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[viveks86]

For new page:

Yeah, in the far cry 4 one you can see some more details which seem to be lost in the shot without HBAO+. So I wonder if the foliage in the withcer 3 will be
affected by that.

When you’re roaming the lands of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, on horseback or on foot, NVIDIA GameWorks’ HBAO+ will increase the quality of Ambient Occlusion (AO) shadows on every character, object, surface, and piece of foliage, greatly enhancing image quality game-wide. Compared to other AO techniques, HBAO+ is more accurate and more realistic, and is now the AO solution of choice for leading developers.

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/batman-arkham-knight-the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-nvidia-geforce-gtx-bundle

Sorry to be quoting you my friend, I just want to ask you a question, since you're very active in this thread and you seem really tech savvy.

Do we have any definitive answer to the GTX980 runs witcher 3 on ultra?

The thread is moving so fast that I think I lost it.

I'd posted about it on the 980 thread where an IGN stream showed the graphical settings and claimed it ran "well over 60" using a 980 and ultra. Hope this helps.

Since this thread seems active as well, there are a couple of caveats to the "well over 60" comment. Firstly, they had no framerate counter running, so it's unlikely that he knows if it was 60, 70, 80 or 90. It was the journalist and not the dev who made that comment. Take it with a grain of salt. Suffice to say that it was running well enough around 60. Secondly, there were a handful of items that were off, so one needs to factor all that in.

• AA
• HBAO
• Light Shafts
• Hair Works
• CA (Thankfully)
• Sharpening (Thankfully)

Now we don't know what version was being used here, but knowing how devs operate, this could very well be their cookie cutter "demo machine" build, which is actually quite old. So some optimization is still on the cards and a 980 may still be able to pull off some of the disabled features, if not all. But if you think a single 970 with OC can "max" it, then you might want to adjust your expectations a little.

 

[Fuz]

It's hard to imagine a game, even today on the best hardware, looking as good as that top image...

Not when you gotta have parity.

 

[Gbraga]

Holy shit that's a massive difference.

Wow.

I'll definitely try to run Wild Hunt with HBAO now, even if I have to make some sacrifices.

 

[Lunar15]

Not when you gotta have parity.

Or have it run on more than 1% of PC's? I'm a huge PC gamer and I've got a nice PC, but even then, not everyone has 3 Titans running in SLI.

 

[AU Tiger]

Higher quality comparison pic from the op:

If you add sharpening to the bottom image, the textures pop some yes but the grass looks like shit, like you'd expect as it's really low quality plants, even if it does make it look like it has a tad more depth.

There is little to no HBAO or SSAO that I can tell going on in the second shot. No wonder the grass looks terrible. Ambient Occlusion makes a tremendous difference on foliage.

I'm done obsessing over this for right now. I just started playing GTA V which looks absolutely spectacular on my system so if things turn out better than most of us expect next week, great, if our worst fears are true then fine... I'll still play the game and probably still enjoy it but by the time I get around to playing it, maybe there will be tweaks to improve the visuals a bit.

 

[Dargor]

...

Oh, that was perfect, thanks a lot. That helped me so much. Gonna be upgrading my PC soon, knowing this makes my decision way easier.

Thanks again.

 

[rashbeep]

Good AO is a very important effect, and often overlooked. If HBAO+ is rendered on all grass, it'll definitely give it that depth that it is really lacking in the recent media we've been seeing.

 

[nOoblet16]

Isn't HBAO+ is just HBAO at full resolution (which means less flickering), but the way Nvidia implemented it makes it run three times faster than the usual HBAO implementation (when at full resolution).

 

[Dictator93]

Isn't HBAO+ is just HBAO at full resolution (which means less flickering), but the way Nvidia implemented it makes it run three times faster than the usual HBAO implementation (when at full resolution).

Not exactly, it also handles small details in a much more refined way in comparison to normal HBAO (even HBAO at full res).

 

[viveks86]

Not exactly, it also handles small details in a much more refined way in comparison to normal HBAO (even HBAO at full res).

Any idea what the performance differential is between HBAO and HBAO+ at full resolution?

 

[Dictator93]

Isn't HBAO+ is just HBAO at full resolution (which means less flickering), but the way Nvidia implemented it makes it run three times faster than the usual HBAO implementation (when at full resolution).

Any idea what the performance differential is between HBAO and HBAO+ at full resolution?

Just as nooblet says.

 

[Raven77]

I'm gonna pre-order it.

On Monday night.

There you go. Don't feed the beast.

 

[viveks86]

Just as nooblet says.

Ahh. Missed the edit. Thanks!

 

[H4r4kiri]

Not exactly, it also handles small details in a much more refined way in comparison to normal HBAO (even HBAO at full res).

does it work for AMD cards too ?

 

[viveks86]

does it work for AMD cards too ?

It works, but seems it will have a much higher performance hit. AMD has its own version called HDAO.

 

[Latvian Hitman]

Or have it run on more than 1% of PC's? I'm a huge PC gamer and I've got a nice PC, but even then, not everyone has 3 Titans running in SLI.

Yep. That's a point I brought up a while back. Most of the same babbies crying about this wouldn't be able to run a game that looks like some of the shots in the E3 2013 reveal trailer at playable frame rates. And, faced with that, many of those same people would be on here crying about how poorly optimized the game is and what lazy devs CDPR are.

 

[Dictator93]

does it work for AMD cards too ?

Yeah it does. I have never tried it on one though. Probably works reasonably well.

 

[crazepharmacist]

Is phsyx support confirmed? I remember hearing it mentioned in a development video but the setting isn't listed in the options menu from IGN's stream.

 

[thebloo]

[*]Global ocean tessellation is still in, as per the INI files and the menu settings seen today. INI shows up to 64x,

How can you tell?

 

[Kinthalis]

Yep. That's a point I brought up a while back. Most of the same babbies crying about this wouldn't be able to run a game that looks like some of the shots in the E3 2013 reveal trailer at playable frame rates. And, faced with that, many of those same people would be on here crying about how poorly optimized the game is and what lazy devs CDPR are.

It's called scalability. And PC devs have been managing it for decades.

Enter consoles, and that all goes to shit 'cause Microsoft and Sony don't want their version of the games to look inferior.

 

[tuxfool]

does it work for AMD cards too ?

Yeah, it generally works just fine.

 

[viveks86]

How can you tell?

Click the quote to see

Mmmmm... Shadow distance scaling:



Water tessellation:



Grass density:



Textures:


Foliage Visibility:



LOD:


Terrain options:

 

[Cuyejo]

It works, but seems it will have a much higher performance hit. AMD has its own version called HDAO.

HDAO is not and AMD AO solution, it's just a custom AO made by Ubisoft that's better than the traditional/generic SSAO. Developers are free to create their own custom AO solution, it's just that most of the time they don't.

 

[BigTnaples]

For new page:

http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/batman-arkham-knight-the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-nvidia-geforce-gtx-bundle




I'd posted about it on the 980 thread where an IGN stream showed the graphical settings and claimed it ran "well over 60" using a 980 and ultra. Hope this helps.

God damn. Nice comparison.

Definitely a must for this game. Could make a real difference between the PS4 shots we are seeing...

 

[thebloo]

Click the quote to see

Ah, I was apparently just checking the general .ini where you can set the manually. 5 more days and we'll find out.

 

[viveks86]

HDAO is not and AMD AO solution, it's just a custom AO made by Ubisoft that's better than the traditional/generic SSAO. Developers are free to create their own custom AO solution, it's just that most of the time they don't.

Oh I see. My bad. Everything I've read seemed to associate HDAO to AMD, so I assumed.

 

[Latvian Hitman]

It's called scalability. And PC devs have been managing it for decades.

Enter consoles, and that all goes to shit 'cause Microsoft and Sony don't want their version of the games to look inferior.

There's no doubt that doing a simultaneous release on consoles came with a cost as far as the PC version is concerned, but I think that had more to do with time/budget than it did with anything MS or Sony wanted. Certainly would have been best for us if they had released on PC first, and then ported to consoles a year or so down the line, but that wouldn't be best for CDPR.

 

[Raven77]

Wait so has anyone confirmed that the footage so far does NOT have HBAO enabled?

 

[RenegadeXV8]

It works, but seems it will have a much higher performance hit. AMD has its own version called HDAO.

Judging from previous games, the performance hit of HBAO+ on AMD is exactly the same as NVIDIA.

 

[I H8 Memes]

Wait so has anyone confirmed that the footage so far does NOT have HBAO enabled?

IGN was streaming it on ultra and it was the same. These HBAO+ excuses are the last gasp of the faithful.

 

[BigTnaples]

IGN was streaming it on ultra and it was the same. These HBAO+ excuses are the last gasp of the faithful.

Except IGN showed what settings they were running on and they had HBAO toggled off.

http://au.ign.com/videos/2015/05/13/...ign-plays-live

Same with Hairworks and Lightshafts.

Damn, the sharpening does make a real difference.
So on the IGN stream yesterday these are the effects that were turned off:
-Lightshafts
-HBAO+
-Hairworks
-AA
-Sharpening

 

[Anton Sugar]

IGN was streaming it on ultra and it was the same. These HBAO+ excuses are the last gasp of the faithful.

Except the IGN stream is part of what prompted a LOT of this discussion. It was using SSAO, not HBAO, and had sharpening, light rays, AA, and hairworks disabled.

EDIT: Damn, beaten.

 

[viveks86]

IGN was streaming it on ultra and it was the same. These HBAO+ excuses are the last gasp of the faithful.

Lol. Sure

 

[Raven77]

Well that's interesting.

I hope CDPR takes up the request from everyone and puts out a maxed out settings video.

 

[Kinthalis]

There's no doubt that doing a simultaneous release on consoles came with a cost as far as the PC version is concerned, but I think that had more to do with time/budget than it did with anything MS or Sony wanted. Certainly would have been best for us if they had released on PC first, and then ported to consoles a year or so down the line, but that wouldn't be best for CDPR.

Meh, can't really argue with that. It makes me sad though.

 

[Skyzard]

At 1minute ish they show in a brief section again the same area with the comparison in OP (and I requoted earlier).
http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/witcher-3-murderin-spree/2300-10172/
Looked a bit better, not as bad as that screenshot at least.

 

[viveks86]

Judging from previous games, the performance hit of HBAO+ on AMD is exactly the same as NVIDIA.

Got any benchmarks? I couldn't find much from a cursory search. My comment was based on admittedly shaky sources such as this:

HBAO+ will work on AMD cards but not TXAA.

Nvidia promote them because they are the ones who brought them to the game in the first place.
Same as TressFX which AMD agressively marketed but worked on Nvidia GPUs.

HBAO+ has a hefty performance hit on GCN cards compared to a Nvidia one. The effect is identical whether or not you activate it on a Nvidia/AMD GPU.

http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/876839-HBAO-and-TXAA-on-AMD-cards-Forums

 

[Super Rookie]

Isn't there a rumor that they are working on a DX12 version after launch?

Maybe there will be a Witcher 3 enhanced version.

 

[viveks86]

Isn't there a rumor that they are working on a DX12 version after launch?

Maybe there will be a Witcher 3 enhanced version.

Nah. I won't count on it.

 

[Ophiuchus]

Direct quote: "We didn't downgrade. It's impossible to downgrade a game that didn't exist before or wasn't playable before."

Then perhaps they shouldn't have shown the game so early on. They basically lied to us, got our hopes wayyy up and are now miserably failing at damage control.

I actually take his words as insult to me.He plays with words, with semantics but none of it make sense.They showed us actual in game video and this guys says that there did not exist any grade to be downgraded.

 

[RedSwirl]

Not sure if you realized this but the bottom gif is the old version.

Yeah, and I'm not sure if I like the old version more.

 

[pakkit]

I actually take his words as insult to me.He plays with words, with semantics but none of it make sense.They showed us actual in game video and this guys says that there did not exist any grade to be downgraded.

Do you know how videogame development works? There's no way there was a playable version of this game from 2 years ago that looked better than what we have today. They likely used renders and what they had to make it look as approximate as they could to a final version. It's a shame that in order to build hype you have to show off a game before its finalized, but that's the AAA industry in videogames. This is hardly as egregious as, say, Ubisoft's bullshots of yore, or Dark Soul's II removal of lighting systems.

 

[tuxfool]

Got any benchmarks? I couldn't find much from a cursory search. My comment was based on admittedly shaky sources such as this:




http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/876839-HBAO-and-TXAA-on-AMD-cards-Forums

In regard to HBAO+, That really isn't the case, even on ubi games. Not in AC:U nor Watchdogs nor FC4.

 

[viveks86]

In regard to HBAO+, That really isn't the case, even on ubi games. Not in AC:U nor Watchdogs nor FC4.

Thanks! That's good to know

 

[cripterion]

I actually take his words as insult to me.He plays with words, with semantics but none of it make sense.They showed us actual in game video and this guys says that there did not exist any grade to be downgraded.

They just kept repeating there was no downgrade, even one CDPR employee clearly said we would be able to get the graphical fidelity of VGX/SOD trailers on a high end pc.
Had they come clean earlier, none of this shitshow would have happened.

Oh well, wish they gave me a high quality version of this shot so I could use it as a wallpaper lol

 

[RenegadeXV8]

Got any benchmarks? I couldn't find much from a cursory search. My comment was based on admittedly shaky sources such as this:




http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/876839-HBAO-and-TXAA-on-AMD-cards-Forums

Far Cry 4:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015...cs_features_performance_review/4#.VVUZ6JPIdZg

HBAO+ takes the largest hit with a difference of 8%, about the same as the GTX 980. It looks like the R9 290X and GTX 980 are on equal footing in terms of HBAO+ performance differences.

Dying Light:

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/03/10/dying_light_video_card_performance_review/9#.VVUZ8ZPIdZg

There is about a 23% difference enabling AO and HBAO+ on the GTX 980 from not having it enabled and a 20% difference on the R9 290X.

 

[tuxfool]

Thanks! That's good to know

In your case it doesn't matter, but for others it is something worth knowing. But YMMV (I imagine that ubi games may share tech where others may not).

 

[dr_rus]

It works, but seems it will have a much higher performance hit. AMD has its own version called HDAO.

HDAO isn't an HBAO version from AMD, it's a completely different AO technique which produce different results in both quality and performance.
There is no reason why HBAO+ would work better on NV cards.

HDAO is not and AMD AO solution, it's just a custom AO made by Ubisoft that's better than the traditional/generic SSAO. Developers are free to create their own custom AO solution, it's just that most of the time they don't.

HDAO is an AMD AO solution as it was developed by AMD for their DX10.1 cards range and was distributed with Radeon SDK. Still it works on NV cards in the same way as HBAO works on AMD cards.

 

[viveks86]

HDAO isn't an HBAO version from AMD, it's a completely different AO technique which produce different results in both quality and performance.
There is no reason why HBAO+ would work better on NV cards.



HDAO is an AMD AO solution as it was developed by AMD for their DX10.1 cards range and was distributed with Radeon SDK. Still it works on NV cards in the same way as HBAO works on AMD cards.

Yeah I just meant it's AMD's own AO solution, not a version of HBAO. So it was AMD after all? Lol. Can both of you post a source so we can settle this?

 

[Gbraga]

They just kept repeating there was no downgrade, even one CDPR employee clearly said we would be able to get the graphical fidelity of VGX/SOD trailers on a high end pc.
Had they come clean earlier, none of this shitshow would have happened.

Oh well, wish they gave me a high quality version of this shot so I could use it as a wallpaper lol