The Witcher 3 GOTY Edition

[AwesomeButton]

Nah, that's something you can tell yourself, but nothing can make the game look like in the E3 demos. The models and the polygon count were different there. All these mods can do is change textures, with questionable improvement, change the color gamma and increase the viewing distance, so you can see console-grade trees farther ahead.

It depends what you are comparing. If you are comparing the 2013 debut trailer, it looks different significantly, if you are comparing E3 2014 demo, then STLMed final game looks almost identical.
STLM does not change "color gamma", it fundamentally change entire lightning. It also has nothing to do with foliage distance...in fact it seems to be like you are speaking about things you know nothing about.

https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/657/? :

mimic the original art direction pre downgrade ( mostly the 2014 build ), this is the only purpose of this mod, it does not add anything or remove anything, this is not supposed to be " better " than vanilla, this is specifically made for those who preferred the original look of the game pre downgrade like me

Can't happen, period. For reasons, see above.

I feel like you are just trolling me at this point. He is saying the same thing I am, and you did not provide any facts for your position.
Let's just drop it. Use whatever the fuck you want or don't want.

Man, which of these does this mod do?
A) Increase your viewing distance and LoD?
B) Change ingame lights?
C) Replace textures?

Even if it's all of the above, you cannot get the same quality as on the E3 demo where the rendering engine was different. You can simulate the lighting, but it will still be the same LoD of objects, the same maximum viewing distance, the same AA algorithm, te same shading algorithm, the same polygon count on houses, castles, trees, etc. That is what I meant.

 

[Paul_cz]

Man, which of these does this mod do?
A) Increase your viewing distance and LoD?
B) Change ingame lights?
C) Replace textures?

Even if it's all of the above, you cannot get the same quality as on the E3 demo where the rendering engine was different. You can simulate the lighting, but it will still be the same LoD of objects, the same maximum viewing distance, the same AA algorithm, te same shading algorithm, the same polygon count on houses, castles, trees, etc. That is what I meant.

STLM only changes lightning and removes some of the distance fog. Nothing else. HD Reworked is a separate mod that improves some specific texture work and water shader.
But the whole point is that this stuff:
"LoD of objects, the same maximum viewing distance, the same AA algorithm, te same shading algorithm, the same polygon count on houses, castles, trees, etc."

is extremely similar in the E3 2014 demo to the final version. The only significant difference IS the lightning. You can run the E3 demo side by side with STLMed final game and it looks almost identical.

 

[Sentinel]

"LoD of objects, the same maximum viewing distance, the same AA algorithm, te same shading algorithm, the same polygon count on houses, castles, trees, etc."

is extremely similar in the E3 2014 demo to the final version.

u wot m8
LoD was 100% butchered from E3 2014 to final version.

Spoiler

There's a much better picture floating around somewhere of Geralt standing outside Novigrad where you can clearly see the LOD changes in the final version and how PS2-tier the city becomes, but I can't find it.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

Was bored, tested new versions of stlm and hd reworked

If you're going to graphics whore then you might as well switch back to the original higher quality witcher armor textures as opposed to the inferior ones Blood&Wine replaced them with for the dye system.

Any of:
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1536/
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1535/?
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2117/?

 

[Paul_cz]

"LoD of objects, the same maximum viewing distance, the same AA algorithm, te same shading algorithm, the same polygon count on houses, castles, trees, etc."

is extremely similar in the E3 2014 demo to the final version.

u wot m8
LoD was 100% butchered from E3 2014 to final version.

those screenshots are made by people who don't even know what tesselation means, and are using PS4 screenshot made from lowbitrate video to "prove" their point.
You can watch side by side the E3 demo and this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11NHf07DndM , not a huge difference. Most noticeable are the flags on Novigrad towers and more animation transitions present in E3 demo.

If you're going to graphics whore then you might as well switch back to the original higher quality witcher armor textures as opposed to the inferior ones Blood&Wine replaced them with for the dye system.

Any of:
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1536/
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1535/?
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2117/?

Thanks for the tips. Although looking at the comparison screens on the second mod, I am not seeing a huge difference to be honest. I didn't even notice the armors were changed between main game and Blood and Wine. Nitpicker patch sounds ace though.

 

[Sentinel]

those screenshots are made by people who don't even know what tesselation means, and are using PS4 screenshot made from lowbitrate video to "prove" their point.
You can watch side by side the E3 demo and this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11NHf07DndM , not a huge difference. Most noticeable are the flags on Novigrad towers and more animation transitions present in E3 demo.

Look at the details on the towers in the E3 2014 demo compared to final version. The LOD was most definitely reduced. And models got their detail decreased as well as you can see in that shot of the wall on the novigrad gate entrance. Final game is also missing smoke from chimneys and fires.

 

[Paul_cz]

those screenshots are made by people who don't even know what tesselation means, and are using PS4 screenshot made from lowbitrate video to "prove" their point.
You can watch side by side the E3 demo and this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11NHf07DndM , not a huge difference. Most noticeable are the flags on Novigrad towers and more animation transitions present in E3 demo.

Look at the details on the towers in the E3 2014 demo compared to final version. The LOD was most definitely reduced. And models got their detail decreased as well as you can see in that shot of the wall on the novigrad gate entrance. Final game is also missing smoke from chimneys and fires.

Sure, but those are really small details. LoD is reduced in a pretty insignificant way, almost not noticeable during normal gameplay. Models look mostly the same, some specific wall notwithstanding. My original point was that STLM brings the game lot closer to E3 look than it was in vanila, which still stands.

 

[Gerrard]

"LoD of objects, the same maximum viewing distance, the same AA algorithm, te same shading algorithm, the same polygon count on houses, castles, trees, etc."

is extremely similar in the E3 2014 demo to the final version.

u wot m8
LoD was 100% butchered from E3 2014 to final version.

Spoiler

There's a much better picture floating around somewhere of Geralt standing outside Novigrad where you can clearly see the LOD changes in the final version and how PS2-tier the city becomes, but I can't find it.

You realize that this pre-release used a flat image for distant background?
Also no grass shadows from the start. r00fles. Probably didn't have full dynamic shadows either, so that hasn't changed. Tessellation is the only thing worth mourning.

 

[Sentinel]

You realize that this pre-release used a flat image for distant background?

What? No it didn't. (Unless by "distant background you mean the mountains in the very distance. But what the fuck does that have to do with anything? No one is talking about the mountains beyond the fog) You can get that pre-release view distance in the vanilla game with mods that remove the fog.
The grass doesn't cast shadows in either of the shots, but the E3 2014 version had a lot more grass.

 

[Paul_cz]

Grass of all things that can be easily modded/increased too by some ini files, just recently came out 4K grass mod that looks pretty sweet, although I don't mind vanilla look anyway.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

Thanks for the tips. Although looking at the comparison screens on the second mod, I am not seeing a huge difference to be honest.

Modders at the time must've thought the 1.20 changes were noticeable enough that they didn't need to bother with in-game pics that really showed how much worse the new textures looked, inventory menu lighting doesn't really show it off, for instance:

(^whoever took the pic didn't even bother using gauntlets from the same set.)

Even though it's easy to tell from those inventory comparison pics that the original black leather bits got a new blue tint it doesn't look egregious, despite being a questionable change.

However, with the in-game lighting the difference is quite a bit more pronounced as the blue bits even shine in the light and don't look like they belong with the (now chocolatey) brown bits anymore:


And it's not just a difference in color, but also in details, the original textures had lots of small details, decolorations etc to make the armors look worn, like they belonged in that gameworld. For instance look at the waistband part of that first comparison pic and you see how the area where it meets the chestpiece looks worn out, that's gone in the new texture. Second comparison pic look at the leathery waistband area near the trophy-hanging hook, you can see the wear&tear details in the original version that are supposed to happen from Geralt repeatedly pulling out that hook and also hanging heavy trophies off it as well as from the belt rubbing against the waistband, yet those details are gone in the newer texture. Those kinds of details are gone because those parts of textures are now a single color to fit the bucket-fill dye coloring system.

IMO the most affected ones were the Kaer Morhen/autogen set, the Viper set(looks olive/purplish depending on lighting, can't find pics), and the griffin set:

Again, inventory lighting doesn't show how bad it looks in-game but with the in-game lighting the visible knee and rump cloth parts make it look like you're wearing a gay yoga instructor's turquoise stretch pants.

The other witcher sets didn't suffer as much but it is noticeable and of questionable taste(original on the left):

Should be more examples here: https://forums.cdprojektred.com/for...ease-give-us-back-the-original-armor-textures

Nitpicker patch sounds ace though.

It has a version that restores the higher quality textures. Should still be able to dye grandmaster-tier armor.

 

[Morm]

So I'm playing The Witcher 3 right now (never touched the series before that) and I'm borred af. The cut-scenes are nice but everything else is shit. Am I missing something ?

 

[Jimmious]

Not really tbh...
I've been trying to go through this in the past months but the gameplay is really bad for my taste. No matter how nice the game looks and sounds, no matter that the lore is interesting... it plays bad.

So, I can't manage to get but a couple of hours in every week or so. I run around looking at the beautiful scenery, mash the left click and space buttons to kill some stuff, go through a bit of dialog and that was enough.
I really don't get how they made the combat so bad in a game that is basically combat with cut-scenes. It feels unresponsive at best. But I generally hate real time action-y combat so whatever

 

[tmux]

If it feels unresponsive then maybe your PC is too slow. I've been playing on Xbox One and combat is buttery smooth and fluid.

 

[Jimmious]

Nah the game runs perfectly fine. By unresponsive I mean that the hits don't feel to have good "impact", everything feels "floaty", you get damaged by random movements occasionally... It just doesn't feel like a robust combat system.

 

[Morm]

I'm playing on PS4 and I have exactly the same feeling about the combats.

 

[Paul_cz]

I would really like to see how the game runs and what are you specifically talking about (and not talking just about Jimmious/morm, but in general) because the combat feels great on my PC (playing with controller, never tried keyboard). Hits connect reasonably, dodges work, parry works, riposte work and I have good control over what happens. Enjoy combat against humans the most.
But definitely, combat is just one small part of TW3, and if you don't enjoy the characters, dialogue, atmosphere, exploration then this game is decidedly not for you.

 

[Jimmious]

It's hard for me to explain I guess.
It's not how the game runs, it's just how the combat "feels".
I just don't like rolling around like an idiot, run in for 3-4 quick attacks and then roll around again. Whenever I try to fight with actual counter-attacking I can't get it right , ever, so yeah. Also I'm playing in the second highest difficulty because I'm weird like that.
The only moments combat feels satisfactory is when I massacre completely low level mobs.
Battles with high level monsters end up being roll arounds with occasional stabs

 

[tmux]

Whenever I try to fight with actual counter-attacking I can't get it right , ever, so yeah.

You can only counterattack humanoid opponents. With monsters and animals, you're better off dodging.

 

[Jimmious]

Whenever I try to fight with actual counter-attacking I can't get it right , ever, so yeah.

You can only counterattack humanoid opponents. With monsters and animals, you're better off dodging.

So basically rolling around... That's exactly the part I find annoying. I feel that in 90% of the fights I'm rolling away until I can land some hits or activate some ability. I would prefer to actually fight

 

[tmux]

I've been playing for a bit now and I barely ever use rolling anymore, usually only to avoid huge AoE that I can't run away/dodge from and need some invulnerability frames for. The better tactic is to dodge, use igni/aard to stagger enemies in the middle of an attack, and attack as soon as they're back in range. Rolling takes a long time and ruins your flow if you're doing it too much, so it starts to feel slow.

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

So I'm playing The Witcher 3 right now (never touched the series before that) and I'm borred af. The cut-scenes are nice but everything else is shit. Am I missing something ?

No, it's a shit game. And the story goes downhill fast. One of the most overrated games ever.

 

[Paul_cz]

Whenever I try to fight with actual counter-attacking I can't get it right , ever, so yeah.

You can only counterattack humanoid opponents. With monsters and animals, you're better off dodging.

So basically rolling around... That's exactly the part I find annoying. I feel that in 90% of the fights I'm rolling away until I can land some hits or activate some ability. I would prefer to actually fight

I only use roll when needing to dodge large distance, other than that it is normal sidestep dodge, it is faster and more practical. Parry actually works against some animals too (wolves I think) but dodge is better anyway. And yes no shit in fight against multiple opponents, you gotta avoid getting mobbed.

 

[Falksi]

So I'm playing The Witcher 3 right now (never touched the series before that) and I'm borred af. The cut-scenes are nice but everything else is shit. Am I missing something ?

I tried 2 full playthrough's to find that special something which everyone else seems to be finding but, like yourself, I couldn't.

TW3 is a very slowly paced game, which relies a lot on aesthetics & cut-scenes to draw you in. If neither have you're in for a long slog because the game itself if full of fairly worthless filler.

I'd say the high point of the game is the Bloody Baron quest. Maybe play that through and decide if it's grabbed you or not. If it hasn't then you won't find much to enjoy after that point, as most of the main plot consists of dull person-fetch quest after person fetch quest, and the side quests often feel like a day job.

It's really a "Medival Work Simulator"

 

[Morm]

I'm almost at the end actually, The Bloody Baron quest was clearly the highlight of the game for me. But seeing the praise the game has attracted, I really thought the gameplay would be interesting too... But after 50 hours of boredom, I thought that maybe I had missed something, but it seems not.
I honestly don't understand how this game can be 10/10 or The Best RPG Ever like many claim. It's really a shame that all the hard work that CDP has put into this project is just for the aesthetics stuff, I can't even imagine what could have been if so much effort was put into the gameplay.