this atrocious obtrusive effect. We are too many to complain about it for you to just ignore us and there isn’t one single good reason to not give us the same option as on PC. And options should also be available for other camera effects by the way.

Wait, wait, wait… what!?

THEY DID IT!!!

It’s not in the patch notes but the option is now here, along another new one for the chromatic aberration too.

Thank you CDPR!

 

[Malautomedontolo]

So, instead of optimizing the CPU cores usage you just reduced GI quality for those who cannot get frame generation basically. Wow!

 

[Yllana_Ardais]

Does anyone know where the quicksave function went? I remember on PS4 you could quicksave by pressing some button in the pause menu? Doesn't seem to be working on PS5.

 

[GonzaEv]

Please give us the option to remove this atrocious obtrusive effect. We are too many to complain about it for you to just ignore us and there isn’t one single good reason to not give us the same option as on PC. And options should also be available for other camera effects by the way.

Wait, wait, wait… what!?

THEY DID IT!!!

It’s not in the patch notes but the option is now here, along another new one for the chromatic aberration too.

Thank you CDPR!

Holy shit dood. BIG W instead

 

[John_Russell]

So I take it they didn't do anything to fix the single biggest problem with the game, poor threading so the game runs on mainly 1 or 2 threads while they rest do nothing?

If so it's a band aid on an amputated limb ...... Especially since Screen Space Reflections are going to tax the CPU even more

 

[Ladyhawke62]

Playing on ps5, now quest to talk to Avallac'h under final preparation won't start.

Only other quest I have are Evil's sift touches and Envoys, Wineboys which I did not want to do yet. Help

 

[Nazshak]

Sad to see the Transmog system is not included, hopefully it's going to be added later! It really should be a standard for any RPG with cosmetic items...

 

[Rainmore11]

Steam issue persists. When I start the game on Steam, the application belonging to cdpr opens, then when I press the play button, the game opens, but it is not active on Steam. In other words, the game appears to be closed on Steam, but the game is already open. The second problem is that we cannot enter the machine after collecting the ovaries in the "return mission and face the dark" mission. it's a bug. It won't go into the machine even though I've taken off all the clothes and gear.

 

[walentaz]

No shader compilation stutters fix? LAME

 

[hicham1234]

Lower your Expectations and you will never be disappointed
a meh patch noting more after 1 month i give up already

Post automatically merged: Feb 2, 2023

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!!


Just completed the main story and now doing the DLC!! Can’t wait for the update files


And should have read the patch notes before getting excited. My expectation is ZERO performance improvement.

They did next to nothing for PC players. If anything they just stole work from NexusMods to reduce Global Illumination quality.

Nothing to address CPU performance

 

[nolankotulan]

It also looks like the framerate in RT mode on Series X is finally kind of decent, maybe even on par with the old quality mode on the One X, even in Novigrad.

I may finally play on RT mode then, while before it was totally out of question as the performances were so bad. I’ll need to try it a little bit longer in real situations, playing normally, as for now I just quickly crossed Velen, forests, and went to Oxenfurt and Novigrad, but I can already say there is a huge improvement.

Good job CDPR!

I just hope the console will not melt at some point.* Never had any overheating problems or crashes but well, you know, we never do, as I have read some things…

* Joking by the way, if it’s not obvious. Kind of…

 

[slyfox8900]

Yeah, so i got a 4fps increase with peformance mode and more shadow popin when using it. Im running 9900k and RTX 3080. This "Peformance mode" is a joke.

I expected optimizations on the CPU side. I hope future updates can improve this otherwise playing this game with RT on anything that doesnt have frame generation ie 40 series gpus, is not possible at good fps.

 

[hicham1234]

New Patch tanked steam deck performance
Yeah that helps too anyone reporting less performance even if it’s not on steam deck means they’ve botched something with the patch

 

[maxmw]

There is something seriously wrong with the new patch.

On 4.00 hotfix 2 I was getting around 75-80fps in novigrad with dlss on performance on my 2070 super. With patch 4.01 I am getting 40-45fps, luckily gog makes it easy to revert to an older version, I reverted to hotfix 2 and now back up at 80fps again.

In the patch notes they mention:

• Fixed an issue where the Screen Space Reflections setting wasn't working on PC despite being turned on. Players who had previously set their SSR setting to high may notice a performance impact.

However turing SSR down to low made very little difference to my fps on 4.01, I got maybe 2-3 more fps, so I can't imagine this is the cause.

 

[UnkindnessRaven]

I wish they'd give us an option to use Geralt's cloak from the Killing Monsters trailer without using mods

 

[Lance_Lionroar]

Can you PLEASE figure out a fix for GPU and CPU utilization in DX12? I'm running a 3080 Ti and I'm getting 40 FPS because the GPU utilization refuses to go past 50%, and usually sits around 40%. Why can't the game use the hardware that we're giving it?