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Witcher 3 downgrade arguments in here and nowhere else

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viveks86

Member
It might not be part of Ultra. It is in a different menu. I'm not aware of any game these days actually using plain HBAO. It was never popular given Nvidia's version is better and not particularly heavyweight.

Yeah I already mentioned that earlier after I analyzed the ini files. It's not part of the ultra/uber preset. Only basic SSAO is enabled by default for both High and Ultra
 

Lingitiz

Member
Lol at the parity talks in the IGN stream. Yeah sure, graphics don't contribute to the experience..

The reviewer (who played PS4 and now demoing PC) said it was a noticeable graphical jump above, but of course CDPR guy has to sell all 3 versions so he has to downplay it.
 
Proabably there is a performance penalty. Don't know if this is the post-patch build either.

It's just a weird thing to leave out, considering they confirmed they were playing on Ultra. AO is one of those things that can REALLY impact the overall IQ of a scene.

Really looking forward to some actual direct feed grabs with all high-end features enabled.
 

tuxfool

Banned
The reviewer (who played PS4 and now demoing PC) said it was a noticeable graphical jump above, but of course CDPR guy has to sell all 3 versions so he has to downplay it.

There was a point where he lost his train of thought while he was looking at it.
 

viveks86

Member
It's just a weird thing to leave out, considering they confirmed they were playing on Ultra. AO is one of those things that can REALLY impact the overall IQ of a scene.

Really looking forward to some actual direct feed grabs with all high-end features enabled.

It's not part of the ultra preset. I was able to confirm that from the ini file. They are ultra+, if you will. Hair works on the other hand is actually part of the ultra preset as per the ini file, but that is explicitly turned off here.
 

cripterion

Member
The reviewer (who played PS4 and now demoing PC) said it was a noticeable graphical jump above, but of course CDPR guy has to sell all 3 versions so he has to downplay it.

Yeah, his story about the 3 versions running alongside and people not realizing/caring which one they picked made my head spin. How do you not notice one version running double the framerate of the others?

Anyways, wonder if they turned everything on in the French livestream. At least we do know they had hairworks on and game apparently ran fine.
 
It's not part of the ultra preset. I was able to confirm that from the ini file. They are ultra+, if you will. Hair works on the other hand is actually part of the ultra preset as per the ini file, but that is explicitly turned off here.

Ah, interesting. Thanks for the info!
 

Tovarisc

Member
Yeah, his story about the 3 versions running alongside and people not realizing/caring which one they picked made my head spin. How do you not notice one version running double the framerate of the others?

Anyways, wonder if they turned everything on in the French livestream. At least we do know they had hairworks on and game apparently ran fine.

Lets be honest here, dev basically said at some point you just stop caring about that and focus on gameplay.
 

Fbh

Member
A shame to hear about downgrades.

I really don't understand the concept of selling false graphics in games like these. I'd almost understand it if the final game was some ugly mess, but even after the downgrade it still looks amazing for an open world game so why sell BS to begin with?
 

viveks86

Member
Also interesting is why they have light shafts disabled, which happens to be one of the big features from the leaked red engine trailer. It's supposed to be on for the ultra preset, so they've explicitly turned it off. Is that crazy performance hungry too?
 

Skyzard

Banned
Curious to see if hairworks will be playable.

Yeah I already mentioned that earlier after I analyzed the ini files. It's not part of the ultra/uber preset. Only basic SSAO is enabled by default for both High and Ultra

So when they said 980 can play this on ultra at constant 60fps, they didn't mean maxed out, or even with all the effects.

Not bummed out by that, I just don't trust them in the slightest.
 

Genio88

Member
Curious to see if hairworks will be playable.



So when they said 980 can play this on ultra at constant 60fps, they didn't mean maxed out, or even with all the effects.

Not bummed out by that, I just don't trust them in the slightest.

I bought a GTX 980 and overclocked it precisely to MAX this game out at 1080p/60fps and now they act like turnig on those effects would reduce performance...between downgrade and this my hype for the game is going down
 

misho8723

Banned
Great filmic coloring in 2013. Sadly, gamers just aren't ready for that level of cinematic quality yet.

That looks the worse out of those 3 versions.. like really bad.. textured aren't good, aliasing all over the scene, fucking sharpening effect from which my eyes hurt, green filter which looks disgusting, only flashy cool camera work safes this scene and many NPCs.. nothing else.. I take the 2015 version all the way.. but the 2014 is still the best looking one
 

viveks86

Member
I bought a GTX 980 and overclocked it precisely to MAX this game out at 1080p/60fps and now they act like turnig on those effects would reduce performance...between downgrade and this my hype for the game is going down

Might want to wait just a little more. This could still be the same old build for all we know without the performance patch.
 

cripterion

Member
I bought a GTX 980 and overclocked it precisely to MAX this game out at 1080p/60fps and now they act like turnig on those effects would reduce performance...between downgrade and this my hype for the game is going down

The french streamers said the game was running at 60fps and they had a GTX980, hairworks was on but don't know about the rest of the settings, they said everything was pushed to the extreme but seems not everyone has the same definition of that.
 

drotahorror

Member
Does anyone know if those crazy waves in the sea made it to release from 2013 trailer? That looked awesome and I fear those aren't in the game.
 
Curious to see if hairworks will be playable.



So when they said 980 can play this on ultra at constant 60fps, they didn't mean maxed out, or even with all the effects.

Not bummed out by that, I just don't trust them in the slightest.

Ultra doesn't include NVidia GameWorks as part of the Ultra settings. There is no way you can run everything on with 60 FPS on a single GTX 980. You will probably need another GPU for GameWorks alone if you don't want to be penalized.
 

tuxfool

Banned
I bought a GTX 980 and overclocked it precisely to MAX this game out at 1080p/60fps and now they act like turnig on those effects would reduce performance...between downgrade and this my hype for the game is going down

Given how much it taxes the computer as it currently looks, how would you expect to play the screenshots on ultra with your current computer?

Honestly, how many people that are disappointed that the game no longer looks like the old screenshots, actually have the hardware to run it? i.e. Sli 970s, 980s or TitanX.
 

Genio88

Member
Given how much it taxes the computer as it currently looks, how would you expect to play the screenshots on ultra with your current computer?

Honestly, how many people that are disappointed that the game no longer looks like the old screenshots, actually have the hardware to run it? i.e. Sli 970s, 980s or TitanX.

If it had those 2013 graphics i'd be happy to play it at 30fps and low antialiasing on my gtx 980
 
I don't know if it's been posted here, but some Arab YouTuber has been playing the PS4 version with a decent capture card, and posted some videos that look clean as fuck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mDR3osVfQ4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzxsWVcUI04
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bieqvO1Kg-k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZKHRBRQmw0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G6pEaTDeEg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9hcctt8qus

There's more in his profile.

If this article is legit, it's basically an admission that the reason CDPR had to go for parity was lack of manpower. After all is said and done, it is still a relatively small Eastern European dev and doesn't have the same resources as an EA or Ubisoft to devote full-size teams to each individual version.

For PS4, these look astonishingly good to me.

I'm ready for the PC version, now.
 

cripterion

Member
Given how much it taxes the computer as it currently looks, how would you expect to play the screenshots on ultra with your current computer?

Honestly, how many people that are disappointed that the game no longer looks like the old screenshots, actually have the hardware to run it? i.e. Sli 970s, 980s or TitanX.

You keep saying that but PC is not a closed platform. A person running a lower end config might have something more high end by the end of the year. I couldn't run Metro properly when it came out and revisited the game with a more recent config and could put higher settings. It's all about flexibility :)

Anyways I'm glad to see how the game looked on PC and that not all settings were on. 6 more days to go now..
 

lmimmfn

Member
Honestly, how many people that are disappointed that the game no longer looks like the old screenshots, actually have the hardware to run it? i.e. Sli 970s, 980s or TitanX.
Its more a case of if you cant run it maxed now you can when you get a new gpu in a generation or 2, same as for ubersampling with Witcher 2.
 

viveks86

Member
Does anyone know if those crazy waves in the sea made it to release from 2013 trailer? That looked awesome and I fear those aren't in the game.

No, it doesn't appear so, but the choppy water still looks pretty good. I actually think it looks a lot better than the water when it's calm/standing still.

Have we seen footage from stormy ocean tho?

I see no reason why it won't be there. Global water tessellation is in the settings menu as well as the ini files and the settings match what was shown in the effects trailer (up to 16x). The IGN stream showed some swimming around and the water simulation (not the ripples but the general undulation itself) looks pretty damn impressive and complex. Seeing it in stormy weather is the only missing piece.
 

cripterion

Member
Yikes just watched the first two YouTube vids posted above, story seems damn interesting, this is the last footage I check, seen too much but it got my hype back up, downgrade or not.
 

a harpy

Member
I bought a GTX 980 and overclocked it precisely to MAX this game out at 1080p/60fps and now they act like turnig on those effects would reduce performance...between downgrade and this my hype for the game is going down

The lack of clear communication and expectations betweens developers and pc gamers is starting to create some very real backlash.
 
I see no reason why it won't be there. Global water tessellation is in the settings menu as well as the ini files and the settings match what was shown in the effects trailer (up to 16x). The IGN stream showed some swimming around and the water simulation (not the ripples but the general undulation itself) looks pretty damn impressive and complex. Seeing it in stormy weather is the only missing piece.

Oh, I didn't know that--you da best.

So is it safe to say that the "What If" Gaming post about tesselation being removed is BS?
 

tuxfool

Banned
You keep saying that but PC is not a closed platform. A person running a lower end config might have something more high end by the end of the year. I couldn't run Metro properly when it came out and revisited the game with a more recent config and could put higher settings. It's all about flexibility :)

Anyways I'm glad to see how the game looked on PC and that not all settings were on. 6 more days to go now..


Sure. However people seem to have rose tinted glasses in regard to the W2. That game ran on maximum settings even on top end hardware of the time.

One thing I've noticed is that the games that allow a lot of flexibility beyond the hardware of the day tend to be based on middleware such as Cryengine or UE. The other class are moddable games such as Skyrim.

Games with engines specific to that game tend to be targeted at existing hardware. Unless somebody could provide examples that counter this statement?
 
I don't know if it's been posted here, but some Arab YouTuber has been playing the PS4 version with a decent capture card, and posted some videos that look clean as fuck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mDR3osVfQ4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzxsWVcUI04
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bieqvO1Kg-k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZKHRBRQmw0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G6pEaTDeEg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9hcctt8qus

There's more in his profile.

Some nice videos there. Like how the horse shimmy down the banking.

Overall graphics looked very good on PS4 in these videos and much of the bad stuff I've seen seemed isolated and unfortunate.

I recommend part 8. Some very nicely done field tree areas. Extremely organic gameplay and feel to the land that may not have been seen before. Certainly looked up there with the best looking games in an overall sense in the lighting and how much detail was still there.
 

tuxfool

Banned
Its more a case of if you cant run it maxed now you can when you get a new gpu in a generation or 2, same as for ubersampling with Witcher 2.

I'm sorry but ubersampling is not a particularly valid example. It doesn't depend on the rest of the game (assets, interactions with environment). It is just a single engine setting.
 

cripterion

Member
Sure. However people seem to have rose tinted glasses in regard to the W2. That game ran on maximum settings even on top end hardware of the time.

One thing I've noticed is that the games that allow a lot of flexibility beyond the hardware of the day tend to be based on middleware such as Cryengine or UE. The other class are moddable games such as Skyrim.

Games with engines specific to that game tend to be targeted at existing hardware. Unless somebody could provide examples that counter this statement?

Nah you're probably right, I'm just saying I wouldn't be mad if there were some options I can't enable on my rig come launch, can always revisit the game when more powerful hardware comes down the line. Of course others might whine and claim the game is not optimized...
 

viveks86

Member
Oh, I didn't know that--you da best.

So is it safe to say that the "What If" Gaming post about tesselation being removed is BS?

I've been warning people since that was outed. We know at least 3 items are categorically false and 1 that looks extremely suspect:

  • AO cutbacks, which is total bullshit. We know for a fact that HBAO is still in (menu as well as INI file) and as far as we know, it has never been enabled in the last 9 months. The last I think we've seen it is in the 35 minute gameplay demo. And you can get HBAO+ as well if you had an Nvidia card as per Nvidia website.
  • Global ocean tessellation is still in, as per the INI files and the menu settings seen today. INI shows up to 64x, which is the default for ultra
  • Volumetric light shafts are still in according to the INI files. As we've seen today, it was not enabled in the stream and possibly never enabled in recent media. It is supposed to be on by default for both high and ultra, as per the INI files. So it was explicitly turned off, presumably pending performance optimization, though it may very well require more than a 980 to max out
  • There is no evidence to prove hair works has been simplified. In fact most trailers including SoD does not even have hairworks enabled in several segments for Geralt's hair. The only thing people are going off of is the VGX segment where an NPC was wearing his fluffy fur coat and he wasn't in a later youtube preview capture. The reason for that is currently unknown
 

viveks86

Member
is there any media showing quality AO? every thing ive seen thats supposedly at ultra has worse AO than even frostbite 3 titles.

The only one I've seen is the 35 minute gameplay video. Even the little stones on the road cast shadows in that video. The grass foliage has a shadow at the base as well, which isn't even seen in most official screenshots (pre and post downgrade). My conclusion is they've only rarely had HBAO on.
 

mbmonk

Member
A shame to hear about downgrades.

I really don't understand the concept of selling false graphics in games like these. I'd almost understand it if the final game was some ugly mess, but even after the downgrade it still looks amazing for an open world game so why sell BS to begin with?

In my uninformed opinion, companies are trying to maximize prerelease hype. Since most games sales are front loaded, window at or near release.
 
The only one I've seen is the 35 minute gameplay video. Even the little stones on the road cast shadows in that video. The grass foliage has a shadow at the base as well, which isn't even seen in most official screenshots (pre and post downgrade). My conclusion is they've only rarely had HBAO on.

you mean from last years e3? i mean current media
 

RedSwirl

Junior Member
From those settings I can see sharpening is still in.

Since the Sword of Destiny trailer have we seen any footage or screens with sharpening turned on?
 

Ryoku

Member
I don't know if it's been posted here, but some Arab YouTuber has been playing the PS4 version with a decent capture card, and posted some videos that look clean as fuck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mDR3osVfQ4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzxsWVcUI04
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bieqvO1Kg-k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZKHRBRQmw0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G6pEaTDeEg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9hcctt8qus

There's more in his profile.



If this article is legit, it's basically an admission that the reason CDPR had to go for parity was lack of manpower. After all is said and done, it is still a relatively small Eastern European dev and doesn't have the same resources as an EA or Ubisoft to devote full-size teams to each individual version.

God, Ciri looks so fucking weird. It's like they put a 20-something-year-old's face onto the body of a 10-year-old.
 
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