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The Witcher 3 from above

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Used the unlock cam to take some aerial shots of Velen/Novigrad, the main Skellige island, and White Orchard. Figured some would be interested in seeing the scale, as well as how the topography, roads, distribution of towns and fields look, all from above. Ergo, thread.

1wougo.jpg

2e7ui0.jpg

36fuku.jpg
 

Maddrical

Member
Looks incredible, would definitely like some higher resolution shots. This would make a great series for various open-world games.
 
Just played my first three hours.

Map is absolutely ridiculously massive and amazingly well done for an open world game.
 

Exentryk

Member
Looks neat. Maybe consider doing a short gif or video with starting from the top, and then zooming in on the ground?
 

GHG

Gold Member
Looks amazing.

Can you do more that are slightly closer in like the bottom shot?
 

F!ReW!Re

Member
It's gonna be at least another year before I can play this game but seeing this and all of the reviews and positive feedback I can't wait to finally immerse myself in this game...

Would love to see more of those shots you made!
 

Vol5

Member
Seriously incredible game. I'm around 15 hours in right now. Changing my GotY vote. This is first.
 

NotUS

Member
That's really awesome.

Out of curiosity, have you tried to see if it's possible to lock the camera at a specific height and play it as a top down game?
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I can take some more shots later that are closer, higher resolution. Here's one half of Novigrad/Velen I tool earlier (or less than half, really).

1xku6e.png


What's the framerate like when you get up this high?

Depends the aspect ratio but otherwise pretty good as the engine is really, really fucking optimised at culling and scaling content, since it wont render AI and other details in full until the avatar is near. So I can enable free cam and fly and fly all the way to the other side of the map without a stutter or load.
 

Khasim

Member
How come there is no draw distance fog on these screenshots? Do you use the Super Turbo Lighting mod? It removes the fog, but I'm not a fan of the missing light shafts and clouds so I uninstalled it. Have you found another way of removing it perhaps, or does the fog simply turn off if you fly high enough? I'd really love to have the default lighting or the Cinematic one without the fog.
 

Mechazawa

Member
Man, I just realized outside of the story section on the Boat, I don't think I ever visited any of the snowy mountain parts in Skellige.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
How come there is no draw distance fog on these screenshots? Do you use the Super Turbo Lighting mod? It removes the fog, but I'm not a fan of the missing light shafts and clouds so I uninstalled it. Have you found another way of removing it perhaps, or does the fog simply turn off if you fly high enough? I'd really love to have the default lighting or the Cinematic one without the fog.

I manipulated the colours in the OP images to make them stand out a bit more, but otherwise the fog isn't there because the draw distance fog is more stylistic than technical. From that angle it probably doesn't need to render it or as heavily. Keep in mind all the assets are downscaled massively.
 

Blackthorn

"hello?" "this is vagina"
This reaffirms to me that the world in the Witcher 3 is one of the most geographically accurate ever made, those look straight up like satellite photos.

I think unconsciously it's a huge part of why people found the world so enjoyable. When I was playing (no minimap), I was navigating just as I would in real countryside: following streams and looking for changes in foliage density. It felt perfect.

On a related note, they're also one of the only developers who seem to remember that a forest contains as much dying matter as it does growing. Too many game artists forget to ever create assets for dead trees and withered plants and end up with a weird, sterile garden.
 

Nestunt

Member
For me, one the most impressive features of the world was how they gave distinctive cultures and trends to the different regions.

People from Skellige are so different from the ones on Novigrad and Oxenfurt, and these are very different from Velen

How they speak, what they speak about, how they dress... etc
 

HotHamBoy

Member
I'm jealous of anyone just starting this game.... be prepared for insane length.

I didn't play 1 or 2 but I did read the entire series of books that were written in the 90s before playing this. Really good. It helped me appreciate the game more in some ways, in other ways it irritated and disappointed me as I had now become a fan and therefore wasn't keen on every aspect of their adaptation. The games are literally fanfiction, they are continuations of the plot in the novels but without author involvement. The stories and writing, while great for a game, just aren't very good compared to the books. I think they got some of the characters wrong, but none more than Geralt. He's much cooler and more interesting in the books. In TW3 he's a real wet rag, I hate how flat the actor's delivery is.

Still, amazing game and really raises the bar for RPGs IMO. I played Dragon Age Inquisition righ before this and Fallout 4 right after. DA:I was an embarrassment and FO4 was a bit of a let down. Both failed badly at what TW3 does so well.
 

Staab

Member
I'm hoping someone enables a VR mode for the Witcher 3.
There's a first person camera mod that would make it very enjoyable to just walk through and sight-see (combat seems nearly impossible though).

Game just looks stunning and really feels natural and coherent.
 

Glass

Member
Mmmhmm. Can't wait to dive back into this game for my next run. Need to give it some breathing room though. Each one is going to be far apart and epic.
 

Demoskinos

Member
Still really bothers me that pretty much every open world map is just surrounded by water world. Its less egregious if its implicitly stated that you are on an island or a series of small archipelagos or something but there has to be a better way to rope the player in than just WATER!!
 
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