The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

wunkley · 22 Dec 2022 at 17:29

^ I've just tried hotfix 2 on deck. No obvious improvements I can see but it runs surprisingly ok on Deck anyway.

I'm running SteamOS 3.4 preview...

Game in DX11 mode.
Resolution at 1152x720, then turning on in built FSR for upscale (gains a few frames back over 1280x720 and runs true full screen like 800p which is a bonus).
All settings at medium except textures at high and foliage at low (this is the killer on deck I've found).
Sharpness on high in game menu, sharpness at 0 in FSR menu.

Doing the above I'm getting a locked 40fps at 40Hz and it feels very smooth most of the time. Even in and around Novigrad. A locked 30fps is easy to achieve, but the magic 40Hz/40fps on deck is what I always try to get.

stooeh · 22 Dec 2022 at 17:57

wunkley said:
^ I've just tried hotfix 2 on deck. No obvious improvements I can see but it runs surprisingly ok on Deck anyway.

I'm running SteamOS 3.4 preview...

Game in DX11 mode.
Resolution at 1152x720, then turning on in built FSR for upscale (gains a few frames back over 1280x720 and runs true full screen like 800p which is a bonus).
All settings at medium except textures at high and foliage at low (this is the killer on deck I've found).
Sharpness on high in game menu, sharpness at 0 in FSR menu.

Doing the above I'm getting a locked 40fps at 40Hz and it feels very smooth most of the time. Even in and around Novigrad. A locked 30fps is easy to achieve, but the magic 40Hz/40fps on deck is what I always try to get.

Was hoping it would refer to the UI as it can be a bit small on the deck screen. Not tried any of the hotfixes as I just copied the game folder across the network originally, will check it out on DX12 later tonight.

Paul_cz · 22 Dec 2022 at 19:37

The game does not crash now. If it crashes, the problem is your PC or messed up game files.

And btw, in 220 hours of Cyberpunk 2077 I had zero crashes there as well. Started playing the day it released.

ne0 · 22 Dec 2022 at 20:02

I also never crashed in Cyberpunk, despite having 3 play throughs to my name lol.

Borsch · 22 Dec 2022 at 22:57

DomBruv said:
ha

older version with mods runs and looks better

This vid was posted before, but worth posting again. It compares the previous Ultra settings with the new version's Ultra+. Tldr there are quite a few changes with the next gen, apart from RT - better geometry, mesh, LODs, grass density, reflections, shadows (baked shadows, not RT).

Borsch · 22 Dec 2022 at 23:07

james.miller said:
GOG needing 51gb of working space to install a 2gb hotfix good going CDPR.

I was also baffled by this, but blame GOG. Steam's patch is 3Gb and probably uses a different approach that does not require to copy the entire game, patch it and then delete the copy. I think GOG simply try to save money on their bandwidth (it's a smaller patch than Steam's!) and who cares if the 2Gb patch takes an hour to install... If I'm right about this, I will never buy another GOG game again.

james.miller · 23 Dec 2022 at 01:35

CDPR owns GOG

mrk · 23 Dec 2022 at 07:56

I finally got round to remembering to record a video of what my frametime graph looks like in terms of stutters, wish I remembered to do the same before the hot fix patches as it was much worse visually on the graph before, but still evident now, though not as noticed in actual gameplay in most cases. In some cases it is a prolonged stutter where it appears the engine is loading shader stuff when it shouldn't be so points to lack of optimisation. One such area is the quest where you find the black horse and other bits for the possessed tree. Running around that area there are numerous times where the frametime graph has intermittent seconds of high activity then back down to the 10-17ms range.

The other good news is that in Novigrad now my fps is around 42fps at the lowest, previously I was seeing 30fps or so with max NPC density set and the same settings with RT on. So the hotfix has sorted that out, but still SHOULD be better but we have to do with CPU limited nature of the engine currently until they sort that out too.

As it stands, the game is now completely playable after the hotfix with RT enabled, Ultra+ and 3440x1440, at least on a 3080 Ti anyway lol.

SixTwoSix · 23 Dec 2022 at 08:27

Borsch said:
I was also baffled by this, but blame GOG. Steam's patch is 3Gb and probably uses a different approach that does not require to copy the entire game, patch it and then delete the copy. I think GOG simply try to save money on their bandwidth (it's a smaller patch than Steam's!) and who cares if the 2Gb patch takes an hour to install... If I'm right about this, I will never buy another GOG game again.

Hmmm - how do I break this to you...

mrk · 23 Dec 2022 at 08:30

Why would it take an hour to install lol? Far as I could tell it was minutes?

Kelt · 23 Dec 2022 at 09:48

I read somewhere, I think here, but can't find the post, about someone saying the game was crashing constantly, until he took his undervolt off.

Guess what, since the first hotfix, the same was happening to me, wasn't able to play for than a few minutes before a CTD.

Took my normally 100% stable UV off and now I can play the game again for hours a a time.

Well played, CDPR, well played.

mrk · 23 Dec 2022 at 09:51

Not sure if it was me or not as I had a UV crash issue in a few games in recent times but taking off the UV sorted it. In place of a UV now though I just use the power limit in Afterburner which is doing the same job, but no games crash. 90% power limit = same temps/speeds and performance as my previous 900mV undervolt. And the card does boost higher even to 1900+MHz core at times of low lower temps/usage too it seems.

wunkley · 23 Dec 2022 at 10:07

Paul_cz said:
The game does not crash now. If it crashes, the problem is your PC or messed up game files.

And btw, in 220 hours of Cyberpunk 2077 I had zero crashes there as well. Started playing the day it released.

Yeah right. The ONLY games (yes that's in caps) that have crashed to desktop for me in the last year, are Cyberpunk 2077 and the Witcher 3 after this 'update'. Says it all really doesn't it.

wunkley · 23 Dec 2022 at 10:11

mrk said:
I finally got round to remembering to record a video of what my frametime graph looks like in terms of stutters, wish I remembered to do the same before the hot fix patches as it was much worse visually on the graph before, but still evident now, though not as noticed in actual gameplay in most cases. In some cases it is a prolonged stutter where it appears the engine is loading shader stuff when it shouldn't be so points to lack of optimisation. One such area is the quest where you find the black horse and other bits for the possessed tree. Running around that area there are numerous times where the frametime graph has intermittent seconds of high activity then back down to the 10-17ms range.

The other good news is that in Novigrad now my fps is around 42fps at the lowest, previously I was seeing 30fps or so with max NPC density set and the same settings with RT on. So the hotfix has sorted that out, but still SHOULD be better but we have to do with CPU limited nature of the engine currently until they sort that out too.

As it stands, the game is now completely playable after the hotfix with RT enabled, Ultra+ and 3440x1440, at least on a 3080 Ti anyway lol.

Lock your fps to 45 using RTSS. It helps a lot with consistency, your frametime graph will be flat as a pancake, and it's surprisingly playable and responsive - if you have the reflex + boost setting on.

Borsch · 23 Dec 2022 at 12:21

SixTwoSix said:
Hmmm - how do I break this to you...

Yep, it's a CDPR "issue", Steam W3 updates also take forever to install - as I now learn: https://steamcommunity.com/app/292030/discussions/0/3723945543092296954/?ctp=3

I've just downloaded and installed a 9Gb patch for GTA5 (100Gb game) via Steam and, once downloaded , it took 2 mins to install. Same HDD as my W3 install. The first W3 Hotfix couple of days ago took well over an hour to install - not to download I stress, but the "applying patches" part in GOG. The second W3 hotfix is similar.

mrk · 23 Dec 2022 at 12:34

wunkley said:
Lock your fps to 45 using RTSS. It helps a lot with consistency, your frametime graph will be flat as a pancake, and it's surprisingly playable and responsive - if you have the reflex + boost setting on.

I tried it just now and can't say i like the mouse motion with it locked at 45. There's noticeable latency when I move the mouse and when the camera moves on screen. 50-60 lock works much better however.

Also, these NPCs are dumb as bricks

Also this was quite funny:

And this detailing is really spot on, and this is DLSS Performance!

wunkley · 23 Dec 2022 at 12:51

mrk said:
I tried it just now and can't say i like the mouse motion with it locked at 45. There's noticeable latency when I move the mouse and when the camera moves on screen. 50-60 lock works much better however.

Fair dos. I use a controller so the extra latency isn't as noticeable.
But yeah, 50-60 also good/ better if you've got the roachpower (get it?) - basically use whatever your comfortable 'minimum' framerate is for 90% of the time, and locking to this with RTSS definitely helps. I've done this over the years with numerous troublesome games that have frame-pacing issues.

mrk · 23 Dec 2022 at 13:02

Seems blasphemy playing such a game on PC with a controller though innit

Kelt · 23 Dec 2022 at 13:04

mrk said:
Seems blasphemy playing such a game on PC with a controller though innit

Take that back...YOU TAKE THAT BACK!

Trick · 23 Dec 2022 at 13:32

Gotta say, I’m a controller user on pc for Witcher 3. Not a fan of k&m for this particular game, feels like it was designed for controller