The Witcher 3 Discussion Thread!

I would say in cities it's more demanding.

 

I have done my benchmark in Novigrad again, this time with SSAO instead of HBAO+, everything else unchanged:

Minimum FPS: 36
Maximum FPS: 61
Average FPS: 51

So going from HBAO+ to SSAO will give you an additional 3-4 FPS.

As for a comparison between the city and the wilderness, this largely depends on the area you are in. In the forest with dense vegetation, my standard settings (everything on Ultra, HBAO+, Foliage Visibility Range: high) will produce a FPS range between 40 - 50 FPS. Less demanding surroundings (fields, meadows, lakes etc.) will increase this to 50 - 60 FPS, often going beyond 60 FPS. By and large, I would say a city such as Novigrad with its high NPC count will put slightly more demands on the GPU (and CPU).

Please note that the aforementioned "Foliage Visibility Range" will have a significant impact on performance, once you are in an area with dense vegetation. For example, standing in Crookback Bog with my standard settings will give me 47 FPS. Increasing "Foliage Visibility Range" to Ultra will reduce that by 11 FPS(!) to 36; in motion, you may even see some short dips just below 30 FPS.

All of the above is for fair weather conditions. Once it starts to rain, there will be some additional, albeit manageable, demands on the GPU.

The 980M is able to play TW 3 with almost everything maxed out. For me, in order to have an experience that feels fluent, it was (only) a trade-off between Ambient Occlusion and Foliage Visibility Range. I decided to keep the former on HBAO+ and reduce the latter to high, simply because AO will affect pretty much every frame in the game, while FVR will only apply to certain areas.

 

well, that explains it. I didn't read the article but assumed that hairwork is off because I found another article and their fps with hairwork on is even lower.

 

So I've decided to play this game again which means I have to give up my precious 347.88 drivers. Are the 352.86 drivers decent? They're the Witcher 3 game ready drivers.

 

proper way to treat a lady?

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Good ol' 347,88 are a no go for TW3? Have you tried playing the game with them?

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She only rides on stuffed unicorns, if you know what I mean ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

Works fine for single card but SLI is a no go until the Game Ready driver.

I will say that they've optimized this game quite a bit though... It was performing incredibly well for single GPU!

 

I don't have a preference of drivers, I'd like to know too. But I do think that the tweak guide I posted earlier in the thread does a fantastic job optimizing the game. I play it on a 680m 4g and it plays/looks like a dream, I'm having a hard time playing FO4 because I haven't beat TW3 DLC yet...and honestly, FO4 looks/plays like crap compared to this game. I'm half temped to wait for optimization before I play it again - ANYWAY, yeah man. I'm using the latest nvidia drivers and it seems to be running fine.

 

Those latest drivers are definitely not coming near my machine... I like my cards to drop out of 3D mode. I'll probably upgrade to the Game Ready driver for TW3 though. I'd like to be able to play it at a smooth 60 WITH everything on.

 

Don't forget to install mods! There are some real good mods for TW3, a couple of good lore ones at that!

 

I'll have to look into them. I've not really done any mods since the Quake and Unreal Tournament days lol. Well besides the FF7 bootleg mod that turns it into a completely different visual experience.

 

They also kinda "downgraded" things further. Since some patch (1,04?) there have been some ridiculous pop-ins present. Even tweaks made in .ini can't fix the situation.

Ha ha ha, good one!

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How do you manage to install them?
I tried a couple of them, but I always ended up with script errors. I saw a workaround, but didn't feel like doing it, because I'm too lazy and already felt TW3 was damn near perfect.
I did however install a mod, which removed comic book loading screens. How I hated those... CDPR should have made them optional.

 

I have 980M SLI, its perfectly possible to max out the game and get mostly 60. I was running on one card maxed out yesterday and was getting mostly 50s with an occasional drop to the 40s. Will I be able to get a perfect 60? No but it should be pretty close.

 

It's not the question if you will be able to get 60FPS, but rather if the performance will be stable aka smooth.
Do try and tell how it goes

 

Well if I can find a driver that doesn't TDR...

 

I usually download mods from nexus and just follow their instruction. You can use nexus mod manager (only works for some) but personally I manually install my mods. Most of them just requires copying files to the mod folder inside the Witcher 3 folder. I think it's easier than installing Skyrim mods.

There is Witcher Script Merger which allows you to merge 2 files from 2 different mods if they happen to change the same file. Script error may also happen if the mod you're using is not compatible with the current patch. So make sure if the author says their mod is compatible with 1.11. There are lots of outdated mods, especially after 1.10.

Personally, I use only 4 mods, Photo mode (must have), Better Combat Evolved (it got updated recently and pretty good imo), and 2 mods that fix minor things like NPC scabbards.

 

That's the same way I installed them (copypasta), but for some reason they never worked for me.
But then again, like I've mentioned, TW3 is near perfect in my opinion, so there's really no need for mods.
It's not like it's some kind of Bugthesda game .

 

Well I found a driver that works. But I just can't seem to get into the game... I also find it incredibly odd that the CPU goes through the ceiling when its in a menu or playing gwent...

 

Admit it, you can't have stable performance on your rig so it's suddenly "a hard game for you to get into"

 

Glad to hear the driver is working

I experienced the CPU issue sometimes when alt-tabbing out of the game, the GPU0 stays under load, and one time the fans kicked in high after it had been "idle" for a while, so I killed it.

I play Full Screen, how about you? Maybe try other modes?

You can change the LimitFPS=60 to something else, I hear 40 is good.

I am running it on my GT80 SLI-263 LimitFPS=100, MovieFramerate=100, OC'd at 4.0ghz, GPU's +135 +325, and getting 85-100fps in game, with drops into high 70's. I have everything on/up all the way except Hairworks, I have that off.

CPU temps vary between mid-70's to mid-80's, except when that alt-tab went nutz, and the CPU went to low 90's until I killed it.

I will likely kick it down to stock CPU/GPU and run at LimitFPS=40 and see what that is like - to keep the fan noise down

 

Do you know how bad AFR microstutter is at 40 FPS?

 

No, but if you had let me try it on my own like I said I was going to, I would have found out

So how do you have TW3 set up?, and what FPS do you maintain?

 

well, but I still recommend at least install the mod for photo mode. Sometimes I just die a few times because I was too focused on taking screenshot (even though you can pause to take screenshot).

 

I bought it but haven't played. Haven't even finished the first 2 games yet.

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I set LimitFPS=40 ; MovieFramerate=40, refresh to 40hz, and Vsync smooth. All the TW3 settings are on Ultimate, everything turned on.

The GPU temps are down 10c+ - 55c/62c, utilization is down from 95+% to mid-50%, and frame rate is solid at 40fps.

It's a good alternative if the fan noise is getting in they way, otherwise I will run it at 100fps/100hz with full OC, and full fan noise

Update: Played for a couple of hours on 40fps, quiet and didn't notice anything detrimental to game play or visuals. It sure is a lot quieter than Full OC + 100hz/fps. Will go back and compare.

Also, edited "users settings" HairWorksAALevel=0 from 8, makes the hair less distracting.

 

Well, now you have a neat new config tip to keep temps and fan noise down

Trying 60fps to see what the temps are there...

 

I don't need to because Witcher 3 isn't some magical game that feels smooth in SLI below 60 FPS. Microstutter is very noticeable at 40 FPS, it's inherent to AFR so it affects every game. If anything TW3 is a poor showing judging by threads like this and this and that you need unofficial bits for proper scaling on 4K monitors.

Hell no. I'm not a masochist. 40 FPS is acceptable in single GPU but not mGPU. It might feel fine to you but you're not me.

 

Try again. I turned off HBAO+ and its 60+ everywhere. Turned off Hairworks and its 80+... I just find the game to be boring. Too much riding around aimlessly and it has a stupid combat system. Its personal preference, I like WTB, not ATB. I know, I know... go in the menu and you have WTB but that's not the same. I really can't stand the targeting system and the fact that it targets enemies a billion miles away so you can be smacked by enemies close by either. Meh. No big loss. And I really don't get the CPU jumping 10C in the menu...

It didn't even stress out the GPUs (max fans but I think my fan controller in the EC is broken which is why I requested Sager replace the motherboard which they did not do and I can prove). Auto fans? 80C+ in minutes... max fans... you see the max.

 

Didn't you mention you wanted to have everything on?

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Anyway, what's ATB and WTB. Can't seem to find what that means.

What's stopping you, my good man?

 

Have a hard time getting into RPGs in general apart from Deus Ex and KOTOR. Witcher, Fallout, TES, ME, etc. not my cup of tea.

 

The auto target can be bastard sometimes but you can actually choose your target when fighting multiple enemies by pressing A/S/D/W (the direction of your opponent) and left click, don't just spam left click. Not recommend using Z to lock on opponent, funny I only find that useful when 1v1. Or you can just hit and dodge then face the one you want to attack (Alt dodge not space dodge so you can still regen stamina). Dodging is extremely useful but careful to not get stuck between objects (the camera would be very bastard in this situation). In fact I hardly use parry unless I feel like having some fun. Invest your skill points in fast attack and later on you have spin attack to fight multiple enemies (very useful against humans). Don't get surrounded, you can always dodge your way out.

There is also a mod (Enemy Scaling and Gameplay Overhaul) which allows you to turn off the auto target but that mod requires you to manually adjust every option (tons of them) or it will literally render the game unplayable. There is another mod that's Better Combat Evolved and it allows you to have many skills (alternative signs, spin attack, parry arrow...) and those skills are automatically activated (can still add level up those skills). Though I wouldn't recommend using it since it's your first playthrough and it also changes crafting system, item stats...

 

man i haven't even finished this game yet!

 

This game just isn't my cup of tea... I prefer battle systems that give me wait time... Call me whatever but ATB is lame for a strategist, especially a Libra strategist... I can't make up my mind about what to eat, what makes people think that giving me 2 seconds to choose a sigil (that's what they are...) or attack? I need time to plan a strategy which is why the old Square games work for me... except Ultimecia and Ruby Weapon... they can jump off a cliff........

 

please keep the tone down and non-personal and on topic. I have had to edit quite a few posts here.

 

Hard to argue with this statement.

Well of course you haven't. What did you expect, a COD campaign in TW game?

Deus Ex is an RPG?!? Then again, Fallout 4 is also RPG. What! I've been told s

 

I tried to go back to Skyrim after The Witcher 3. Keyword: tried. Did not succeed. I got too used to looking at realistic faces and expressions as well as epic graphics (notwithstanding the decrease in poly count that's occasionally seen around the game - remember the garlic, guys?), and I just couldn't downgrade to Skyrim's plasticky and fake faces and expressions as well as crappy physics. There are mods (I have a list of some 175+ mods) but mods aren't the universal panacea when the base game isn't that great.

That's the best thing about Witcher 3 - the developers have got everything covered so well that I can't think of much where mods would improve on the game (except graphics, and combat on a KB/M set-up, which is honestly terrible).

 

That's exactly how I am now.
I spent a lot of time in modded Skyrim, and enjoyed it quote a lot (after a couple of days of installs and tweaks).
But ever since I started playing TW3, Skyrim doesn't feel the same. I fired it up a couple of times in between my TW3 sessions, and man, I couldn't go back to it.
I will admit that Skyrim has served me well, and maybe comparing it to a newer game isn't very fair. TW2 facial animations haven't aged well too, and both of those games came out roughly around the same time (2011 vs. 2012). That being said, FO4 should have been updated to meet today's standards. It looks so dated in animation department.

By the way, have you tried HOS yet?

Really? I think it works well with KBAM. Personally I feel very comfortable with KBAM controls.
I do wish there was a search function in bestiary/alchemy/crafting menus. It would make things faster and better, not to mention, less terrible. I have requested this feature numerous of times on official forums, but so far, they didn't listen...

 

You didn't know?

 

Same story here. Standards shift with time and what was perfectly acceptable a few years ago just isn't anymore today. I have spent countless hours in Skyrim (well, not countless, but around 180 hours) and obviously enjoyed the game a lot. But returning to it now after TW 3, the world of Skyrim just isn't what it used to be, even if it admittedly is a bit of a case of apples and oranges, as those games put the emphasis on somewhat different things.

I cannot bring myself to playing Fallout 4 yet and not just because I am still not finished with Batman Arkham Knight. Fallout 4 will most likely offer many of the things that made Skyrim great, but those facial animations and those textures I guess I will wait at the very least for a High Res texture pack.

As for KBAM, I also thought that TW 3 handled those quite well. Sword combat may actually be somewhat easier with a gamepad, but then again I suck at using a controller, so it wouldn't be for me, anyway.

 

Haven't played DE1, but HR isn't exactly a true blooded RPG.

 

I think that was a more sarcastic than questioning statement. Well this is text so it could be either.

 

Well that's your fault for playing it like an FPS

 

There's a third person mode in it? As far as I know there's third person mode only when in cover or climbing ladders.
I actually don't know how you were supposed to play it. It is an FPS after all. If you meant to say did I play it like a gung-ho shooter (aka COD), then no. I found the gunplay a bit...lacking or weird. Can't really find an appropriate word to describe it. And that mouse acceleration didn't make things better, which I did turn off via registry but it didn't change much. Instead I did a stealthy walkthrough and used tranq sniper rifle wherever I couldn't find a ventilation shaft or other paths. Hopefully MD will make "hands on" approach a more violable and enjoyable option, because it needs to be there as an alternative. One of the reasons why I like MGS V gameplay, despite its many other short comings, going in loud can have advantages.
HR is more of a FPS with RPG elements, hence why I didn't call it a true blooded RPG. There are a lot of similar combos out there lately (Dishonored, TR 2013, Far Cry 3/4, AssCreeds, Mad Max, etc.). Only a lazy dev doesn't attempt that these days. Obviously some are better (like branching quests), others are worse (crap upgrades), HR being one of the better examples.

 

So it can only be an RPG if it's third-person? Well then, I guess the Ultima and M&M series aren't RPGs either. They're in first-person and have no guns. So what are they?

 

that's not what i mean: i mean i have been playing other games that i haven't resumed the playthrough....same for MGSV

 

Weeeell. Do you know the basics? Create a "Mods" folder in main dir, add mod folders to there, etc. If you're getting script errors DL/run Script Merger http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/484/?

 

Again some cleanup, problem with the thread dealt with.

 

how am I supposed to get in the Gwent business? Got my ass kicked when I tried playing a game or two with some random merchant or innkeeper. I mean, all I have is Temerian cards with 6 power at most and they have something like a 10 power Griffin or a card that can summon other cards. Should I start with the dude from White Orchard? I didn't talk to him after NG+ so not sure if there is any card there to improve my deck.

 

Through trial and error. White Orchard is the easiest location for Gwent. Only once I got into Velen/Novigrad region I started to get my arse kicked. After few loses I managed to win my first hero card from some innkeeper in Novigrad. Slow and steady I started to acquire more and better cards. You could also try lowering Gwent difficulty, see if that helps.
Also be sure to buy any worthy cards you can come across merchants, especially at that inn you visit first in White Orchard. They often have decoys and I think I bought a spy from one of them. Decoys and spies are a powerful combo

 

thanks, I got a hang how to play and some strategy but my cards are just straight up garbage. So there is Gwent difficulty also.

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Guess I gotta visit that ungrateful innkeeper.