The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is coming to the next generation!

[SigilFey]

I know nothing about the project, but my guess would be that the changes will be minimal. (Some bug fixing, addition of ray tracing, maybe pushing the draw distances out a bit more, etc.) I would be very surprised if there were significant, new questlines.

One thing that I would personally consider is dealing with the Scoia'Tel as its own, separate questline. A totally detatched story that takes place on its own, the same way that players can begin a standalone playthrough of HoS of B&W. Perhaps...even...playing as Iorveth.

 

[RUBEN_RIBE]

I know nothing about the project, but my guess would be that the changes will be minimal. (Some bug fixing, addition of ray tracing, maybe pushing the draw distances out a bit more, etc.) I would be very surprised if there were significant, new questlines.

One thing that I would personally consider is dealing with the Scoia'Tel as its own, separate questline. A totally detatched story that takes place on its own, the same way that players can begin a standalone playthrough of HoS of B&W. Perhaps...even...playing as Iorveth.

I think the same as you. Thing is that TW3 cannot hold up graphically to the games we have nowadays, not to mention next gen games. So this change should not be minimal.

 

[Septerra_Core]

Well, who knows? Maybe after Saber revamps-ports the Witchers' engine with the new technologies, CDPR Lore and Quests teams may start creating DLCs for the Witcher 3 again. I think it will depend on the amount of the people returning to the game after the next-gen release next year.

 

[RUBEN_RIBE]

That would be soooo great.

 

[SigilFey]

I think the same as you. Thing is that TW3 cannot hold up graphically to the games we have nowadays, not to mention next gen games. So this change should not be minimal.

While many people are focused on seeing things "remastered" to top-of-the-line / state-of-the-art levels, there are plenty of gamers that are very happy to simply see a couple extra bells and whistles added to their favorite games. Many others (and I'm very much a part of this group), do not like it when older games are so drastically changed that the original feeling is lost.

Halo 1 and Fable 1 are probably my go-tos for this argument. In my estimation, both games' remasters managed to improve the "fidelity" of the graphics from a purely objective standpoint...but...

...the style was gone. The energy was gone. The heart was gone. In an attempt to "increase texture resolution" and add in "layers of additional detail" and take advantage of "modern rendering techniques"...the games wound up feeling like flat, lifeless, predictable, cookie-cutter additions to the great fog of "modern" games. I mean, looking at a quick comparison shot of Halo 1...it's easy to mistake the remaster as Call of Duty XYZ "at-a-glance". Whereas there is absolutely no mistaking the orginal for a single second -- THAT is Halo. One glance is all that's needed for instant recognition:

Less is more.

For TW3, as it is near and dear to many players, I'd want to preserve as much of the original as possible. Clean up the shadows, certainly. Avoid as much pop-in or draw-in as we possible, yes. Decrease load times, squish some nagging bugs, and add a few nicks and knacks here and there...but largely leave the gameplay and aesthetic untouched.

It's why I'd like to see something like the Iorveth quest as a "standalone" experience. Let Sabre iron things out with the game and engine...then let them build something of their own, completely free-standing, that adds some meaningful content to the universe and shows off their work.

 

[RUBEN_RIBE]

While many people are focused on seeing things "remastered" to top-of-the-line / state-of-the-art levels, there are plenty of gamers that are very happy to simply see a couple extra bells and whistles added to their favorite games. Many others (and I'm very much a part of this group), do not like it when older games are so drastically changed that the original feeling is lost.

Halo 1 and Fable 1 are probably my go-tos for this argument. In my estimation, both games' remasters managed to improve the "fidelity" of the graphics from a purely objective standpoint...but...

...the style was gone. The energy was gone. The heart was gone. In an attempt to "increase texture resolution" and add in "layers of additional detail" and take advantage of "modern rendering techniques"...the games wound up feeling like flat, lifeless, predictable, cookie-cutter additions to the great fog of "modern" games. I mean, looking at a quick comparison shot of Halo 1...it's easy to mistake the remaster as Call of Duty XYZ "at-a-glance". Whereas there is absolutely no mistaking the orginal for a single second -- THAT is Halo. One glance is all that's needed for instant recognition:

View attachment 11058887


Less is more.

For TW3, as it is near and dear to many players, I'd want to preserve as much of the original as possible. Clean up the shadows, certainly. Avoid as much pop-in or draw-in as we possible, yes. Decrease load times, squish some nagging bugs, and add a few nicks and knacks here and there...but largely leave the gameplay and aesthetic untouched.

It's why I'd like to see something like the Iorveth quest as a "standalone" experience. Let Sabre iron things out with the game and engine...then let them build something of their own, completely free-standing, that adds some meaningful content to the universe and shows off their work.

In this case I do think the same as you cause all The Witcher iterations have an unique artstyle and atmosphear. It is why I personally keep on coming back to TW1 and TW2.

However I am pretty conscious that such a statement as "we pretend to extend the living of the game years on" knowing it cannot hold up today to most common public is risky, don't you think? Moreover knowing all the e3/vgx downgrade history this game has.

Another thing is mod compatibility. In a lot of discord servers modders are wondering if this is going to be compatible with many overhaul mods or if it is going to be needed to reverse engeneering all over again and develop their own tools. More trusty modders said they might be getting the so loved Redtools but I personally don't think this is happening.

 

[Septerra_Core]

...the style was gone. The energy was gone. The heart was gone

You know the most important reason on why this happens is purely psychological. It is because this is how u remembered the game to be and subsequently, ur memory of it, removes this nostalgic feeling when u play these kind of remastered versions.

Remastered versions in general are supposed to leave those feelings alone, by not touching the gameplay mechanics. The remakes are those who make the games into completely different ones.
Next gen Witcher 3 will purely by about engine upgrades and thank God for that. This will only add up to aesthetics. I mean look at The Witcher 2. The superior lighting makes it hold up even today because of this magnificent atmosphere it creates, although it has worse mechanics and is not open world!

 

[minicrom]

Saber Interactive need to do more than just put HdR ray tracing and so on. They need to improve without doing the horror they did with HA again. They need to upgrade fire effect. Water expand hair works... it just a lot to do to make the W3 look on par with next gen title and its addition that, if not handle well can lead to a different art style. I just don't trust this studio to keep true to the Witcher esthetic... Not after H1A (eventhough H2A lessen this concerns I admit). It makes it even more worrying now since the update erase the vanilla game.

 

[RUBEN_RIBE]

Saber Interactive need to do more than just put HdR ray tracing and so on. They need to improve without doing the horror they did with HA again. They need to upgrade fire effect. Water expand hair works... it just a lot to do to make the W3 look on par with next gen title and its addition that, if not handle well can lead to a different art style. I just don't trust this studio to keep true to the Witcher esthetic... Not after H1A (eventhough H2A lessen this concerns I admit). It makes it even more worrying now since the update erase the vanilla game.

What is H1A and H2A? I am assuming it is previous work from Saber Interactive but I sincerely have no idea.

 

[DOSS216]

What is H1A and H2A? I am assuming it is previous work from Saber Interactive but I sincerely have no idea.

Saber Interactive worked on Halo 1 and 2 Anniversary

 

[LordOfMordor]

Does anyone have a timeline on this?

 

[SigilFey]

In this case I do think the same as you cause all The Witcher iterations have an unique artstyle and atmosphear. It is why I personally keep on coming back to TW1 and TW2.

However I am pretty conscious that such a statement as "we pretend to extend the living of the game years on" knowing it cannot hold up today to most common public is risky, don't you think? Moreover knowing all the e3/vgx downgrade history this game has.

Another thing is mod compatibility. In a lot of discord servers modders are wondering if this is going to be compatible with many overhaul mods or if it is going to be needed to reverse engeneering all over again and develop their own tools. More trusty modders said they might be getting the so loved Redtools but I personally don't think this is happening.

I do think it's risky! (The definition of business is "risk".) But I also feel it's a reliable way to market the games to existing fans again -- the people who will most appreciate it. From a dev standpoint, especially if the remaster will be in-house or cooperative (as most invariably are to some degree), it lets the team get another crack at putting in those features or ironing out the issues that have been nagging them the whole time. Bugs and unpolished features are nowhere near as annoying to players as they will be to the people that worked for untold hours trying to build the game. It's simply important to go into the venture with realistic expectations on the returns it's likely to create. (Nothing wrong with being pleasantly surprised, and no great loss if it doesn't work out as well as hoped.)

Conversely, studios that try to release remasters as if they're going to "revolutionize the gameplay experience and bring [YourFavoriteTitle] squarely into the the modern generation!!!" are cruisin' for a disaster. That's like trying to convince me that they've discovered a new type of Pepsi. Either it's exactly the same Pepsi...or it's not Pepsi.

Remastered versions in general are supposed to leave those feelings alone, by not touching the gameplay mechanics. The remakes are those who make the games into completely different ones.

Great point, and spot on, I'd say. I'm all for remakes, too, but I think we've got a long way to go before technology and gameplay has advanced enough that TW3 could be markedly improved as an overall experience. What I'd really like to see is the engine beefed up a bit (maybe combat styles worked back in ) and then TW1, 2, and 3 all released using the same engine. One, cohesive experience. Might even serve to compress some of the gameplay of TW1 and 2 into an open-world format and create a better pace through the narrative arc of each game -- something that was not really achievable in the same way, given how TW1 and 2 worked mechanically.

Does anyone have a timeline on this?

Cyberpunk first, I would guess. But I'm just guessing.

 

[Riven-Twain]

Does anyone have a timeline on this?

Sometime in 2021, I believe. We'll probably receive more precise information as we approach it.

 

[islam.esenov]

Please, remove yellow tint effect in complete edition !

 

[vishous54]

Dear CDPR,
I have a digital version of the game on my PS4 but i'm not planning to get a PS5 for a no. of yrs. i still have loads of PS4 games to catch up on and won't be able to afford the PS5 when it comes out given recent projections, also i plan to just save up from now and get the PS5pro version when that comes out. Will i still be able to get the free game on the PS5pro many yrs from now or this is a limited time offer??
thanks
Vishous

 

[0248991]

Oh wow
are there some devs to answer these, pretty please:

- what are the graphical changes? It's more or less inclusive of what new consoles are built for? So only raytracing is for certain? What about volumetric effects and/or other "major" improvements other than some minor ones like better textures, more particles, more physics, smoother fps,...?

- since raytracing requires specialized hardware, it won't be runnable on non-other than the newest cards, right? I have read that raytracing can be simulated, but runs really poorly...?

- are there minimum requirements for pc?

- what's the scope of this "upgrade"? Only graphics? So, no "remaster", "e3" revamp or new content?

This is basically what the whole thread is asking, so maybe you can hint some more info?

 

[ImprovizoR]

addition of ray tracing

Do you people not realize that ray tracing pipeline is a part of DirectX 12? They're adding a new API and some of you still think that these changes will be minimal?

And there's no way in hell that they're adding ray tracing without adding a better lighting and rendering system first, because that would be pointless. We already know how the game was supposed to look like and that it couldn't because of console limitations. So it's probably safe to assume that the next-gen version will look a lot like the "Sword of Destiny" trailer + ray tracing.

 

[BornBoring]

- what's the scope of this "upgrade"? Only graphics? So, no "remaster", "e3" revamp or new content?

Well, they literally said it will be a "visually and technically enhanced version of the game". So I would expect exactly that and no extra content and such.

 

[SigilFey]

Do you people not realize that ray tracing pipeline is a part of DirectX 12? They're adding a new API and some of you still think that these changes will be minimal?

And there's no way in hell that they're adding ray tracing without adding a better lighting and rendering system first, because that would be pointless. We already know how the game was supposed to look like and that it couldn't because of console limitations. So it's probably safe to assume that the next-gen version will look a lot like the "Sword of Destiny" trailer + ray tracing.

Ray tracing, like all graphical techniques, is just software, yes.

However, ray tracing architecture is being specifically built into the hardware of Nvidia / AMD video cards. This allows for much higher degrees of detail and accuracy without sacrificing CPU cycles and RAM (which is what APIs must utilize if there's no, specialized hardware for the task.)

So, no, nothing about the lighting engine (or any lighting engine for any game that uses point-based / volume-based lighting tech) needs to be completely re-done from the ground up in order to get full functionality from ray-tracing in existing games. There simply needs to be code that bridges existing lighting data into the system that will be used for ray tracing, then that functionality can be customized to take advantage of either Geforce or Radeon hardware if available.

It's similar to Hairworks. Hairworks is doing nothing new or special. It's simply an algorithm that assigns points of geometry to articulate based upon physics calculations. It's, inherently, "cloth modeling", which has been around since the '90s. (The PS1 could do it.) However, it does so with many more articulated points, and it tries to do so in a way that won't impact performance too much in the process (which has been hit or miss, so far). Nvidia builds some processing power into their drivers, and viola, cloth physics applied specifically to hair that creates an incredible amount of articulation to the hair meshes of models through the GPU architecture (instead of CPU) and avoids seriously impacting FPS. Same concept for ray tracing.

 

[ImprovizoR]

So, no, nothing about the lighting engine (or any lighting engine for any game that uses point-based / volume-based lighting tech) needs to be completely re-done from the ground up in order to get full functionality from ray-tracing in existing games. There simply needs to be code that bridges existing lighting data into the system that will be used for ray tracing, then that functionality can be customized to take advantage of either Geforce or Radeon hardware if available.

First of all, nobody said that lighting needs to be completely redone. They just have to bring back the lighting that existed prior to the release. And the reason is because ray tracing alone won't drastically change how the game looks. Unless they opt for a fully ray traced lighting. Which they won't because it would kill performance. Even Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't do that and it's built with ray tracing in mind. Besides, Cyberpunk 2077 already uses ray tracing and all the other technical and graphical effects that The Witcher 3 doesn't. It's pretty obvious that they're planning to implement those effects into The Witcher 3 to achieve that next-gen look. Both games use the same engine, so that's half of the work already done.