Witcher 3 Graphics

[hexaae]

Reshade = -8fps on my GTX 980M 4GB....

Why don't we ask instead for official customizable gfx settings, without external mods?
http://forums.cdprojektred.com/thre...ion-contrast-and-more-gfx-user-customizations

 

[Amioran]

just like in music , when you make a song, you cant really start with the guitar solo for example, you keep that for either the end or the middle, thats artistic vision, and CDPR shouldnt be blamed for trying to keep us amazed all along the game

Actually in classical music (that has, arguably, the best examples of music from a technical standpoint) the stronger motive is always introduced at the beginning, then there is a pause, then it is introduced again, then a longer pause (usually with monotonous chords at this point) to then, in the end, re-introduced again with even more emphasis and in all its glory.

That's, imo, the best way to approach visuals even from a game standpoint. For how I see things it's actually important to have at the very beginning a glimpse of the best the game has to offer to then subside and be reintroduced lightly at certain points, until, by late game, that best is introduced again but in all its glory and to its fullest. In this way you essentially make the user interested from the beginning but not let get accustomed to it so as to the best moments to become prevedibile.

The drawbacks of a steady rising ladder as far as visuals go is that the first moments of the game (that are very important to introduce users in what the game has to offer) will be the blandest and hence, from a visual standpoint, can actually turn the user accustomed to that low level but in a bad way so that when the time for the good parts come they will not have as much an impact as they should. Just imagine going in a restaurant and there's a very good dessert in the end but to come there you must eat insipid food. It is true that the dessert will be a relief but at that point you will be so deluded by the previous food as to not enjoy the dessert to its fullest. It will be good to eat but not as much as if, instead of a crescendo, the food you had before kept you always on the seat for what was to come next.

EDIT:

As for the env files, thank you very much for that explanation. It is very very interesting. I guess I will start to experiment a little on it. Anyway I already wanted to dabble with modding tools to make a combat rebalance in the future, so I guess at this point I will simply experiment with it even more

 

[essenthy]

Actually in classic music (that has, arguably, the best examples of music from a technical standpoint) the stronger motive is always introduced at the beginning, then there is a pause, then it is introduced again, then a longer pause (usually with monotonous chords at this point) to then, in the end, re-introduced again with even more emphasis and in all its glory.

That's, imo, the best way to approach visuals even from a game standpoint. For how I see things it's actually important to have at the very beginning a glimpse of the best the game as to offer to then subside and be reintroduced lightly at certain points, until, by late game, that best is introduced again but in all its glory and to its fullest. In this way you essentially make the user interested from the beginning but not let get accustomed to it so as to the best moments to become prevedibile.

am a music a producer, so just to get that ou of the way , and you are right, you got a very good point about classical music structure, the example i talked about is more for rock/popular music with simpler structures

but what you have to take into account even more than the overall structure of a piece of art ( be it music or a game ) its the scope and how far you can go, in a game you have to limits yourself, and it is limited by design anyways because of general hardware limitation, so your game graphics ( this is a very basic metaphor ) for example has a power of 100, knowing that you have 100 you cant go crack it to 100 everywhere every time, that would kill any attempt for artistic/emotion expression , you have to either start slowly with 10-20 or 50 then go all the way up to 100

i think W3 did that to some extent with the starting zone, it clearly look better than novigrad in general in certain area for example, so they didnt really started at 0

ther's no limit in music ( neither in hardware or in expressive scope ), but if you want to express something specific you have to limit yourself into certain rules

 

[Amioran]

i think W3 did that to some extent with the starting zone, it clearly look better than novigrad in general in certain area for example, so they didnt really started at 0

Yeah, actually Kaer Mortem is well done and introduces the visuals pretty well, but, imo, it is a little too short and when you come to White Orchard there the lightning and the area is really too bland with that almost full blue sky with little clouds (as I see it, it would have been better that the two were inverted actually, since Kaer Mortem can practically be skipped almost altogether if you don't' care about the tutorial and the major part there is an inside cutscene). IMO it would have been much better there to have a 80%-90% strength as far as visuals go, to then subside in Novigrad (that has better and more diversified zones, more ample map etc, so the strength of the lightning/visuals can be compensated by other things) and then reintroduce full strength later.

I personally think that White Orchard is the blandest zone of all (apart some interesting areas) and that's the starting zone. Granted you stay there not very much, but the introduction to visuals there for users is really low. Novigrad is arguably even worse as far as lightning but the greater variance of locals, the ampler map, the vast cities and their population etc. make global lightning much less important (you can easily compensate with well placed atmosphere local lighting). At the very limit, since that area is so vast, you could create particular very well done lightning zones inside it (along bland ones) to keep the interest going.

Naturally this is all theoretical as you would have to test the outcome inside the game, but as a general rule White Orchard is completely bland in practically 90% of the map and that area is where the first iconic encounter of the game takes place.

 

[essenthy]

Yeah, actually Kaer Mortem is well done and introduces the visuals pretty well, but, imo, it is a little too short and when you come to White Orchard there the lightning and the area is really too bland with that almost full blue sky with little clouds (as I see it, it would have been better that the two were inverted actually, since Kaer Mortem can practically be skipped almost altogether if you don't' care about the tutorial and the major part there is an inside cutscene). IMO it would have been much better there to have a 80%-90% strength as far as visuals go, to then subside in Novigrad (that has better and more diversified zones, more ample map etc, so the strength of the lightning/visuals can be compensated by other things) and then reintroduce full strength later.

I personally think that White Orchard is the blandest zone of all (apart some interesting areas) and that's the starting zone. Granted you stay there not very much, but the introduction to visuals there for users is really low. Novigrad is arguably even worse as far as lightning but the greater variance of locals, the ampler map, the vast cities and their population etc. make global lightning much less important (you can easily compensate with well placed atmosphere local lighting). At the very limit, since that area is so vast, you could create particular very well done lightning zones inside it (along bland ones) to keep the interest going.

Naturally this is all theoretical as you would have to test the outcome inside the game, but as a general rule White Orchard is completely bland in practically 90% of the map and that area is where the first iconic encounter of the game takes place.

yep pretty much, but when you check how the environment look in white orchard, the lighting fit very well, lost of green grasses, green space scenery ect ... they could have swapped WO with KM, but thats their decision, there must be a lot of other parameters that we dont know about !

 

[vesemas228]

hey, could @IrregularJohn or anyone point me to a screenshot of what people who like the saturated look think is a good amount of color?

I've pretty much finished my preset.. its been a learning processes for what the sweetfx settings actually do.. and i want to provide a colorful option for people who like that kinda stuff. I'm going to be releasing it with what i was going for, but would like to provide options in case.

If anyone replies thanks. And its never going to look like the vanilla yellow thing..

 

[Kimonimo]

What sucks even more is that CDPR spearheaded graphic innovations from their very first game and this time it was supposed to be no different but they've opted a faster paycheck. And the whole downgrade acknowledgement (sorta, they still said they don't consider it a downgrade, yeah right) that came after the game's release is really cheap.

I mean when I watch that 35-gameplay footage I get fricking tears in my eyes.

Gone to listen to NIИ's "And all that could've been" and "A Warm Place"

Me too. Well said.
I feel genuinely sad, when I see what they have discarded. They have discarded so much beauty.

 

[vesemas228]

Hey guys, quick invite for the bored to try the final version of my realistic sweetfx profile.

https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/3742/

There should be no technical sweetfx mistakes anymore... Less striking but i can't go back.
Set vibrancy to -0.20 if you want more rich colors, or -0.10 if you like that kind of thing.
I also enabled the expensive lumasharpen.. its amazing, though there is a small hit on fps from normal mode. Well worth it in my opinion.

Let me know if i fixed/broke it.

I gotta stop tweaking and get back to playing. Who am i kidding though )

 

[Vasilyevich]

Guys ? assuming it was somewhere around middle age the grass was still green, the sky was blue, there where colors and on a warm sunny day the sun was warm and orange - idk why everyone thinks it has to be washed out like a shirt from some hippie.

There where even colors during WW2 the Brothers in arms games show that to some extent

 

[bauzzer]

Guys ? assuming it was somewhere around middle age the grass was still green, the sky was blue, there where colors and on a warm sunny day the sun was warm and orange - idk why everyone thinks it has to be washed out like a shirt from some hippie.

There where even colors during WW2 the Brothers in arms games show that to some extent

nice strawman

 

[Amioran]

... the sun was warm and orange

The light of the sun is not "orange". Light in nature is the overlap of all primary colors, forming a pure white (differently from colors as in painting that do exactly the contrary, i.e. if you mix all the primary colors you obtain "black"). In the sunset and especially on twilight the light of the sun becomes orange-red because the light is obstructed (all colors are a result of refraction of light, even pure white itself - but that's too long to explain it here so let's leave it aside). Normal sunlight at the zenith is very bright yellow, not orange.

As for the desaturation, as I said previously, it is also a matter of artistic vision. Usually the middle ages are represented in art with desaturated colors (for example by Goya, Millet or El Greco) just because it is considered a sort of dark age for humanity. The more colorful a scenery looks and the more peaceful and joyful it seems (if you naturally don't use certain methods to do differently, as for example by using complementary colors for lights and shadows - as for example yellow in lights and purple in shadows -with strong contrasts as Caravaggio did), so to simulate a dark atmosphere the use of many colors is counterproductive.

Btw also the natural discernment of colors by people changes depending the mood they are in and there have been various studies in psychology demonstrating this fact (for example when you recollect a time of your life when you had a very bad experience it will be an exception to find the images coming to your mind's eye very colorful, it will usually be a desaturated representation if not completely monochrome, or a color representing subconsciously the event - as red in case of danger - permeating the vision).

Apart this, not many really want a "washed out" palette: the majority of people simply want the overly orange filter permeating the scene gone; if you take screenshots of W3 and you compare them with the screenshots of other games (even when colorful) you will notice how W3 seems more "opaque". That's because of that orange sort of light filter (coming from the way lightning works) permeating all the scenery. Only in certain areas/time of day that "filter" is gone.

 

[kiadaw]

The sun was probably orange during middle age at dawn, but that redicluous orange shine on everything, from environments & characters are just too much, like a photoshop filter.
I am no expert, but I seen enough sunsets in my life to know the orange skylight at Dask or dawn do not turn everything into sunkist orange like W3.

 

[Desmios]

DOWNLOAD:
https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/3807/


My mod(mastereffect)

 

[Amioran]

Hey guys, quick invite for the bored to try the final version of my realistic sweetfx profile.

https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/3742/

There should be no technical sweetfx mistakes anymore... Less striking but i can't go back.
Set vibrancy to -0.20 if you want more rich colors, or -0.10 if you like that kind of thing.
I also enabled the expensive lumasharpen.. its amazing, though there is a small hit on fps from normal mode. Well worth it in my opinion.

Let me know if i fixed/broke it.

I gotta stop tweaking and get back to playing. Who am i kidding though )

I suggest you when you have some time to create more comparison images for your preset. For what I've seen users look mostly at those and especially if your preset isn't meant to change colors completely (so that there's no much point on making a comparison with vanilla) having images with comparison can make users understand much better the impact of the preset and what it does specifically. From since I included comparison images in the preset my download rate has increased substantially (and my shots are even complete trash, sincerely, since I completely suck at taking screenshots and I have no problems whatsoever on admitting it; always sucked at it and probably I will ever do).

 

[LordBeleth]

Need moar screenshots with this.

 

[web-head91]

The light of the sun is not "orange". Light in nature is the overlap of all primary colors, forming a pure white (differently from colors as in painting that do exactly the contrary, i.e. if you mix all the primary colors you obtain "black"). In the sunset and especially on twilight the light of the sun becomes orange-red because the light is obstructed (all colors are a result of refraction of light, even pure white itself - but that's too long to explain it here so let's leave it aside). Normal sunlight at the zenith is very bright yellow, not orange.

As for the desaturation, as I said previously, it is also a matter of artistic vision. Usually the middle ages are represented in art with desaturated colors (for example by Goya, Millet or El Greco) just because it is considered a sort of dark age for humanity. The more colorful a scenery looks and the more peaceful and joyful it seems (if you naturally don't use certain methods to do differently, as for example by using complementary colors for lights and shadows - as for example yellow in lights and purple in shadows -with strong contrasts as Caravaggio did), so to simulate a dark atmosphere the use of many colors is counterproductive.

Btw also the natural discernment of colors by people changes depending the mood they are in and there have been various studies in psychology demonstrating this fact (for example when you recollect a time of your life when you had a very bad experience it will be an exception to find the images coming to your mind's eye very colorful, it will usually be a desaturated representation if not completely monochrome, or a color representing subconsciously the event - as red in case of danger - permeating the vision).

Apart this, not many really want a "washed out" palette: the majority of people simply want the overly orange filter permeating the scene gone; if you take screenshots of W3 and you compare them with the screenshots of other games (even when colorful) you will notice how W3 seems more "opaque". That's because of that orange sort of light filter (coming from the way lightning works) permeating all the scenery. Only in certain areas/time of day that "filter" is gone.

agreed, too much orange in the light, even at sunset/sunrise. it kinda feels fake :/

 

[raynerja]

Can't see anything good in those Reshade, it's just color tuning to me, pure placebo, not even close to the kind of natural illumination the E3 trailer had, i see too much, or ppl are blind.

 

[Desmios]

Can't see anything good in those Reshade, it's just color tuning to me, pure placebo, not even close to the kind of natural illumination the E3 trailer had, i see too much, or ppl are blind.

This has additional effects

DOWNLOAD:
https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/3807/

 

[Amioran]

Can't see anything good in those Reshade, it's just color tuning to me, pure placebo, not even close to the kind of natural illumination the E3 trailer had, i see too much, or ppl are blind.

You cannot recreate the lightning of the E3 demo with SweetFX (and the different lighting IS what created those colors). Period. The only thing you can do is to alter the color scheme and add some effects to simulate that atmosphere, but it will never be close to it, there's no way (you can make the color scheme very close to one particular area in that demo, but then the colors will be completely screwed up in another). The only possibility to really do something like that would be with ENB, but it will take time before Boris will start working on W3 (assuming he will).

Still E3 alike preset, if done well, are anyway good at removing the orange filter and contrasting the game more and so they are useful for those that like a game more contrasted and less orange looking. I personally prefer myself preset that don't try to simulate the E3 look but go for a more realistic or "dark" outcome (also if I created an E3 preset myself, just to give the option to users), but if done well also E3/35 min demo like presets are not bad (assuming.the author didn't just paste a blue filter over all the image, as some do) at what they do.

I think nobody of the E3 preset authors really try to outright simulate the lightning in the 35 min demo, since that's simply impossible with SweetFX (it would be like pretending to simulate a ferrari just by painting in red a chrisler). What they try to do is to give the more contrasted/less orange look that that demo had.

 

[raynerja]

You cannot recreate the lightning of the E3 demo with SweetFX (and the different lighting IS what created those colors). Period. The only thing you can do is to alter the color scheme and add some effects to simulate that atmosphere, but it will never be close to it, there's no way (you can make the color scheme very close to one particular area in that demo, but then the colors will be completely screwed up in another). The only possibility to really do something like that would be with ENB, but it will take time before Boris will start working on W3 (assuming he will).

Still E3 alike preset, if done well, are anyway good at removing the orange filter and contrasting the game more and so they are anyway useful. I personally prefer myself preset that don't try to simulate the E3 look but go for a more realistic outcome, but if done well also E3/35 min demo like presets are not bad (assuming.the author didn't just paste a blue filter over all the image, as some do).

Thats what i said in two lines.

The current game is missing a lot of things from the trailer, it obvious, i just think those post process effects worsen the game even more, except the SMAA, but thats just me...