Recommended Posts

Considering getting this game, as i recently bought the first and i plan on playing it through. I was reading the pcgamer review, though, and they mentioned that the 3rd act (or was it chapter?) is vastly inferior to the other 2. I really hope that's not true, as i would buy it for the story.

I pre-ordered this game on steam but I can't seem to download the pre-order content "Troll Trouble"

Also I'm quite fortunate that on my tv at 1360 by 768 I can run this game on 'Ultra'. Everything just looks amazing!

You have to register the game you can do it from the launcher.

This game is amazing.

Considering getting this game, as i recently bought the first and i plan on playing it through. I was reading the pcgamer review, though, and they mentioned that the 3rd act (or was it chapter?) is vastly inferior to the other 2. I really hope that's not true, as i would buy it for the story.

There's supposed to be 16 different endings, so its possible the one he got was more disappointing than some of the others.

^ the two monitors I have comes in very handy for that, game manuel and browser on small screen and game running on 1080p screen :laugh:.

Yeah I was actually doing the same thing, but the game was acting a bit funky whenever I alt tabbed out of it. That and I figured why not destroy some trees. :laugh:

I have not tried it myself yet, but I keep reading more and more people saying that uninstalling the Nvidia 3D Vision drivers (2 of them in the control panel add and remove) really does improve the frame rate for anyone who is using Nvidia cards. I have to go to bed, but as soon as I get home from work tomorrow, I will see if I gained any performance by removing those drivers. Also am using the latest Nvidia beta drivers, which I am assuming anyone who owns a Nvidia card is already doing themselves, as they are the drivers to use for this game by all accounts.

Hmmm, I am pretty sure SLi is enabled with the Beta drivers. I use EVGA Precision to monitor my temps, clock speeds and FPS on my Logitech Keyboards LCD Display, and if SLi is not enabled, the clock speeds of both cards are not the same. When I play the Witcher 2, both cards are at the same clock, nearly the same temps (top one is always a tad higher), which is always an indication SLi is working. The easiest way to confirm it also is just to put on the SLi visual indicator from the drivers which I usually do not do as I hate the huge stripes on the left hand side, but I will do it as it is the simplest way to make sure it is working. So I will see. If it is not working, I will definitely try this out, as that would mean I can bump up the settings to Ultra.

Hmmm, I am pretty sure SLi is enabled with the Beta drivers. I use EVGA Precision to monitor my temps, clock speeds and FPS on my Logitech Keyboards LCD Display, and if SLi is not enabled, the clock speeds of both cards are not the same. When I play the Witcher 2, both cards are at the same clock, nearly the same temps (top one is always a tad higher), which is always an indication SLi is working. The easiest way to confirm it also is just to put on the SLi visual indicator from the drivers which I usually do not do as I hate the huge stripes on the left hand side, but I will do it as it is the simplest way to make sure it is working. So I will see. If it is not working, I will definitely try this out, as that would mean I can bump up the settings to Ultra.

SLI does seem to work somewhat, I get around 40-50% utilization on both GPUs with the beta drivers. But if this fix is able to improve FPS above that (by forcing more efficient utilization) than it's at least worth a try.

EDIT: Actually, to answer your question about the beta drivers:

This fix has been tested to work for Nvidia drivers 270.61 (stable) and 275.27 (beta). There is no FPS improvement between the two after much testing. The beta drivers however have improved 3D Vision compatibility for The Witcher 2, and maybe other non-documented tweaks.

There is almost not FPS difference between stable and beta, the only difference is compatibility fixes and possibly some other minor tweaks.

Witcher 2's ending is the worst, ever. EVER.

The game, in my opinion, also suffers from pre-transition consolitis as in some of the design choices were made with easy porting in mind and to top my whining; it's bloody short, seriously. I was playing on the hard (not insane yet) difficulty and the only issue I had was the fact that the game was literally raping my GPU into pieces and thus caused lagging during combat, making it a whole hell of a lot harder (nVidia ftw?)

Looks like all their budget went to making the game look good instead of fixing some ahem, interesting design choices, and making a proper ending instead of rushing it out the door.

SLI does seem to work somewhat, I get around 40-50% utilization on both GPUs with the beta drivers. But if this fix is able to improve FPS above that (by forcing more efficient utilization) than it's at least worth a try.

EDIT: Actually, to answer your question about the beta drivers:

There is almost not FPS difference between stable and beta, the only difference is compatibility fixes and possibly some other minor tweaks.

Good to know, I was actually under the impression SLi did not work at all with the official drivers.

I will try this fix regardless, as it is super easy to implement. Curious what others have to say in the meantime, as I am at work and will not be able to even try this until much later on today.

so i bought the first one... thuoght about doing on it GoG for 5 bucks but paid 20 for the steam version cause i love steam... i'll catch up to you guys eventually!

That is just crazy. I like Steam too, but I much prefer a game that just runs on its own with nothing, such as the GOG version.

Installed the game, clicked on the desktop shortcut but it gives an error "Insufficient privileges to run the activation - run application as administator" so I re run it as admin and it asks for my activation key, after entering the activation key it says checking for available updates and after few minutes that window disappears, and drops back to desktop. Nothing else happens. I have tried around 10-15 times now changing the way I enter the key, incase that is the problem (eg entering with all CAPS, entering with the - symbol, entering without the - symbol and nothing ever happens. This is ****ing me off and the official forums are down :(

That is just crazy. I like Steam too, but I much prefer a game that just runs on its own with nothing, such as the GOG version.

I much prefer not to use GoG at all.

i was reading up on the GoG forums and the GoG version of the first witcher apparently loves to crash to desktop when you start it...

I much prefer not to use GoG at all.

Not sure why you would prefer not to use a website that one of their main reasons for existing is to offer DRM free games, but hey to each their own. Is it their games cost more for you because of your location? Because I also know they also do the one price no matter where you are, which is based on USD. But I would think with the state of the American dollar, that would actually mean less for other countries, but perhaps I am wrong, and that would be a reason not to use them IMO.

Only difference I see in GOG games unless I am missing something, I am new to their service as of late last week, is the installer is branded with their name on the installation screens. Other then that, just seems like any other exe to me. When I first got a game from them, I thought maybe you needed to have their downloader running to launch a game, but was glad to find out that was not the case.

If there is something bad about them please do share, as I will not use them if there is a good reason to.

i was reading up on the GoG forums and the GoG version of the first witcher apparently loves to crash to desktop when you start it...

No issues at all on my end.

Like I just said above, to each their own, but I am all about saving money whenever possible and if I have the option for no DRM and have it be stand alone, that is what I like. I do like Steam and if I could get every game in it at the best price, I would definitely do that, but I am all about saving money at the end of the day, especially on a game like this one where I was not sure I would like it.

But if there are known evils about GOG I just do not know about, I would like to know about them.

Installed the game, clicked on the desktop shortcut but it gives an error "Insufficient privileges to run the activation - run application as administator" so I re run it as admin and it asks for my activation key, after entering the activation key it says checking for available updates and after few minutes that window disappears, and drops back to desktop. Nothing else happens. I have tried around 10-15 times now changing the way I enter the key, incase that is the problem (eg entering with all CAPS, entering with the - symbol, entering without the - symbol and nothing ever happens. This is ****ing me off and the official forums are down :(

Do you have the Steam or GOG version?

If the GOG version, I also had an issue with the install.

I had to uninstall the game, disable my AV software and UAC, reinstall the game, and then it worked. Once I did that, was able to enable UAC and my AV again, just had to add it to my list of exceptions on my AV Software, which is Kaspersky.

Thanks for sharing this. I do believe it gave me a performance increase. I was able to bump some settings that I previously had at Medium (shadows, textures, and something else) to High, and no change in performance right now at all.

Reason I say I think is I am currently underground in the game, and it pretty much was running at 60 FPS anyway (I have V Sync enabled), so it is hard to say for sure. Once I get outdoors again, I will be able to tell almost instantly.

SLI does seem to work somewhat, I get around 40-50% utilization on both GPUs with the beta drivers. But if this fix is able to improve FPS above that (by forcing more efficient utilization) than it's at least worth a try.

EDIT: Actually, to answer your question about the beta drivers:

There is almost not FPS difference between stable and beta, the only difference is compatibility fixes and possibly some other minor tweaks.

See above, I do think it helped a bit. My Utilization said 50% iirc, was not paying close attention to it (and I am downstairs on my laptop or else I would check) but glancing at it, I believe that is what it said.

This is also the first time I have checked it out since I uninstalled the 3D Vision drivers unfortunately, so I cannot say with certainty which tweak is responsible for the increase in performance. In hind sight I would have checked it out before the Inspector fix.

Witcher 2's ending is the worst, ever. EVER.

The game, in my opinion, also suffers from pre-transition consolitis as in some of the design choices were made with easy porting in mind and to top my whining; it's bloody short, seriously. I was playing on the hard (not insane yet) difficulty and the only issue I had was the fact that the game was literally raping my GPU into pieces and thus caused lagging during combat, making it a whole hell of a lot harder (nVidia ftw?)

Looks like all their budget went to making the game look good instead of fixing some ahem, interesting design choices, and making a proper ending instead of rushing it out the door.

God people will accuse ANY game of being "consolized" these days, its ridiculous. This game isn't even on consoles yet, and I didn't notice anything that seemed to obviously cater to them.

I agree the ending kinda sucked, but all the story stuff up to it was excellent.

God people will accuse ANY game of being "consolized" these days, its ridiculous. This game isn't even on consoles yet, and I didn't notice anything that seemed to obviously cater to them.

I agree the ending kinda sucked, but all the story stuff up to it was excellent.

And usually, the only thing they're even talking about is the interface.

Until we switch to something besides mouse and keyboard it's always going to be an issue I'm guessing.

Do you have the Steam or GOG version?

If the GOG version, I also had an issue with the install.

I had to uninstall the game, disable my AV software and UAC, reinstall the game, and then it worked. Once I did that, was able to enable UAC and my AV again, just had to add it to my list of exceptions on my AV Software, which is Kaspersky.

I have the retail version, I manged to cure the problem, it was Securom, I had to download a tool from Securom site (srdiag.zip) and run that, it found problems with securom, it went online and downloaded some files and it appeared to fix the issue, well it the allowed me to verify the game and play it. What a load of crap, plus I cannot get the bonus content as you cannot login to the developers servers still, and you need to log in there and register the game in order to play/use/download any bonus content. All in all I think the devs have handled this release very poorly.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • NetSpeedTray 1.3.3 by Razvan Serea NetSpeedTray is a lightweight, open-source Windows network monitor that shows live upload and download speeds directly on the Taskbar. Designed for efficiency, it quietly sits in the system tray, conserving CPU and battery with dynamic updates. It blends seamlessly with Windows 10/11, adapts to light/dark themes, and auto-positions to avoid overlaps. Features include accurate interface detection, customizable display, optional mini-graph, color coding, granular font and unit control, detailed per-interface history graphs, safe data management, and easy CSV export—bringing the network monitoring Windows forgot. NetSpeedTray key features: Lightweight & Efficient Runs quietly in your system tray without consuming resources. Features a "Dynamic Update Rate" that lowers refresh frequency when the network is idle to save CPU and battery life. Native Look & Feel Blends seamlessly with Windows 10/11 UI. Smart detection for light and dark taskbar themes ensures text is always visible. Intelligent & Adaptive Positioning Automatically finds empty space next to your system tray and shifts to make room for new icons, preventing overlaps. Seamless OS Integration Behaves like a native Windows component. Hides instantly with auto-hiding taskbar Hides when a fullscreen app is active Smart Network Monitoring Accurate by Default: Auto mode identifies your main internet connection and ignores noise from VPNs or virtual adapters. Easy Interface Selection: Switch effortlessly between Auto, All, or Selected network interfaces via intuitive radio buttons. Total Visual Customization Free Move Mode: Unlock and place the widget anywhere on your screen. Optional Mini-Graph: Real-time graph of recent network activity with adjustable opacity. Color Coding: Customize colors and speed thresholds to quickly see network status. Granular Display Control Text & Font: Adjust font family, size, weight, and alignment. Units: Automatic (B/s, KB/s, MB/s) or fixed Mbps display. Precision: Set decimal places and always show them for uniform appearance. Detailed & Intelligent History Graph Smart Scale: Logarithmic scale shows low-level traffic and large spikes clearly. Per-Interface Filtering: View speed history for specific adapters (Wi-Fi, Ethernet, VPN). Safe & Efficient Data Management: Adjustable retention, automatic cleanup, optimized database. Easy Data Export: Export raw data to .csv or save high-quality graphs for reports. NetSpeedTray v1.3.3: The Updater Fix A stabilization release that repairs a critical regression in v1.3.2: the app shipped without OpenSSL, which silently broke every HTTPS request — including the built-in update checker (the "Could not check for updates" error many of you hit). This release restores it, hardens the build so it can't happen again, and fixes a startup crash plus four other reported bugs. Changes: Fixed update checking — Resolved a critical issue that prevented the app from checking for updates ("Could not check for updates"). Fixed startup crash with Auto-Cycling — The app no longer crashes on launch after enabling Cycle display mode. Fixed incorrect network speeds on 10GbE adapters — Multi-gigabit network cards now display speeds correctly instead of being stuck at 0. Improved color coding — Default color is shown when idle, and color/threshold changes now apply immediately without restarting. Fullscreen visibility fix — The widget now correctly stays visible over fullscreen apps when Keep Visible is enabled. Improved AMD Ryzen temperature detection — More reliable CPU temperature monitoring for Ryzen processors. Cleaner upgrades — Installer now removes outdated application files during upgrades, preventing DLL/version conflicts while preserving user settings. Improved stability — Fixed potential DLL loading issues by excluding critical OpenSSL and NumPy components from UPX compression. Better settings window — Scrollbars removed and layout improved for a cleaner experience. Localization improvements — Updated translations and completed missing UI text across all supported languages. More reliable releases — Added regression tests covering recent critical fixes, bringing the test suite to 196 passing tests. [full release notes] Download: NetSpeedTray 1.3.3 | 87.9 MB (Open Source) Download: NetSpeedTray Portable | 101.0 MB View: NetSpeedTray Home Page | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Why Delta Chat is the best decentralized messenger you have probably never tried by Paul Hill There is no shortage of messaging apps out there; we have WhatsApp, Messenger, and Telegram, just to name a few. While Meta has taken steps to incorporate encryption into Messenger and WhatsApp, they still leave a lot to be desired. If you are in the market for a messaging app that promotes security, privacy, and optional anonymity, you'll want to read what I have to say about Delta Chat. For those not familiar with Delta Chat, rather than relying on centralized servers as you do with Facebook Messenger, it relies on email. Essentially, it is a chat interface that feels like a messaging app, but secretly in the background, it is firing off emails. In the past, you used to have to sign in with your email account. When you sent messages to people, it would just be sending encrypted messages to their inbox, which their Delta Chat client would decrypt. When I first learned about Delta Chat, it required users to sign in with an email account, but I was pleasantly surprised upon trying it in 2026 that this is no longer a requirement, or the preferred method was to use the app. Recently, I’ve tried UAD-ng on my old Nokia 3.4 to disable most of the Google apps because the bootloader is locked, and this is the next best option. While finding replacement apps in F-Droid, I came across Delta Chat again, and it has undergone quite a big change since I last used it, with its new chatmail relays, which no longer require you to sign in to your own email account, providing anonymity, and they offer greater security. Android and Desktop Delta Chat apps. Not only does it run on my de-googled phone, but it also works on desktop computers and iOS, making it truly ubiquitous. For me, Delta Chat is a wonderful alternative messenger because it gives you more control. It supports switching between different profiles, which you can set up super quickly; you don’t register a username, you don’t register a password. The only thing you do have is a random string email address on a chatmail relay (which you don’t have to memorize). To maintain access to your profile, you just need to add a second device to your account via QR code or make a backup of your account, which you can restore later. Fail to do these, your account is gone - as it should be if you don’t want to leave accounts that could get hacked later on. My decision to block Google stuff on my Nokia was done for practical reasons; the device sucked when it launched, and it sucks even more now. The nice thing about F-Droid and the apps within is that they’re usually lightweight, free of bloat, and work well on that device. What was inconvenient for me was that it was hard to send messages from that device, say if I wanted to copy a code over to my main phone or send family members a link from that device. That’s when I decided to look at the available chat apps and saw Delta Chat. Another nice thing about Delta Chat is its notifications. Some messaging apps rely on Google’s ecosystem for notification transport on Android; however, with Delta Chat, it can use Google’s solutions if you have Play Services or MicroG installed. Otherwise, it is able to keep a background connection to the chatmail relay server so that you can get notified when you receive a message. As free software, the code of Delta Chat is open for all who want to take it and build upon it. In the future, if the developers of Delta Chat make a catastrophically bad decision and take the app in an undesirable direction, users can take the code and fork the project. This contrasts with closed-source apps from corporations that can take their products in any direction they like. By relying on free software instead of closed-source programs, you actually control your computing. I’ve spoken at length about how running this type of software is like owning your own home rather than renting it. The same applies here; if you use Delta Chat, you don’t need to worry about it going away in the future. Whether it is Telegram, WhatsApp, or Messenger, you are required to register a username and password to use these services. A major flaw in this design is that anyone can try various passwords and potentially break into your account with your complete chat history intact. Sure, there is encryption in Messenger, where you need a second PIN and two-factor authentication in Telegram, but breaches happen all the time. Unlike before, when you used to sign in to your email account to send and receive messages, the primary way to do it now is to create an account on a chatmail relay. The resulting email address is a random string followed by the name of the relay you pick. This means you can start and begin adding contacts Without a username and password, you either need to ensure you have a backup or at least one device running your Delta Chat profile. The primary way to log in on another device is to go to the settings and add a second device. Then, you’ll just scan a QR code with your new device, and it’ll log in to your account and sync all your chat history and contacts. To end users, Delta Chat just looks like any instant messenger; however, it is really sending your messages as encrypted emails to your contact. This is pretty cool from a censorship perspective, as it makes the service more difficult to block. Previously, the main way to use the app was by logging in with email, but nowadays, it’s recommended that you use chatmail relays. Chatmail relays temporarily hold messages in case your device is offline. They are cheap, simple servers that don’t store data as group states. Other information, like your name and avatar, only exists on your device and the devices of those you share your contact information with. The relays are also decentralized and operated by various groups and individuals. It is even possible to set up your own chatmail relay, but most people will want to use one hosted elsewhere. To keep your messages secure, Delta Chat uses a secure subset of the OpenPGP standard that gives you automatic end-to-end encryption. It also uses Secure-Join to exchange encryption setup information through QR-code scanning or invite links. Autocrypt is also used to automatically establish end-to-end encryption between contacts and all members of group chat, but sometime this year Autocrypt v2 will be rolled out, bringing post-quantum resistant encryption and forward secrecy. The Delta Chat FAQ is an interesting read that explains many more details about the app. Credit: Pexels Delta Chat is unique among messaging apps because it is built on email, a technology that’s decades old and isn’t going anywhere soon. What’s more is that email is not centralized either, so it’s far more difficult for any authoritarian regime to disrupt the Delta Chat app. I haven’t spoken too much about features yet, so I will do that now. Delta Chat allows you to do one-on-one chats, group chats, and create channels. It also supports file sharing and making audio and video calls when chatting one-to-one, but it’s not available for group chats right now. At the time of writing, the calling functionality is disabled and can be enabled in Settings > Advanced > Debug Calls. I have used the video calling feature, and the quality is excellent. It works over WebRTC, another open standard. The app also lets you send voice notes, enables disappearing messages, and has its own app ecosystem. I did try playing chess one time there, but it was a bit spotty; though, we did manage to complete the game with a victory for me. To add people to Delta Chat, you can either give them your Delta Chat link or your QR code to scan. These are the only ways to add users, so you won't have any spam bots bothering you. If the people you want to chat with don't have the app yet, just send them your link, and it will take them to a webpage where they can install the app and then add you. It's really quick for them to install it and get started, which is nice. Credit: Microsoft. The Majorana 2 quantum chip unveiled in 2026. I do not think quantum computers are too far out now, and I do hope that Delta Chat is able to push out Autocrypt v2 sooner, rather than later, so bad actors do not attempt to collect encrypted communications and then decrypt them in the future using quantum computers. By getting people’s messages post-quantum-safe now, users won’t have to worry when quantum computers start cracking legacy encryption. Overall, I would recommend this app to people who are already past WhatsApp and Messenger and have perhaps begun using apps like Telegram or Session. It shares a lot of characteristics with these apps and goes a lot further than Telegram in terms of security. By being based on email, it is also resistant to censorship, and the lack of a username and password makes you anonymous (if you want to be) and safe from brute force password cracking attempts. Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried Delta Chat recently. Do you think it's a good bulwark against governments that are tightening their grip on the internet?
    • Putin was behind Farage/Brexit and behind Trump/MAGA. Different idiot lying beasts, same fascist master. Same screwed up results for both nations.
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Year In
      bernmeister earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      tuben earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • First Post
      OffsetAbs earned a badge
      First Post
    • Reacting Well
      OffsetAbs earned a badge
      Reacting Well
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      464
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      217
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      154
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      73
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      71
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!