The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

By Semtex
in Gamers' Hangout

 Share

Recommended Posts

Grand Master

spacer

Posted
Posted

Yep, downgrade for the lowest common denominator confirmed.

...did you even read the article? Your "PC master race" BS is unnecessary, and your over-simplification is flat-out wrong.

  • Hedon, Osiris and soniqstylz
  • Like 3
Mentor

President Devil

Posted
Posted

Did you?

 

"If the consoles are not involved there is no Witcher 3 as it is," answers Marcin Iwinski, definitively. "We can lay it out that simply. We just cannot afford it, because consoles allow us to go higher in terms of the possible or achievable sales; have a higher budget for the game, and invest it all into developing this huge, gigantic world.

"Developing only for the PC: yes, probably we could get more [in terms of graphics] as there would be nothing else - they would be so focused, like if we would develop only on Xbox One or PlayStation 4. But then we cannot afford such a game."

 

"It was captured PC footage, not pre-rendered, Badowski confirms, but a lot had to change."

 

This is not PC Master Race BS, this is plain fact. They'll claim complex technical reasons behind it and that it runs optimized on consoles (LOLNO), but it is what it is.

Grand Master

spacer

Posted
Posted

Did you?

 

"If the consoles are not involved there is no Witcher 3 as it is," answers Marcin Iwinski, definitively. "We can lay it out that simply. We just cannot afford it, because consoles allow us to go higher in terms of the possible or achievable sales; have a higher budget for the game, and invest it all into developing this huge, gigantic world.

"Developing only for the PC: yes, probably we could get more [in terms of graphics] as there would be nothing else - they would be so focused, like if we would develop only on Xbox One or PlayStation 4. But then we cannot afford such a game."

 

"It was captured PC footage, not pre-rendered, Badowski confirms, but a lot had to change."

 

This is not PC Master Race BS, this is plain fact. They'll claim complex technical reasons behind it and that it runs optimized on consoles (LOLNO), but it is what it is.

The whole point of the article was that if it weren't for consoles, Wild Hunt wouldn't exist as it is today. I mean, the part you quoted literally says that. No one but CDPR knows the exact implications of applying their 2013 vertical slice to the entire game world they wanted to make. They even gave you examples of why they made the changes they did. Everything they said is completely plausible, especially if you work in software development. So you have no reason to doubt them, other than your "PC master race" crap.

 

If you want to go to extremes, yeah sure you could create a fully realized open-world game using their vertical slice as a 100% representation of gameplay, along with the "5000 doors" they talk about, and the additional NPCs, and mechanics they've added since it was revealed, AND have it perform well. But now you're talking about an extremely demanding game that could only be played using bleeding-edge PCs. (maybe) Does that sound like a good business plan for a company with finite money and time? (i.e. any company in the real world) There are way, way more factors at play when decided to make compromises than just "consoles are the lowest common denominator".

Mentor

President Devil

Posted
Posted

It isn't PC Master Race "crap", the visual difference is there and they admitted to it. There was no CG rendering in the VGX footage, it was running on PC systems.

Their choosing between 2 rendering systems and it ending up looking like this basically proves it all.

I bet you that it would have been funded within 24-48 hours by the PC community if that had been the case on a Kickstarter.

There are so many more PC gamers out there than on consoles, it's hypocrisy at its finest and they grew BECAUSE the PC community backed them in the first place.

 

And how sincere are they now? They've had ample opportunity to be honest with the community and those who had pre-ordered the game but chose not to do so.
First it was YouTube compression, then there wasn't any downgrading and now the cat's out of the bag they're suddently telling the truth?

People calling this The Witcher 3: Wild Dogs have every right to.

  • +Random Stranger
  • Like 1
Veteran

Melfster

Posted
Posted

After looking at this controversy it's clear they downgraded the game to fit the consoles. I kind of disagree with them about if was consoles there would be no witcher 3.  Especially since witcher series started out on a PC.  But model they chose to fund the game led to out-come that happened. Its not bad game but it could have been better.  If you look at other games such as star citizen it started out as one thing and it is turning into something else.  It shows there ways to create a high fidelity experience for PC users.  

  • +Random Stranger
  • Like 1
Rising Star

Polonium

Posted
Posted

It's vastly overrated.  You get the same games with absolutely horseshit optimization so unless you've got a $1200+ new PC your mileage will vary.

 

DX12 will change everything though.

 

It maybe vastly overrated but I want to act like I'm better than the rest of the world. That's all.

 

I have a laptop with an i7 vPro in it - will that do?

Grand Master

spaceelf

Posted
Posted

It maybe vastly overrated but I want to act like I'm better than the rest of the world. That's all.

 

I have a laptop with an i7 vPro in it - will that do?

Depends on the GPU in it :D

 

Carry on then.  Personally I have too much invested in PC to stay away from it, but I'm waiting for DX12 gaming to really get back into it.

Grand Master

+Random Stranger Subscriber¹

Posted
  • Subscriber¹
Posted

I wish I had a PC so I could act like I was better than everybody else. FML

 

FYL!

 

but seriously, it is not about "better then everyone else"  and this is damn annoying that many people here are throwing "pc master race" comments.

 

it is about communication and trust. a traditionally "for pc" deleloper clearly created a console game port to pc, after showing the pc gamers what it could have being...

then denied that they did until release date, when it became plainly obvious. 

 

they went with this strategy, because there is more money that way.    but they lost a lot of goodwill with pc users.    they are promising lots of patches to improve it, and get back some of goodwill.

  • President Devil
  • Like 1
Grand Master

+Random Stranger Subscriber¹

Posted
  • Subscriber¹
Posted

It maybe vastly overrated but I want to act like I'm better than the rest of the world. That's all.

 

you mean acting like a bit of an arse? i don't think you need a gaming PC to do it :p you are managing just fine.

Grand Master

Hedon

Posted
Posted

Oddly enough, in the history of my gaming (back to Pong), I have yet to see a single game look like the concept. I guess that is why I never am left disappointed. Every game is downgrade from its reveal. Not only that, know that hundreds of millions of consoles are being sold now along side computers, I have accepted the fact long ago that multiplatform games will always be impacted by the lowest common denominator. I also know that the goal of a business is to be as profitable as possible.

Grand Master

Yusuf M. Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

I'm not bothered by the drop in visual quality. I had a feeling about what they showed back in 2013. It looked too good to be true. And I had a feeling they'd be faced with a choice. Good graphics at the cost of content or lots of content (e.g. open world) at the cost of slightly worse graphics. I'd take the latter over the former any day and I love good graphics.

  • Hedon and +Audioboxer
  • Like 2
Grand Master

trag3dy

Posted
Posted

I'm not bothered by the drop in visual quality. I had a feeling about what they showed back in 2013. It looked too good to be true. And I had a feeling they'd be faced with a choice. Good graphics at the cost of content or lots of content (e.g. open world) at the cost of slightly worse graphics. I'd take the latter over the former any day and I love good graphics.

 

Me too. I honestly don't get the complaints. It's especially odd since some of the people making the complaints can't even run the game at max settings as it is now.

Grand Master

spaceelf

Posted
Posted

it is about communication and trust. a traditionally "for pc" deleloper clearly created a console game port to pc, after showing the pc gamers what it could have being...

considering Witcher 2 was dx9 and had a pretty horrible PC launch (especially for Steam users) I'm not sure that's entirely accurate.  They've had a pretty spotty history with PC overall IMO, aside from the first one not being on consoles afaik.

Grand Master

trag3dy

Posted
Posted

FYL!

 

but seriously, it is not about "better then everyone else"  and this is damn annoying that many people here are throwing "pc master race" comments.

 

it is about communication and trust. a traditionally "for pc" deleloper clearly created a console game port to pc, after showing the pc gamers what it could have being...

then denied that they did until release date, when it became plainly obvious. 

 

they went with this strategy, because there is more money that way.    but they lost a lot of goodwill with pc users.    they are promising lots of patches to improve it, and get back some of goodwill.

 

Did you play The Witcher 2 when it first came out vs what it is now? Not only does it run better but they added so much content to the game for free.

Grand Master

Osiris

Posted
Posted

After looking at this controversy it's clear they downgraded the game to fit the consoles. I kind of disagree with them about if was consoles there would be no witcher 3.  Especially since witcher series started out on a PC.  But model they chose to fund the game led to out-come that happened. Its not bad game but it could have been better.  If you look at other games such as star citizen it started out as one thing and it is turning into something else.  It shows there ways to create a high fidelity experience for PC users.  

 

Star citizen is the exception to the rule so far and its not even released, lets put a pin in that one and come back when they ship a full product instead of taking peoples money for sporadic ships and in game features.

Grand Master

+Random Stranger Subscriber¹

Posted
  • Subscriber¹
Posted

Did you play The Witcher 2 when it first came out vs what it is now? Not only does it run better but they added so much content to the game for free.

yeah, so, this is what i am expecting for them to do for witcher 3, and they better deliver.

 

what's your point?

This topic is now closed to further replies.
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Posts

    • Report: Microsoft to use AWS to help GitHub deal with a major surge in demand

      By +LightEco · Posted

      Who is paying for this 30x scale-up? Its sounds expensive.
    • Millions of users to benefit from Windows 11's new performance boost on Adobe Photoshop

      By hellowalkman · Posted

      Millions of users to benefit from Windows 11's new performance boost on Adobe Photoshop by Sayan Sen Despite the advent of AI-generated imagery, Adobe's Photoshop remains one of the most popular tools on this planet. Adobe does not have a publicly reported total user count but it's probably not wrong to assume there are millions. As of 2025, Adobe Creative Cloud has had approximately 41 million paid subscribers, many of whom likely use Photoshop. In addition, more than 166,000 companies worldwide are apparently also using the app. These figures are according to a very recent report by SQ Magazine. Out of them, it is fair to assume that many are probably running Windows. As such, there is good news for these users as Microsoft has announced Photoshop is getting a big 20% performance boost on x86-64 (AMD64) systems and a 13% bump-up on Arm devices. This is definitely great news for them as many have complained about the slow performance and general sluggishness of Photoshop on Windows 11 ever since the advent of the latter back in 2021. If you are wondering how Microsoft managed to do this, the answer lies in a combination of compiler-level optimizations and a technology called Sample Profile Guided Optimization (SPGO). According to Microsoft, Adobe worked closely with the company’s Visual C++ team and adopted the latest MSVC toolchain enhancements together with SPGO to squeeze more performance out of Photoshop’s CPU-bound workloads. Unlike traditional Profile Guided Optimization (PGO), which requires developers to create special instrumented builds and run lengthy training workloads, SPGO gathers performance data directly from optimized release binaries. This means Adobe could collect real-world usage information which gives a major advantage to this technique, as companies could leverage data collected from actual customer workloads rather than only relying on synthetic benchmark runs. In theory, this should allow optimizations to better reflect how users interact with software in the real world. Thanks to this, there are improvements to code layout, function inlining, hot-and-cold code separation, and other low-level tweaks that help processors execute instructions more efficiently. Essentially the compiler is better able to identify “hot” code paths, those which are most frequently executed, and optimize them accordingly.
    • The 2TB Samsung 990 PRO NVMe SSD hits lowest price in over three months

      By fernan99 · Posted

      "The 2TB Samsung 990 PRO NVMe SSD hits lowest price in over three months¨ I'd prefer to see the lowest price in over a year
    • The 2TB Samsung 990 PRO NVMe SSD hits lowest price in over three months

      By sphbecker · Posted

      Glad these prices are starting to come down, but that is still crazy. I bought the 2TB 9100 Pro (slightly more expensive version with PCIe 5.0) last year for $240.
    • The 2TB Samsung 990 PRO NVMe SSD hits lowest price in over three months

      By hellowalkman · Posted

      The 2TB Samsung 990 PRO NVMe SSD hits lowest price in over three months by Sayan Sen Yesterday, we covered a really good deal wherein you can get a 4TB TeamGroup T-FORCE G50 NVMe PCIe Gen4 SSD for a low price of just $400 with a special discount coupon. That's just $100 per TB, making it a very good offer during these hard times. The deal is still live, so you can check it out in its dedicated article here if you do not want to miss out. Meanwhile, if you don't have that kind of budget but still wish to buy an SSD for a good price, the 2TB variant of the TeamGroup SSD at $280 its lowest price in over three months. Meanwhile, those seeking 2TB but faster performance can check out Samsung's 990 PRO, which has hit the lowest price also in the last quarter or so, as it's on sale for $370 (purchase links under the specs table down below). Thus, you want a faster drive, get the 990 Pro, or you want more capacity, grab the TeamGroup 4TB linked in the first para. The 990 PRO is a PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD and still one of the fastest drives available today for under $500. Speaking of fast, sequential reads and writes are rated at 7450 MB/s and 6900 MB/s, respectively. The random throughputs for reads and writes are 1400K IOPS and 1550K IOPS, respectively. The 990 PRO is based on Samsung's 7th Gen V-NAND flash, and it too is TLC. It packs 2 gigs of LPDDR4 DRAM cache, which helps the random performance. The endurance rating for this is 1200 TBW (terabytes written), which should be sufficient for most users. The Samsung 990 PRO is compatible with the PlayStation 5, but if you are going to use the 990 PRO on a PC, check out the Samsung Magician app that lets you track your drive's health, update its firmware, customize various settings, and more. The tech specs are given below: Specification TeamGroup T-FORCE G50 2TB Samsung 990 PRO 2TB Interface PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 PCIe Gen 4.0 x4, NVMe 2.0 Form Factor M.2 2280 M.2 2280 Controller InnoGrit Controller Samsung In-house Controller NAND Flash 3D TLC 3D TLC DRAM Cache None (HMB supported) 2GB LPDDR4 Sequential Read (Max) 5,000 MB/s 7,450 MB/s Sequential Write (Max) 4,500 MB/s 6,900 MB/s Random Read (4K) Up to 600,000 IOPS Up to 1,400,000 IOPS Random Write (4K) Up to 700,000 IOPS Up to 1,550,000 IOPS TBW (Endurance) 1,300 TBW 1,200 TBW MTBF 3,000,000 hours 1,500,000 hours Operating Temperature 0°C to 70°C 0°C to 70°C Storage Temperature -40°C to 85°C -40°C to 85°C Shock Resistance 1,500G / 0.5ms 1,500G / 0.5ms Heatsink Patented Graphene Heat Spreader No Get them at the links below: Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB (MZ-V9P2T0B/AM): $369.99 (Sold and Shipped by Amazon US) TEAMGROUP T-Force G50 2TB SSD (TM8FFE002T0C129): $279.99 (Sold by TeamGroup, Shipped by Amazon US) Good to know This Amazon deal is U.S. specific, and not available in other regions unless specified. We only use first-party seller links (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you purchase from a first-party seller link only. Check out Today's Deals on Amazon | or our recent tech deals. Become a Prime member (for Students or SNAP) via Neowin Get Prime Access - Prime for half price (for qualifying Medicaid, EBT, SNAP) Subscribe to Prime Video, Audible Plus, Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited via Neowin As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

  • Recent Achievements

    • First Post
      Jocimo earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      suprememobiles48 earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Windows Guy earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      Prasann earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Prasann earned a badge
      Week One Done

  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      522
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      174
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      90
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      81
    5. 5
      ATLien_0
      70
    Show More

  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!