The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered har netop fået en større opdatering, der går efter flere af de grafiske problemer, som har irriteret spillere siden udgivelsen.
Remastered-udgaven kom med en lang række visuelle og tekniske forbedringer, men især én ændring har fået en del opmærksomhed. Den kraftige bloom-effekt fik ifølge flere spillere spillets omgivelser til at fremstå meget lysere og mere udvaskede end i den oprindelige version.
Problemet var især tydeligt på konsol, hvor spillerne ikke havde mulighed for selv at slå bloom fra. På PC kunne effekten deaktiveres, men konsolspillere måtte i stedet leve med den meget lyse præsentation. Det er ikke ligefrem den slags grafiske forbedring, man håber på, når man genbesøger et af de mest elskede RPG’er nogensinde.
Det ændrer Patch 5.01 nu på. Konsolspillere kan fremover slå bloom fra, ligesom det også bliver muligt at deaktivere light shafts og depth of field. Samtidig har CD Projekt forbedret blandt andet bloom, tone mapping, belysningen af karakterer samt ray tracing og path tracing.
Patchen fylder omkring 5,5 GB på konsol og 8,5 GB på PC, så der er altså tale om mere end en lille justering i baggrunden.
CD Projekt arbejder samtidig på en opdatering til Nintendo Switch 2-versionen af The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered. Her er målet blandt andet at skabe større lighed mellem versionerne og forbedre billedklarhed og skarphed på Nintendos nyere konsol.
Det er dog ikke kun The Witcher 3, der har fået nyt liv. CD Projekt har også annonceret den nye udvidelse Songs of the Past, som udkommer i 2027. Udvidelsen bliver angiveligt på størrelse med Blood & Wine og skal fungere som en slags mellemkapitel mellem The Witcher 3 og det kommende The Witcher 4.
The Witcher 4 er planlagt til 2028 og kommer til at have Ciri i hovedrollen, mens Geralt denne gang træder lidt længere tilbage. Der er altså stadig en del Witcher at se frem til, selv hvis man efterhånden har brugt flere hundrede timer på at jagte monstre, spille Gwent og træffe valg, man senere fortryder.
Alt i alt er Patch 5.01 en ret velkommen opdatering for dem, der ikke var helt tilfredse med Remastered-udgavens visuelle stil. Det er måske ikke den mest dramatiske patch i spillets historie, men muligheden for endelig at skrue ned for bloom-effekten kan gøre en større forskel, end man lige skulle tro.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered update 5.01 patch notes:
Gameplay
- Fixed an issue where the “Automatically Apply Blade Oils” feature would work only if enabled during the current game session.
- Fixed an issue where, under specific circumstances, player-controlled boats could start moving uncontrollably and ignore terrain collisions.
- Improved ladder interaction animations.
- Fixed an issue where Geralt would collide with dead enemies after the Aard finisher.
- Fixed an issue where Vesemir would repeatedly say the same line if Quen was cast multiple times.
- Fixed an issue where dodging could have an unintentionally delayed response.
- Fixed an issue where it was possible to throw a bomb even if the option is disabled.
- Fixed an issue where the bonus granted by the Synergy skill displayed incorrect values.
- Added damage reflection to the Exploding Shield skill.
- Fixed an issue where Geralt’s Stamina would be fully drained when sprinting and dodging at the same time.
UI
- Fixed an issue where the “You’ve gained an ability point!” pop-up could stay stuck on the screen.
- Fixed input hints flashing for a brief moment on the meditation screen.
- Fixed an issue where the Potions tutorial didn’t appear after accessing the Consumables tab.
- Fixed some misaligned progress bars in the UI.
PC-specific
- Fixed an issue where the GTAO Quality setting would reset after restarting the game.
- Fixed an issue where Dynamic Resolution Scaling could display the wrong setting after changing the Anti-Aliasing mode.
- Fixed cases in which it was possible to enable a graphics setting when using a GPU that doesn’t support it.
- Fixed an issue where switching graphics presets could apply DLSS or XeSS on GPUs where they’re not supported.
- Changed the default Dynamic Resolution Scaling setting to OFF.
- Fixed an issue where Skill tooltips wouldn’t update until hovered over again.
- Fixed an issue where the game could sometimes select the wrong GPU.
Consoles
- Added Bloom, Light Shafts, and Depth of Field options to the graphics settings.
- Made various optimizations to improve performance.
- Fixed an issue where settings on PlayStation 5 would reset every time the game was launched.
- The fix for voiceover audio becoming significantly quieter than other in-game audio after navigating through the pause menu tabs is now also implemented on consoles.
- Fixed issues with incorrect frame rate limits in different graphics modes on the base PlayStation 5.
- Ukrainian text localization is now available in all regions.
Other
- Made various visual adjustments, including improvements to Bloom, tone mapping, character lighting, Ray Tracing, and Path Tracing.
- Due to backend issues, the policy consent screen will appear again. You’ll need to confirm your preferences once more. Choosing to opt in helps us improve the game.
- Fixed an issue where My Rewards and Twitch/Bilibili Drops wouldn’t appear in the chest in Vizima if it had been opened previously. As a result of this fix, some of the items may be duplicated. Consider them a bonus!
- Fixed an issue where foliage did not react to collisions.
- Fixed an issue that could affect save file data and added measures to address saves that may have already been affected.
- Fixed an issue where Dynamic Resolution Scaling could cause visual artifacts in certain configurations.