Witcher 3 - Hype is REAL!

[pilonv1]

Getting between 45-55fps at 1440p so far with stock GPU settings, had to turn a few things down (foliage - high, water - high, shadows - medium) but it's not as smooth as I'd like, almost feels like its stuttering. Putting my overclock on only gets me another 3-4 fps so it's still an issue.

[cloud]

I'm 1080p with everything on ultra with hair works off and i get a locked 60 fps. Turn V Sync off and force it in nvidia control panel and turn max pre rendered frames to 1.

[pilonv1]

I had max pre rendered frames at 2 for some reason.

1440p is the killer, at 1080p I can run ultra almost everything. Unfortunately full screen 1080p on this monitor looks like ass

[pilonv1]

Can get a nearly stable 60fps with no AA (not really needed at 1440p anyway) and low shadows, which still look reasonably good, just not as soft as higher levels.

[Candy Arse]

60fps here. 1080p, grass low (this can be a performance killer), crowd low (there aren't even huge crowds in Novigrad), everything else high, with AA on and hairworks off.

Hairworks on gets me a locked 30fps, but it ain't worth it one little bit.

[Candy Arse]

Also this game is fucking spectacular. The Bloody Baron storyline is really incredible. Just finish it if you have started it.

I'm currently doing heaps of missions in Novigrad, mainly with the criminal underworld and Triss. Looking forward to doing more Witcher Gear quests as I continue to level up. I'm about to hit level 16 which I think will be the recommended level for the next Griffin School upgrades.

Slowly creating a character build that I like - have buffed up the effectiveness of oils, light attacks, Igni sign for conversations and blocking arrows.

[pilonv1]

Hairworks on gets me a locked 30fps, but it ain't worth it one little bit.

Hairworks is just trash, not worth the performance

[Rorschach]

Glad I'm not the only one struggling to get this running at 60fps. Will tweak it some more later on, realistic about the strengths of my card but if I can Dying Light running a rock solid 60fps I should be able to get the Witcher at the same level :/

[itch]

Polish developers' response to SJWs who lamented the lack of diversity in Witcher 3.

Dear Person Who Wants Racial Quotas in Witcher 3,

There’s often a lot of misunderstandings and controversy when cultures clash. There’s a lot of assumptions, things that go without saying in our daily interactions, this all gets thrown out of the window when we meet people from entirely different culture, things get only worse if these people look like us and we expect them to be like us. This editorial is a monumental task, as I will attempt to explain something so basic, it’s not even expressed in our verbal or nonverbal day-to-day communications. I will bring up some tangential ideas, which don't directly relate to current debate, but are essential to know in order to understand underlying logics.

Because, in fact the problem is not that Witcher 3 has no black characters, it could (as I will speak later on). The problem is how you demand it. How you demand foreign culture to bend over and match your own sensibilities.

First, let’s talk about the country itself: Poland is both ethnically and racially homogenous, our biggest minorities are Silesians, Germans and Belarusians (FYI, all white people). Where history of oppression and discrimination in America are tied to race, in Poland it’s much more nuanced, tied to language, culture and nationality (since we all are white around here, but still wanted to discriminate against each other). Speaking of which, let me introduce you to Partitions of Poland during which 3 sovereign powers took Polish lands for over 100 years and tried to erase polish language and culture. The country briefly regained independence after WW1, only to lose it after WW2, when it became communist puppet-state with widespread censorship where history was altered, art policed and every political opinion was dangerous one. That ended only 25 years ago. But hey, why stop only on history - Poles are still discriminated against in modern Europe and there is such thing as anti-polish sentiment through the countries.

How does Witcher 3: Wild Hunt stand in all of that? It’s polish game made in Poland, based on polish books written by polish author, which are based on polish mythos and slavic mythology as a whole. Poles are so proud of it, that Witcher 2 was gifted to president Obama, when he visited Poland in 2011. Needless to say, the series is a big deal, it’s both product and representative of foreign (at least to everyone outside of Poland) culture.

Now that we understand the sentiment Poles have to their culture, as well as Witcher's place in it lets see how racial quota demands look like in this context. To people from multiracial countries, demanding racial diversity in video game might seem like something good, a progressive thing. However the game is not just any game, it’s Witcher. Game made in country which battled through history to maintain it’s own heritage and language, game which builds upon slavic mythology and promotes it internationally. You're trying to shoehorn foreign elements into their culture, enforce your own standards onto theirs. In case I haven't hammered my point down strongly enough: you have people of a minority culture that were persecuted and discriminated against in last 250 years, who made this awesome work of art that represents them, and you're telling them to change it because it's not American enough.

Just as you wouldn't demand Hua Mulan’s story to feature black characters, or Anansi’s to feature white, you shouldn't demand Witcher to feature black, asian or native american people. Why must everything cater to American sensibilities and culture? Why can't we celebrate diversity - the true diversity of having global market with works of art from all around the world?

Oh, I almost forgot, I promised to speak of a way to include PoC in Witcher, so here it goes: in world of Witcher, there’s a country to far south-east called Zerrikania. People there have darker skin, worship golden dragon and have spiders that kill elephants. “Geralt travers to Zerrikania” would be badass expansion that I would totally love to play. And after that, who knows? Maybe the country’s next to sea, with multicultural port towns, with non-Africa and non-Asia even further away? There’s nothing written about these lands, so anything could be a thing! Damn now I got myself excited.

Do you see the subtle - yet incredibly important - difference? I speak of expanding and building upon established lore to tell more stories. To add and built upon, to create. You want to change existing works and story (which are part of foreign to you culture) to cater to what you want. In my ideal world there are all kinds of games with all kinds of stories from all around the world. In yours, every game features american society.

In shorts, I want to diversify, you want to homogenize.

Addendum: Many people pointed out my mistake of describing particular attitude as "American", thus unfairly painting entire continents of people and cultures with one, broad stroke. This is particularly ironic, as I was speaking against the very thing. For this mistake I apologise. Let this serve as example of how truly delicate and sensitive these kinds of topics are, and how much good will is absolutely required of everyone involved in such debates to keep them from spiraling into shouting matches.

Patryk Kowalik

http://elysianshadows.com/updates/love- ... witcher-3/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rorschach]

Owned

[itch]

Oh yeah I would definitely recommend turning off V-sync in game and using forced v-sync in NVidia control panel.

I think it's only a single buffer instead of a double buffer or something.


With that I can run textures on ultra, 'detail' on ultra, grass density on high, post processing on medium (plus depth of field and god rays) ummm everything else on medium I think, oh yeah and terrain detail on ultra at 1080 locked 60fps.

If I use in game vsync it's all over the place.

[jizzlobber]

I don't know anything about this game, but I just saw a video review and picked up a bit of an oblivion vibe from it... I loved oblivion, will I love this?

[cloud]

Oh yeah.

[flipswitch]

It will probably be in your top 3 games of this generation, so I say go for it!

[jizzlobber]

Well I better get it, will finish ODST first.

[Candy Arse]

Oblivion - went through it plus all expansions 2 times
Skyrim - 225 hours logged on Steam
Witcher 3 - only 54 hours logged on Steam (still feels like I've barely scratched the surface)

Already I think Witcher 3 is better than Oblivion and Skyrim. Am still only in Velen with a LOT left to do there before I go anywhere else. I seriously can't believe how good this game is....there's so much to it...so many small details....it's easily the best open world I've had the pleasure of interacting with. Bethesda have their work cut out for them with Fallout 4.

[flipswitch]

Stolen from GAF;

Witcher 3 sold 4mil in first 2 weeks

Dear Gamers,

May 19th was a crucial date for all of us here at CD PROJEKT RED -- we released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, our open world role-playing game that we had been hard at work on for over 3 years. Since day one, you have given us tons of positive feedback and support -- the sheer volume of emails we’ve gotten since launch simply congratulating us for our efforts is both epic and heartwarming, and I wish every developer comes to have such a fantastic community. In terms of media reception, we’re really humbled by the scores the game has received all around the world. With an average of 90+ on every platform, Wild Hunt is our dream coming true.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the four million gamers worldwide who bought The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in the first two weeks from launch. Four million RPG fans spending their hard-earned money on our game is a sign that we did something right, and you can be sure that we’ll harness all that positive energy and make the upcoming expansions worthy of the grand adventure that you’re telling us Wild Hunt already is! Until then, keep on enjoying Wild Hunt, do not forget to grab your weekly set of free DLCs, and stay tuned for constant updates and enhancement to the game we are continuously working on.

Dandelion once said to Geralt that the world is changing, the sun is setting, and vodka’s running out -- go, play, and have fun!


All the best,
Marcin Iwiński
Co-founder, CD PROJEKT RED

That's freakin amazing. My new favourite franchise .

[pilonv1]

Getting some motion sickness playing this

Going to shelve it until theres a FOV mod

[flipswitch]

Holy moly the frame rate can turn shite on ps4. Fighting a boss in a cave with lots fog/smoke, the game is literally a slide show, well almost 20fps. It's like I'm playing the game in slow-mo and in there's this huge delay when fighting because of it.Just waiting until the 980Ti are in stock and then it's PC for multi plat.

[Candy Arse]

Not sure why anyone serious about gaming would stick to consoles only now.

[GameHED]

RPG games are usually not demanding on reflexes. As they became more action gamey people want responsive controls. You can't have both. (good graphics with smoothness) GTA 5 is one example where the framrate would dip. This is what open world games do. That is why I prefer japanese games where they ensure things are balanced. Instead of expecting you to buy new things or upgrade to play it, they scale down the enviroment. What you get is better experience.

People on pc don't get that having first party working on closed platform is infinitely better since it gives your games a sense of polished and finished feel to them. upgrade this, change that, modify this config to alter settings ... enough. If capcom could make awesome games like street fighter 4 and nintendo could make awesome games like mk8 and smash bros on underpowered machines, you guys can too. Third parties need to focus on one platform if you want that polished feel. This is why sega make crap sonic games now. It was only after sega killed dc (being first party inhouse developer for the one platform only) that things went downhill for them and thier games lost polish.

[lestat]

It's a shame consoles have fallen so quickly behind, I can't see how these boxes are meant to last another 4-5 years.

[GameHED]

That's why i predict short console cycle this time. This is the stopgap gen. Like the sega cd days. The whole "Tv tv tv tv" gen = the fmv gen. Games are bigger and more expensive just like games on cd were bigger than games on cartridge. But that doesn't translate to making them different enough. More of a .5 upgrade imo

What you could do with crash bandicooot you could do better on cartridge with banjo and mario 64. (just without tons of audio) The overall experiece of jumping onto things is the same. Turok dino hunter is not that much different to playing a soldier in medal of honor on ps1. Despite one having bigger space to shove content into the game. You still aim and shoot shit. Developers need to look at important things like smoothness of control. Call of duty may get bashed a lot for being the same thing but those 60 fps engine means it feels polished if unambitious. If companies started to focus on one platform and targeted it and shaped environments around the abilities of the single platform they may create something with smoother and more polished feel to it. We had that back in the 16 bit days. Nobody complained they couldn't play marios on genesis or Phantasy star on SNES. Now that third parties have to make shit for so many platforms it is understandable the game suffers. (hard to balance it for everyone)

[Candy Arse]

It's a shame consoles have fallen so quickly behind, I can't see how these boxes are meant to last another 4-5 years.

What are you talking about? Consoles are better because 20-30fps gaming in a closed box beats 60fps gaming where you can tweak things to suit what you want. Ask CrackHED!

[GameHED]

Mario Kart 8 is 60 fps. It's a first party title on a closed platform.
PC is an open platform so your game experience varies wildly which puts people off. You don't know what you are getting and refunding the game in the past was not an option. (steam recently changed that which is going to be a good thing for all)

Nobody wants to keep upgrading to play 1 game. Its a dumb business model. Since pc gamers don't pay for things the developers are forced to go the console route. That is why games must STAY UGLY. (since consoles are always having to play catch up)

To combat this we need to encourage pc-ONLY gamers to start paying higher prices for games they buy. That way we console gamers have a fucking reason to buy a pc to play exclusives on it and be jealous of pc gaming scene again. (we pity them currently since games like GTA5 came out first on console)

Currently there is nothing on pc that interests console gamers since most of the shit is PORTS OF CONSOLE GAMES. lol And the few things that interest people is just indie titles that are easily done on console hardware. (eg Rogue legacy, terrarria, Shovel knight, minecraft etc ) The fact is, pc isn't able to sustain high quality triple A games like GTA if there isn't a console gamer platform to fund the making of pc version. That means if consoles ever die off to mobile gamers, the pc gaming scene will probably go with it.
Will home console gaming die off like arcade gaming died off? It's possible. The people who play games that are hardcore are smaller in number than the casuals and non-gamers. Konami is the canary in the coal mine guys. That is a sign that big triple A game companies are looking elsewhere. Gaming industry isn't healthy enough to sustain massive budgets for PC hardware because the elites who own high end pc are tiny number. Artists and shit need to eat. The pirates who buy pc to play mmo games are not going to change thier habits. So what you have is games like Witcher 3 and GTA 5 aimed at low spec machines. Then ported upwards to high spec machines which presents a problem because the people who paid a lot of money for the best hardware on pc will not see any benefit apart from some extra fx higher res and smoother framerates. This means PC is doomed.

Now the thing to keep in mind is that even if there are less people on your chosen platform, as long as you pay a high price for things that sends a sign to the companies that make the games you are willing to buy it so if they continue to make it, you will see sequels. (eg bayonetta on Wii U: could have come out on other platforms but didn't get funding. Nintendo loyalists saved the day by paying high price to play it since they want quality not quantity)

The reason nintendo hasn't died is the closed platform allows your games to feel unique. Sega stopped making as good games after DC died partly because when they went third party the games had to look only ok due to needing to be on all platforms as opposed to looking nice on one platform.

Notice how most of the best games are games that look average:
Dark Souls
Street Fighter
MK8 (no guns, blood or titties or realism)
GTA5 (big world with greeat visuals but shit framerate)
Skyrim (animation is not up to the standards of its time)

Having higher framerates on something like final fantasy or Xcom isn't going to automatically result in hugely different experience.