These are my thoughts as of now, without seeing the complete patch notes.
I'm somewhat satisfied.
Given this is a FREE update, I didn't expect for it to be practically a remaster on newer hardware but I do certainly feel like they could have done more.
I've said for a LONG time the PS4 & XB1 were moderate upgrades to their previous generations and they would have been awesome if they had been released in 2010 as opposed to 2013, so they played Witcher 3 moderately well given their hardware limitations.
But with the PS5 & Series X, those limitations are practically smashed given the power of both new consoles in comparison to their previous generations. Moderately-powered PCs could play Witcher 3 at 1440P at a somewhat high framerate even in 2015, so I've been wondering why they've taken so long (27+ months) to get it to play on the modern consoles when they're so much more powerful than PC were 7 years ago.
All of the side bells & whistles are great, but the performance upgrades is what I've been looking forward to seeing, and... they're 'meh.'
So far we know there's a 60FPS mode, and a 30FPS mode with ray-tracing. Is ray tracing so taxing within a 2015 game that modern consoles will only be able to play it at 30FPS (without knowing the resolution)?
And is the 60FPS mode at 1440P or 4K? (Not that it matters to me) But it does matter if the 30FPS (with ray tracing) is only at 1440P, because based on other games of around that time playing on the SeriesX I bet they could have gotten more performance out of it if they really made it a priority.
I just get the feeling that so many within the industry believe ray-tracing is a much bigger deal than it actually is, so they put a much higher priority on its implementation into developing new games AND updating older games than it actually deserves.
Don't get me wrong, I've seen ray tracing and its impressive but it using it shouldn't be sucking 50% of the GPU power, especially when that power (and development time) could be used on better performance of the game and other immersive graphical effects other than lighting & shadows.
Like this Witcher 3 graphics mod list from 2017 -
If they can get it to look this good - with updated textures - at 60FPS/1440P I'll be quite satisfied, and it may look that good because we actually didn't get a CLOSE look at the game yesterday because the stream was at 1080P.
Yep, that's right, it was streamed at 1080P, and we saw a few seconds of quick-cuts and never any long & detailed gameplay segments we could analyze. And they never clarify if the gameplay is from PC or PS5/XBX, but I'm going to guess it was all PC gameplay... so we haven't seen ANY gameplay of the PS5/XBX versions.
So this update is still 'wait & see' for me to gauge its all it could have been. And yes its a FREE update but I absolutely would happily pay $10+ for an update that would make this GOAT game everything it could, and deserves, to be for modern audiences.
They do, but I was specifically answering his question of whether they have DLSS, which they do not.
In a more general answer to @GearSolidMetal question ray tracing is the most taxing graphical setting out there, such that you can put it on 25 year old games and watch frame rates plummet. Also the PS5/XBox gpu are based of AMD’s “rdna2” technology which has pretty weak ray tracing performance to begin with compared to nvidia’s chips.
I dont know much about how the tech works, but from what I understand, Nvidia dedicates something on their cards just for DLSS, or is that ray yracing im thinking of?
Why is it that AMD can have the same quality of FSR (just speaking of their own platform) across much of their cards? It seems to work wonders for the Deck. For 4000 series cards, Nvidia supposedly has a better DLSS, is that just them trying to force people to upgrade.
They do, but I was specifically answering his question of whether they have DLSS, which they do not.
In a more general answer to @GearSolidMetal question ray tracing is the most taxing graphical setting out there, such that you can put it on 25 year old games and watch frame rates plummet. Also the PS5/XBox gpu are based of AMD’s “rdna2” technology which has pretty weak ray tracing performance to begin with compared to nvidia’s chips.
I dont know much about how the tech works, but from what I understand, Nvidia dedicates something on their cards just for DLSS, or is that ray yracing im thinking of?
Why is it that AMD can have the same quality of FSR (just speaking of their own platform) across much of their cards? It seems to work wonders for the Deck. For 4000 series cards, Nvidia supposedly has a better DLSS, is that just them trying to force people to upgrade.
Quake was the first Ray tracing game I ran on my 3070 laptop when I got that. The frame dip was crazy on such on old title.
Nvidia has “RT cores” dedicated to ray tracing and “tensor cores” dedicated to AI stuff, including DLSS.
Im just a lowly console pleb so I have extremely rudimentary understanding of this stuff, but as I understand it FSR isn’t really tied to anything hardware specific, so much so that you can even get it running on Nvidia’s cards, so a very different approach there between the two companies. DLSS on the other hand is hardware specific, so much so that DLSS 3.0 won’t even run on Nvidia’s 3000 series cards, which is kind of whack.
Ive been trying to decide if I want to buy myself a gaming laptop with a 3070 Ti for a gpu or if I’m better off waiting till like March or whenever Nvidia releases its 4000 series mobile gpus so that I can potentially take advance of DLSS 3.0
In a more general answer to @GearSolidMetal question ray tracing is the most taxing graphical setting out there, such that you can put it on 25 year old games and watch frame rates plummet.
That's precisely my point. The 2017 mods clip I posted had NO ray tracing and the game looks fucking phenomenal with the extra processing power dedicated to a dozen other details to make the game graphically gorgeous, instead of twice that processing power being used for lighting, reflections, & shadows.
Also, something that hasn't been mentioned is the new controller feature to use any of your magical powers with a press of a button, instead of just one.
This is a big improvement because being forced to use the D-Pad to cycle through your powers mid-combat has always been a pain, and why I think the majority of players just kept it on their #1 most used & upgraded power and ignored the rest.
As a guy that was an Igni-player in all four of my playthroughs I'm looking forward to this feature.
Just picked it up on Steam. Never played the DLC's and that was on a base PS4. This update and all the other DLC's I missed seemed like one hell of a bargain for $9.99.
Witcher 3 is, without a doubt, the absolute best dollar-for-quality-hours-of-gameplay deal in all of gaming. And there isn't even a close 2nd place.
There were people that pirated it, felt guilty, and BOUGHT the game.
Hell I bought it on Steam for $15 and feel like I ripped off CDPR for not buying it for $60, so I bought it on PS4, and I'm about to proudly buy it again for XBox.
I wish there wasn't just a team at CDPR to work on this update, but a team to continually work on updates to make it better and better, and I absolutely would financially support it.
Witcher 3 is, without a doubt, the absolute best dollar-for-quality-hours-of-gameplay deal in all of gaming. And there isn't even a close 2nd place.
There were people that pirated it, felt guilty, and BOUGHT the game.
Hell I bought it on Steam for $15 and feel like I ripped off CDPR for not buying it for $60, so I bought it on PS4, and I'm about to proudly buy it again for XBox.
I wish there wasn't just a team at CDPR to work on this update, but a team to continually work on updates to make it better and better, and I absolutely would financially support it.
The base game alone was definitely worth the $60 when I played it on PS4. That was back at launch. I've heard nothing but good things about the extra content especially the Blood and Wine dlc. The extras on this patch is just icing on the cake.
Only on act 2 of Cyberpunk so between these 2 games I'm going to be getting 100's of hours of entertainment for just $40 between the 2. CDPR makin me feel like a bandit lol.
The base game alone was definitely worth the $60 when I played it on PS4. That was back at launch. I've heard nothing but good things about the extra content especially the Blood and Wine dlc. The extras on this patch is just icing on the cake.
You haven't played the DLC yet? They're both top notch. Worth checking out for sure if you've any desire to return to the witcher world.
The biggest improvement they could make in a next gen upgrade is reducing console load times. Those minutes spent staring at a load screen really added up after a while.
You haven't played the DLC yet? They're both top notch. Worth checking out for sure if you've any desire to return to the witcher world.
The biggest improvement they could make in a next gen upgrade is reducing console load times. Those minutes spent staring at a load screen really added up after a while.
Oh I am most definitely going back. Picked up Cyberpunk so I'm in that world right now but once i'm done Witcher 3 for sure. With both games getting updates and new content CDPR has my gaming time lol.
Witcher 3 is, without a doubt, the absolute best dollar-for-quality-hours-of-gameplay deal in all of gaming. And there isn't even a close 2nd place.
There were people that pirated it, felt guilty, and BOUGHT the game.
Hell I bought it on Steam for $15 and feel like I ripped off CDPR for not buying it for $60, so I bought it on PS4, and I'm about to proudly buy it again for XBox.
I wish there wasn't just a team at CDPR to work on this update, but a team to continually work on updates to make it better and better, and I absolutely would financially support it.
I bought the collectors addition back in 2015 and the dlc on discs so I could get the Gwent decks lol. Sadly, the statue of Geralt fighting the Griffin broke when I moved from Hawaii:/
I'm curious to see how good this looks. I just fired up the last gen version and in my opinion is still looks as good as just about any current games, particularly the character models.
I'm curious to see how good this looks. I just fired up the last gen version and in my opinion is still looks as good as just about any current games, particularly the character models.
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