The Witcher 3 was downgraded from what was shown in 2013 - Now with PS4 Comparison video

[s3rg1]

I think console gamers and even PC gamers will cry when they see actual maximum details

http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/35728-A-quick-look-at-the-game-configs-XML 

 

Btw I'm really curious how many webs will actually apologize to CDPR if they deliver true next gen graphics. 

Yes I'm optimist.

[PlayModeOn]

I do commend them for being honest. Still don't like it though.

[Guest]

WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO MOD TO GET THE EXPERIENCE WE DESERVE AND WERE FUCKING PROMISED.

This is the exact argument I use when people tell me 'Android is better than iOS, you just need to tweak it.'

 

I agree with your point in context though.

[PlayModeOn]

100% true, but in a list of things I would sacrifice vs not, Gameplay>Visuals. Although, there is a ery fine like between what are and arn't great visuals. 

A lot of our gameplay elements came from visual, even older PS2 games.

For example Metal Gear Solid 3 on PS2 has a lot of stunning visuals and and number of trees and grass on screen (which was amazing on PS2 at the time) not only it looks nice but they were designed to make it harder to spot enemies and make aiming harder.

 

I am not saying Witcher 3 will do something like that, enemies hiding in grass. But you don't sacrifice graphics or gameplay, you shouldn't sacrifice any of the two, they come together as one. Just like Assassin's Creed Unity, a recent example (and I know people hate this game), uses crowd technology to get to your target without detection, this was missing in Assassin's Creed II or III or IV where it only has a group of three people as a crowd and you have to bunny hop to another small group of "crowd" which is annoying and an obvious limitation of hardware.

 

I would also use The Last of Us as an example, it looks good because it helps with immersion, a lot of post-processing effects are used to try to hide the enemies in the snow blizzard or water environments, or short burst of motion blur to make the player confused when taken damage or being shot at.. And as a package it is a serious, dramatic game, so the visual helps convey that. If it doesn't look that good then I wouldn't take it seriously. I seriously wanted to not get shot because that fucks me both visually and gameplay.

[AnnoyedShelf]

GTA V wasn't a port.  Rockstar re-built it from the ground up for PC to make sure it was good this time.

[Techhog]

CDPR lost my respect when they announced the Seasons Pass a few months ago.

We'll never release paid for DLC....

Yeah right.

I can't believe you guys are still falling under that misconception. Can you not read?

[Dabombinable]

I can't believe you guys are still falling under that misconception. Can you not read?

DLC=niggly shit that was cut out of the original game for quick cash

Expansion=hours of gameplay that is worth paying for (depending on the quality of course).

[rhyseyness]

"It still looks good, but not 2013 good".

So we've moved forward 2 years and the game now looks worse...

gg CDPR.

Was really looking forward to this game (I've never played TW before) but not any more.

[Arreat]

Damn , reading posts here , someone would think the game now looks like a 16bit platformer from 91 . 

The hard truth is most of the people complaining will probably not be able to max the game as it is . If they whent the other way and overbuild the PC version we would have had a new AC:Unity . Where everything below a 680 level is cut out and even what is considered high end would not be able to max the game with 60 fps . 

While I work on my projects , I always consider this - it should be able to run at 60 fps 1080p on the most powerful card that is out at about mid production . 

So say the Witcher 3 started production 3 years ago , so about a year ago , the titan or 780ti was the fastest card available . So if the game can't run on it with 60 fps , then a downgrade is necessary . 

And before you go up in arms , and be like crysis , witcher 2 , blah blah ... a few generations in the future , we will be able to max them . Thats bullsh*t , I whant my games to run great when they come out , I don't know why people decided that is OK for games like crysis and witcher series to require hardware that does not exist yet . 

Oh , and SLI and Crossfire , this should NEVER be considered a viable option to max the game at a standart resolution . Multiple high end GPU's from a dev's prespective should always be for ultra high resolutions , resolutions that are more expensive to run so people buy more expensive hardware . 

 

In the end I am not happy they downgraded , but it was really not that much , the game still looks freaking amazing . And I am super excited to sink what little free hours I have into it . 

[mlecruz]

The game still looked good 8 months ago when they released this video:

 

 

This video is where most of the "before" screenshot were from. Again this was from 8 months ago.

[kacper]

Damn , reading posts here , someone would think the game now looks like a 16bit platformer from 91 . 

The hard truth is most of the people complaining will probably not be able to max the game as it is . If they whent the other way and overbuild the PC version we would have had a new AC:Unity . Where everything below a 680 level is cut out and even what is considered high end would not be able to max the game with 60 fps . 

While I work on my projects , I always consider this - it should be able to run at 60 fps 1080p on the most powerful card that is out at about mid production . 

So say the Witcher 3 started production 3 years ago , so about a year ago , the titan or 780ti was the fastest card available . So if the game can't run on it with 60 fps , then a downgrade is necessary . 

And before you go up in arms , and be like crysis , witcher 2 , blah blah ... a few generations in the future , we will be able to max them . Thats bullsh*t , I whant my games to run great when they come out , I don't know why people decided that is OK for games like crysis and witcher series to require hardware that does not exist yet . 

Oh , and SLI and Crossfire , this should NEVER be considered a viable option to max the game at a standart resolution . Multiple high end GPU's from a dev's prespective should always be for ultra high resolutions , resolutions that are more expensive to run so people buy more expensive hardware . 

 

In the end I am not happy they downgraded , but it was really not that much , the game still looks freaking amazing . And I am super excited to sink what little free hours I have into it . 

 Let's say that implementing VXGI into game would take few days but it would make best GPU run 720p 30hz . Should they not do it ,just because gamers hate to turn something off in options? It's just an example but developers most of the time have high quality assets that would make best rigs cry. High polygon models are cut down - why don't include it with game? It doesn't require that much work if engine can handle it but then again - people will complain that game is badly optimised.

 

Great article 

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-features-pc-gamers-wantan-open-letter-to-developers-and-gamers/

 

Don't take this personal , it just an opinion - same as yours.

[ShadowCaptain]

SNIP

 

I am afraid I completely disagree, games should have scalable settings to run on all hardware, if you can max out a game on a mid range card.. there is no incentive to buy high end hardware which pushes the industry forwards

 

also a 780ti is pretty much on par with a 980 even if its older, its still a top tier piece of hardware - they should be aiming to have the game need a single 980 to run on MAX settings

 

but also make sure that on medium/high a mid range card can run it, and on low, basic cards can run it - it should properly scale, I mean games like BF4 scale really well, and Tomb Raider etc so it IS doable! - just lazy devs who cant be bothered to make multiple versions

[Dabombinable]

I am afraid I completely disagree, games should have scalable settings to run on all hardware, if you can max out a game on a mid range card.. there is no incentive to buy high end hardware which pushes the industry forwards

 

also a 780ti is pretty much on par with a 980 even if its older, its still a top tier piece of hardware - they should be aiming to have the game need a single 980 to run on MAX settings

 

but also make sure that on medium/high a mid range card can run it, and on low, basic cards can run it - it should properly scale, I mean games like BF4 scale really well, and Tomb Raider etc so it IS doable! - just lazy devs who cant be bothered to make multiple versions

People just don't get this.

[ShadowCaptain]

People just don't get this.

 

Obviously not!

 

And really in expansion to my point above, its not how the graphics look, its how they could have been. CDPR have been a beacon for PC gaming for a while, with their stance against DRM and other things

 

I am just disappointed, and it will 100% effect my decision in purchasing Witcher 3 at full price, I will wait for its price to go down before I bother Hell if they cant be bothered to make the game properly, then I cant be bothered to pay them full price

[Casperian]

 Let's say that implementing VXGI into game would take few days but it would make best GPU run 720p 30hz . Should they not do it ,just because gamers hate to turn something off in options? It's just an example but developers most of the time have high quality assets that would make best rigs cry. High polygon models are cut down - why don't include it with game? It doesn't require that much work if engine can handle it but then again - people will complain that game is badly optimised.

 

Great article 

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-features-pc-gamers-wantan-open-letter-to-developers-and-gamers/

 

Don't take this personal , it just an opinion - same as yours.

Just for a little context about 'high poly' models; my character model for the project I'm doing is upward of 3 million polygons, of course this is going to be taken down. Nothing can run that in an engine, so you do a retopology to lower the poly count and bake normals and displacement to 'fake' the details that were lost.

 

Making another version of every single mesh just to turn a dial up is silly. Also, in higher level asset development (I mean 'it's my job' level), 3 million is not very much.

[ShadowCaptain]

This is the exact argument I use when people tell me 'Android is better than iOS, you just need to tweak it.'

 

100% agreed

[gilang01]

Because despite it being a rumor there is still evidence to support it. Not great evidence, mind you. Also IGN has a video playing at "Ultra" (if IGN even knows what Ultra means), but it's blurry because youtube compression.

Ultra with hairworks off, no hbao+ Among other things... You can edit the xml file too if the graphics isn't to your liking

[pbenologa]

I assume GameWorks = Fucked up port? Given that most of games released with this kind of issue has GameWorks in it.

[gilang01]

Damn , reading posts here , someone would think the game now looks like a 16bit platformer from 91 .

The hard truth is most of the people complaining will probably not be able to max the game as it is . If they whent the other way and overbuild the PC version we would have had a new AC:Unity . Where everything below a 680 level is cut out and even what is considered high end would not be able to max the game with 60 fps .

While I work on my projects , I always consider this - it should be able to run at 60 fps 1080p on the most powerful card that is out at about mid production .

So say the Witcher 3 started production 3 years ago , so about a year ago , the titan or 780ti was the fastest card available . So if the game can't run on it with 60 fps , then a downgrade is necessary .

And before you go up in arms , and be like crysis , witcher 2 , blah blah ... a few generations in the future , we will be able to max them . Thats bullsh*t , I whant my games to run great when they come out , I don't know why people decided that is OK for games like crysis and witcher series to require hardware that does not exist yet .

Oh , and SLI and Crossfire , this should NEVER be considered a viable option to max the game at a standart resolution . Multiple high end GPU's from a dev's prespective should always be for ultra high resolutions , resolutions that are more expensive to run so people buy more expensive hardware .

In the end I am not happy they downgraded , but it was really not that much , the game still looks freaking amazing . And I am super excited to sink what little free hours I have into it .

This. Thank you. The article stated that they needed a really beefy pc to run their 2013 version of the game. If they release that, guys who have 960s or even 770s won't even touch the high settings without fatal frame loss

[Majestic]

Don't blame the developer, blame the publisher. 

Edit; they are the same

 

But damn, another bullshot. And boycotting or not buying the game only hurts the developer. I hope a few youtubers like TB and Jim Sterling pick up on this and we can have a unified voice on this...

[SeanBond]

Sounds like a bunch of people whinning about graphics. Honestly I don't care because they game play stayed intact. Graphics are nice but just because they were downgraded does not mean it's going to be a bad port. And another thing...anyone who pays full price for a game in this day and age is ignorant anyway. Green Man Gaming for life. I bought a gog witcher key from them last week for $37.

[MeltingPoint]

This is good. Another game for me to pirate because the devs suck ass.

[Majestic]

Sounds like a bunch of people whinning about graphics. Honestly I don't care because they game play stayed intact. Graphics are nice but just because they were downgraded does not mean it's going to be a bad port. And another thing...anyone who pays full price for a game in this day and age is ignorant anyway. Green Man Gaming for life. I bought a gog witcher key from them last week for $37.

 

Yeah, shame on them for finding it annoying being lied to... over and over again by bullshots and developers/publishers who can't be straight up about the product they're selling. And are willing to lie to their customers to get a few extra sales on launch. 

[SeanBond]

Yeah, shame on them for finding it annoying being lied to... over and over again by bullshots and developers/publishers who can't be straight up about the product they're selling. And are willing to lie to their customers to get a few extra sales on launch. 

Yes because showing better graphics for a game years before launch is really lying to people. I am sure you are familiar with the term "May not represent the final product"? If not you should learn what that means. People who base exactly what a game is like off of old trailers are fools. The game still looks good. The game wasn't downgraded in any way but graphics and quite honestly it still looks better than most games. 

[kacper]

Sounds like a bunch of people whinning about graphics. Honestly I don't care because they game play stayed intact. Graphics are nice but just because they were downgraded does not mean it's going to be a bad port. And another thing...anyone who pays full price for a game in this day and age is ignorant anyway. Green Man Gaming for life. I bought a gog witcher key from them last week for $37.

For me , it's dissapointing because CDPR was last PC focused developer .AA has only on/off options - this should paint a picture .

I really hope we'll see enhanced edition or ini tweaks with great options.