The Witcher 3 - Visuals

[B_l_a_d_y]

Looks like a different time of day.

and not even the same place and weather xD

 

[val.mitev]

It's gone from Beast to puppy.

Wut?

How about you reign in that hyperbole.

---------- Updated at 10:41 PM ----------

Looks like a different time of day.

In the old footage, the fires are the only light source, while in the newer one, it seems that there might be some strong moonlight apart from the fires.
It could also be close to dawn, who knows, they might have changed it because of reasons.

 

[Kad_Venku]

Quote Originally Posted by DukeAlmighty View Post
Anyone know whats the deal with NPC popin in this video ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oI020ktIaVA
At minute 30:40? that spot is bugged, look at the kid playing with sword.

The Quest Designer states that this is a "older press build" and is indeed bugged out. Both the popping in of NPCs and the child is already fixed, but the demo rigs do not get the newest build - as there are several build a day due to optimisation. So they stick with a old but stable one.

 

[oOParaOo]

At minute 30:40? that spot is bugged, look at the kid playing with sword.

Footage does look beautiful though i must admit.

---------- Updated at 10:47 PM ----------

Are you not seeing all the article effects and fire quality? look at flames dropping from buildings. The wild hunt shot was amazing in the first sample, up close and powerful, the 2nd looks like a power ranger costume.

---------- Updated at 10:48 PM ----------

Wut?

How about you reign in that hyperbole.

---------- Updated at 10:41 PM ----------



In the old footage, the fires are the only light source, while in the newer one, it seems that there might be some strong moonlight apart from the fires.
It could also be close to dawn, who knows, they might have changed it because of reasons.

Its not hyperbole its my opion the evil feeling of power is now gone. It was dark evil.. and the 2nd one looks well .. no impact, even the camera angle is poor.

 

[Mezziaz]

Its not hyperbole its my opinion the evil feeling of power is now gone. It was dark evil.. and the 2nd one looks well .. no impact.

I see what you mean. Before Eredin looked like a torturer from hell and now he just comes of as a Skull Knight cosplayer. They should have at least kept his cape to make him appear more "Kingly". He can just toss it away before battle should it get in the way.

 

[Wolfmeister1010]

Hi guys! Remember me?? Good to be back!!

Wow, much downgrade talk here! Some things definitely changed, and I am looking forward to some ENBs, but it still looks gorgeous. But, I have a few questions for you guys!

Not going to claim downgrade, but I was wondering if you guys could help me with finding the correct terms for some of these things I noticed.


I have been looking over some of this gameplay and noticed that it looks beautiful..but I haven’t noticed many godray effects during the day.

Well..hm..let me try to elaborate.

In the e3 footage, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BivVXw-NLTw
I think on xbox one, there is a ton of ambient light. It shines on the ground, making little reflections in the water, and making Geralt’s hair almost “translucent”.

But, in this recent footage, much of the time, the lighting, although it is improved in general, doesn’t seem to “penetrate” surfaces. Sorry if it sounds like I am claiming anything negative.

In the open world gameplay footage, during the VERY FIRST few frames of gameplay, it kinda “fades in” with a bright flash, you know. It makes an image that looks like this: View attachment 13375

And I’m like WOAH, it looks so much like this!: View attachment 13376


Cuz of all the lighting in the trees. But then the flash fades and its like: View attachment 13377

And it makes me think, “Oh, it was just a video effect. Where is that lighting? It isn’t as pronounced. Where are the clouds around the mountains?" AND the water doesn’t look like its reflecting the sky properly. The water looks really dark. But in that screen from the debut footage, the water in the valley accurately reflects the bright sky.

Is there no more volumetric lighting/rays? Or am I just insane and stupid?

Also, where are the volumetric clouds swirling around mountains? Haven’t seen them in recent footage?




I really don’t want to sound like a negative jerk, especially in the midst of all this other negativity, but I am just curious. Any explanation would be helpful!

Summary-

Wondering if the volumetric lighting that creates bloom and lighting in the trees is still there, as well as the volumetric explosions, clouds and smoke?

Why does the water look so dark? Shouldn’t the reflection look lighter, like the sky?

Where are the blood effects? Why does Aard no longer affect water and create currents?

Once again, SORRY if I sound negative.

I just want to..well, I am curious!!!!


Please don't freak!

 

[Sardukhar]

Its not hyperbole its my opion the evil feeling of power is now gone. It was dark evil.. and the 2nd one looks well .. no impact, even the camera angle is poor.

And fair enough. It would be good if you were...clearer and more explicit when you say things like "Beast to puppy", otherwise it looks inflammatory and, well, flamebait.

With that extra, it's much clearer.

 

[ONLY_ONCE]

I normally hate downgrade brigades... but seeing this just makes me a bit concerned:
http://gfycat.com/NaturalImaginaryBlueandgoldmackaw

I like the new footage, it looks more realistic

 

[Pawlle]

I think the king of the wild hunts armor looks much better now....before it looked weird...i hated the helmet and the chest piece

 

[Jasheon]

Hi guys! Remember me?? Good to be back!!

Wow, much downgrade talk here! Some things definitely changed, and I am looking forward to some ENBs, but it still looks gorgeous. But, I have a few questions for you guys!

Not going to claim downgrade, but I was wondering if you guys could help me with finding the correct terms for some of these things I noticed.


I have been looking over some of this gameplay and noticed that it looks beautiful..but I haven’t noticed many godray effects during the day.

Well..hm..let me try to elaborate.

In the e3 footage, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BivVXw-NLTw
I think on xbox one, there is a ton of ambient light. It shines on the ground, making little reflections in the water, and making Geralt’s hair almost “translucent”.

But, in this recent footage, much of the time, the lighting, although it is improved in general, doesn’t seem to “penetrate” surfaces. Sorry if it sounds like I am claiming anything negative.

In the open world gameplay footage, during the VERY FIRST few frames of gameplay, it kinda “fades in” with a bright flash, you know. It makes an image that looks like this: View attachment 13375

And I’m like WOAH, it looks so much like this!: View attachment 13376


Cuz of all the lighting in the trees. But then the flash fades and its like: View attachment 13377

And it makes me think, “Oh, it was just a video effect. Where is that lighting? It isn’t as pronounced. Where are the clouds around the mountains?" AND the water doesn’t look like its reflecting the sky properly. The water looks really dark. But in that screen from the debut footage, the water in the valley accurately reflects the bright sky.

Is there no more volumetric lighting/rays? Or am I just insane and stupid?

Also, where are the volumetric clouds swirling around mountains? Haven’t seen them in recent footage?




I really don’t want to sound like a negative jerk, especially in the midst of all this other negativity, but I am just curious. Any explanation would be helpful!

Summary-

Wondering if the volumetric lighting that creates bloom and lighting in the trees is still there, as well as the volumetric explosions, clouds and smoke?

Why does the water look so dark? Shouldn’t the reflection look lighter, like the sky?

Where are the blood effects? Why does Aard no longer affect water and create currents?

Once again, SORRY if I sound negative.

I just want to..well, I am curious!!!!


Please don't freak!

Yah I agree 100% with you, there has been some changes and the game does not look as good as those comparison shots. I dont care what anyone says..

 

[soldiergeralt]

to answer the question, i think it's due to the camera being situated towards the sun and then against it. the effect from the screenshot with the sun peering through clouds is using hdr lighting, so it's bright, but not overwhelmingly so, because eye adaptation is simulated. the one where it's less bright is due to the fact that you're not looking directly at the sun. the other scene where it's the same shot but brighter is due to post processing effects, like in movie trailers, they use a white fade out effect

 

[dragonbird]

There have already been two extremely long threads discussing differences between current builds and videos from more than a year ago. Anything that can be said was said a long time ago, and continuing to bring it up does nothing except generate more arguments and piss other forum members off. It isn't "giving feedback" any more.

Anyone wishing to repeat those old discussions can expect deleted posts, and more direct moderator action if they persist. Two posts have been deleted.

 

[shtempik]

So what's the definition of Post-Processing? Why can't we have that thing in games as an option or turned on in certain scenes or whatever? For example on that village on fire scene.

 

[dragonbird]

So what's the definition of Post-Processing? Why can't we have that thing in games as an option or turned on in certain scenes or whatever? For example on that village on fire scene.

Which particular thing do you mean? There will be a lot of rendering and post-rendering options that people can turn on or off as needed, but if you're talking about something like volumetric fog, then from what has been said it's just too high a resource hog. At some point, the developers do need to decide whether or not it's worth investing a lot of time and money pre-release in adding a feature that drops the framerate too low even on high-end gaming PCs. They are, after all, making a game, not a movie.

Oh, and post-processing is just a name for something added after the render. Sharpening, vignettes, colour filters, stuff like that.

 

[amfibiya89]

I do not know in which thread to ask this question then asked here.

Same scene with different outfit. I think we have to put on that strange outfit when meet Imperator. But in Charles Dance video Geralt wear his own outfit. So can we chose which outfit we want to wear or is it changed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGKe3iWRTYg#t=32m47s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VFD_oxpVPk#t=0m39s

And another scene which i laughed very loudly when watched. Amazing stuff. Strange man teach Geralt how to greet imperator. And watch what is outcome from that. LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGKe3iWRTYg#t=30m54s

And you can chose even How to perform that.

1. Right leg forward, left arm to chest
2. Left leg forward, right arm to chest
3. Left leg back, arms to sides
4. Are you joking?

 

[shtempik]

Which particular thing do you mean? There will be a lot of rendering and post-rendering options that people can turn on or off as needed, but if you're talking about something like volumetric fog, then from what has been said it's just too high a resource hog. At some point, the developers do need to decide whether or not it's worth investing a lot of time and money pre-release in adding a feature that drops the framerate too low even on high-end gaming PCs. They are, after all, making a game, not a movie.

Oh, and post-processing is just a name for something added after the render. Sharpening, vignettes, colour filters, stuff like that.

Oh alright thanks... Well I didn't really mean the smoke as I heard it relates to volumetric fog or something and was removed, right?
The fire itself looks just so real, even better than real, what did they do to make it look so good and real? Comparing to the recent footage where fire looks really low res and well quite bad tbh...

 

[amfibiya89]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGKe3iWRTYg#t=41m53s

What is a yellow color after Igni sign on stone? I noticed it many time before from YTers videos on grass too. It looks like bug. So weird.

 

[dragonbird]

Oh alright thanks... Well I didn't really mean the smoke as I heard it relates to volumetric fog or something and was removed, right?
The fire itself looks just so real, even better than real, what did they do to make it look so good and real? Comparing to the recent footage where fire looks really low res and well quite bad tbh...

Volumetric fog was never there, it was just that some people saw fog and smoke in the early videos and assumed it was volumetric. It wasn't, it never has been. Volumetric clouds were cut-back, because of resource usage.

The fire? No idea. A lot of the comparisons are different lighting conditions, the scenes will be dynamic so the fire will be different, sometimes more, sometimes less, and maybe they did reduce it. I don't know. Fire is rendered, of course, not post-render.

 

[delnac]

Wow, much downgrade talk here! Some things definitely changed, and I am looking forward to some ENBs, but it still looks gorgeous. But, I have a few questions for you guys!

Not going to claim downgrade, but I was wondering if you guys could help me with finding the correct terms for some of these things I noticed.

That's a lot of questions and there's a lot of different things to talk about to give you a satisfying answer. I don't claim to know exactly what's what and I might be flat-out wrong on many things. That being said, I've been asking myself the same questions since the youtube embargo lift, so here goes .

I haven’t noticed many godray effects during the day.

The godrays and bloom are still in the game, but both appear to have changed and also have been toned down either in the regions we have seen or for realism.

But, in this recent footage, much of the time, the lighting, although it is improved in general, doesn’t seem to “penetrate” surfaces. Sorry if it sounds like I am claiming anything negative.
[...]
And it makes me think, “Oh, it was just a video effect. Where is that lighting? It isn’t as pronounced. Where are the clouds around the mountains?" AND the water doesn’t look like its reflecting the sky properly. The water looks really dark. But in that screen from the debut footage, the water in the valley accurately reflects the bright sky.

Well so do we, welcome to the party .

This is the one point I am decidedly unsure of because of art direction changes. On your screenshots, it is obvious that all of the effects I am about to mention appear to be deactivated. Those effects are volume-based translucency for foliage and aerial perspective fog. Semi-volumetric clouds have always been in but seem to appear dynamically depending on the time of day and weather (well no shit, sherlock). For those first two effects, I can't tell if they are still in or not given that youtubers haven't shown any scene that would help showcase them, such as mountain ranges. That's the big unknown. I only know that some form of aerial perspective fog is still in given the various swamp scenes, but it's another effect heavily depending on the time of day that also appears to have changed a lot. It's a very hard thing to determine even if you know what you are looking for.

I mean look at this : https://youtu.be/94R0Ji39E68?t=7m20s. Can you tell conclusively whether or not the foliage has translucency?

Where are the blood effects? Why does Aard no longer affect water and create currents?

The blood effects are actually glitched in the youtuber's build. There was a vid where you can see the blood decal on the ground for a second before it disappears. This has been fixed afaik. Aard also still does affect its physical environment. Which is a lot now that grass and foliage are physical entity as well (which is awesome).

Why does the water look so dark? Shouldn’t the reflection look lighter, like the sky?

For the water it's a mix of the viewer's angle of incidence and art direction. Tessellation and screen-space reflexions are still in there. See https://youtu.be/94R0Ji39E68?t=3m41s for example.

Wondering if the volumetric lighting that creates bloom and lighting in the trees is still there, as well as the volumetric explosions, clouds and smoke?

There never was a real volumetric lighting/media per se like Shadowfall or Lords of the Fallen. Jose's words on the topic have been twisted (by myself included). He was referring to the clouds and their cast shadows which have always been shown as a semi-volumetric technique, even at VGX/E3. He wanted to do a proper physical simulation. Other effects also aren't volumetric but rather old tricks. Regarding the clouds and smoke, it's a coin toss for me. The renderer is forward+ so it should be able to handle lit soft particles without difficulty. I don't know, I haven't watched all the youtuber's videos in order to find one with the fires and king of the hunt.

Also, where are the volumetric clouds swirling around mountains? Haven’t seen them in recent footage?

Still in but depending on time of day .

As a side-note, a lot of other effects have been added or upgraded. Like I mentioned before, grass and foliage is now a physical entity reacting to force fields and actor collision, skin has some form of subsurface scattering trick, characters self-shadowing is massively improved and the entire renderer switched over to PBS. And I'm certain I'm forgetting/not seeing a lot more. The big unknowns since the nvidia video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SpPqXdzl7g) are volume-based translucency for foliage and the way bloom shafts work. The overall brightness and contrast of the image also changed a lot, but I am starting to believe this is due to their art direction change in the lighting system as well as the shift to PBS. Meaning that the rendering techniques are still there, but used in different ways and it seems that options regarding this will be exposed to the player on PC.

I hope I answered your questions in a way that helps you. I also hope I managed to give a constructive contribution on the topic of DOWNGRADE § as an apology for bumping the thread again. But I have never seen any of all this information in one place, so I hope it helps. But to be fair, I also didn't read something like half of the original threadnaught.

Man that was a wall of text, sorry :x.

TL; DR : Still unsure if rendering techniques have been pulled from the PC version, but so far in all honesty the answer is a mix of "no" and "don't know with no decisive data either way".

 

[Valmighty]

Saw most of the Witcher videos (if not all). Did you guys play Dying Light? I don't know the technicality, but it has a slick clothes tech. The clothes animate consistently (especially when it has strong wind), not just the skirt-like area, but all of them. So it feels like my character and the NPC is wearing a real piece of cloth, not just a thick 3D polygon painted with some texture.

Does TW3 have it? Because of what i saw, it doesn't

Edit: Like this corspe here on 0:27 https://youtu.be/0AyhZyOMX6A?t=27s