The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

BuffetSlayer · 13 May 2015 at 14:45

Yup, as always consoles are throttling the life out of the PC gaming experience. As I have alluded to in a post in the console section - the current crop of consoles do not perform anywhere near as well as they should in my opinion.

R* are heading in the right direction. There should be a two phase development cycle that allows for the PC version to be tuned and optimised along with addition of better textures etc etc, and GTAV has shown there is an appetite for it, even if there is a longer wait.

Moothead2 · 13 May 2015 at 14:50

mid_gen said:
Really I think some devs are going to start thinking twice about whether developing for PC is worth the hassle given the amount of grief they get.

Pro tip: Don't advertise and promise things you can't deliver.

BuffetSlayer · 13 May 2015 at 14:52

mid_gen said:
Really I think some devs are going to start thinking twice about whether developing for PC is worth the hassle given the amount of grief they get.

We don't get away with treating minorities as second class citizens, why should developers?

But seriously, if they were not not so disingenuous about what they can reliably produce, perhaps PC gamers would have more time for them? It is just a variance of the bait and switch tactics and to some degree it is the reason why pre-ordering actually facilitates poor releases.

Nico_Joey · 13 May 2015 at 14:55

mid_gen said:
Really I think some devs are going to start thinking twice about whether developing for PC is worth the hassle given the amount of grief they get.

Witcher 1 and 2 both sold very well on PC and particularly W2 which helped CDPR finance the 360 version. I think that is partially why some people feel let down by a company they (pc gamers) helped support from the start.

deuse · 13 May 2015 at 14:57

Witcher1979 said:
This is what I do now, my last pre-order was skyrim. Now I wait until games are out for a few months and pick them up for under a tenner. I have plenty to play so I can normally wait, but Witcher 3 and the new Batman are just to much to wait for

Same here. Looks like this game is just a console port. But I hope they bring out a HD graphics update.

grant666uk · 13 May 2015 at 15:08

At least with all this talk of downgrading it should run fine on my Gtx 680 so its not all bad. Wish it was Monday night... Looking so forward to playing it.

Amatsubu · 13 May 2015 at 15:08

mid_gen said:
Because development doesn't work like that. I know the gamer community like playing spec sheet top trumps but there's far more to it than that when it comes to what you can actually achieve with the given hardware. Game dev process is typically a case of making something work first, then making it work at an acceptable framerate for the target hardware later. If you can't manage it then you dial things back/drop features whatever.

The worst I can see these guys are guilty of is being too optimistic with regards to what they would manage to get out of the hardware. They couldn't afford to do a completely separate pipeline for just the PC version so they developed to a single baseline.

It's like the endless crying from people about the vault in Destiny being too small, all these armchair devs saying how it's just a matter of changing a variable, so easy, why don't they do it. Then Bungie explain they are smack on the memory limit on PS3/X360 and in order to show a few more items in the vault they have had to remove a bunch of useful GUI elements. Not that simple!

Really I think some devs are going to start thinking twice about whether developing for PC is worth the hassle given the amount of grief they get.

The grief they get is hardly unfounded, sorry. Of course you make something work first and then scale it back to cater to given hardware's limitations. That's why I think it'd be in one's best interest not to show anything before they're absolutely sure it's around the level of graphical fidelity they expect to get in the end. They could've just shown a bunch of CGIs instead.

CDProjekt are not armchair devs, they are professionals. I bet it didn't take them long to start asking themselves questions along the lines of "can we really do that on a 7870 and a tablet CPU?" I understand where you're coming from but they weren't just overly optimistic as to what they can get out of consoles. They're optimism was simply beyond belief. It only takes one look at that 2014 gameplay to infer they're ****ing in the wind if they hope to squeeze something looking like that out of a console.

It wouldn't be a problem if PC gamers weren't the ones to suffer in the process but, judging by the looks of things, that's what's going to happen.

mid_gen · 13 May 2015 at 15:09

BuffetSlayer said:
But seriously, if they were not not so disingenuous about what they can reliably produce, perhaps PC gamers would have more time for them? It is just a variance of the bait and switch tactics and to some degree it is the reason why pre-ordering actually facilitates poor releases.

Well I completely agree with you on the pre-ordering thing. I don't see any rational reason why in the days of digital delivery that anyone is prepared to give publishers interest-free loans, especially based on alpha quality gameplay trailers.

Wait til product is finished. Decide if it's worth your money. Make purchasing decision. Game design is iterative, if people keep slapping money down months/years in advance expecting nothing to change before release they are going to be disappointed.

Haggisman · 13 May 2015 at 15:15

mid_gen said:
The worst I can see these guys are guilty of is being too optimistic with regards to what they would manage to get out of the hardware.

And very recently explicitly stating that there would be no downgrade.

mid_gen said:
Then Bungie explain they are smack on the memory limit on PS3/X360

And therein lies the key to the issue - catering to the common denominator results in a lower quality product for everyone else.

Sure your example may be slightly more complex in terms of adjusting the number of objects loaded in a given area at once, but for things like textures, there's no excuse for not having 2 (or more) textures and setting/allowing the user to select the appropriate one based on the system the game is running on. You keep throwing around the term "armchair devs" as if you're the only person on this forum who works in software development, here's a tip for you, you aren't.

northwestdakota · 13 May 2015 at 15:18

Moothead2 said:
Pro tip: Don't advertise and promise things you can't deliver.

+1

mid_gen · 13 May 2015 at 15:18

Haggisman said:
And therein lies the key to the issue - catering to the common denominator results in a substandard product for everyone else.

Economics of the industry I'm afraid, it has always been thus. Although the reduction of barriers to entry in the console market and explosion of cross-platform middleware means that single platform exclusives are extremely rare now, without a hefty financial incentive from a platform owner at least.

Sega Mega Dave · 13 May 2015 at 15:29

I personally think they're getting an easy ride because some believe they truly are the gods of pc development.

They've had a sniff of the console riches and in the process gave us the bare minimum in pc quality.

It's nothing to do with being optimistic, they're not amateurs and they know full well what's capable. They like Ubisoft and others decided to build the hype up and sucker in dedicated fans with advertisements that are in no way representative of the final product. Yes early dev videos are pure advertisement and nothing more.

Like I say if this was EA or Ubisoft there would be uproar.

Thankfully i've not pre-ordered and will get it on the cheap in a few months. That said the combat in W2 was truly awful so i hope that's improved or I wont bother at all.

PsychoPigeon · 13 May 2015 at 15:35

Look at this blatant dodging of the question regarding graphics from their community manager:

Ok guys, I belive a word of clarification is required. These are just rumors, and as we’ve said before we don’t comment on such. Secondly you have to remember that our game is a big release – a lot of people have been anticipating it and quite a few would like to gain some publicity from it even when it means talking about things which are not true. Wild Hunt comes out in a few days and you will be able to find out for yourself if the game is up to your standards.

We believe so – we’ve worked really hard for 3 years to deliver you best possible experience – we love The Witcher as much as you do. To conlude we’d rather have you focus on the game and the fact that it’s going to be in your hand in a matter of days. And one more thing – whenever we say something officially, we always put a person behind it.

wunkley · 13 May 2015 at 15:49

Looks like I may be sticking with my pair of 780Tis for longer than I thought then. If this is true of course.

On the one hand it will save me cash, but I was looking forward to doing a new gaming build with a shiny TX or 980Ti at the heart if it. Ah well. What's the next game coming any time soon that will actually require a GPU upgrade?

sharpygsxr · 13 May 2015 at 16:09

Ignoring the early marketing BS footage and looking at the game in its current form i personally cant wait for it.

Im more than happy with the visuals (ill be getting it for PS4 most likely) and the universally positive reviews leave me in no doubt its gonna be an awesome experience.

I just hope the combat feels a little better than it did in 2

northwestdakota · 13 May 2015 at 16:10

wunkley said:
Looks like I may be sticking with my pair of 780Tis for longer than I thought then. If this is true of course.

On the one hand it will save me cash, but I was looking forward to doing a new gaming build with a shiny TX or 980Ti at the heart if it. Ah well. What's the next game coming any time soon that will actually require a GPU upgrade?

The next BIG game for PC that will likely test hardware is probably Star Citizen and The Division, both of which are next year. Of course there are other big games like the next Batman, but given they are console games i'm not sure how demanding they will be (not taking into account poor ports). I know The Division is also a console game, but it looks like it might try and push the hardware. And yes, I know, Ubisoft, it's going to be Watachdogs 2.0 im alsmot sure of it.

northwestdakota · 13 May 2015 at 16:15

sharpygsxr said:
Ignoring the early marketing BS footage and looking at the game in its current form i personally cant wait for it.

Im more than happy with the visuals (ill be getting it for PS4 most likely) and the universally positive reviews leave me in no doubt its gonna be an awesome experience.

I just hope the combat feels a little better than it did in 2

I agree with you, 100%. But imo PC gamers need a reason to spend big on hardware, if AAA games are going to look the same as console then I might as well buy a PS4 instead of a Titan.

O.D. · 13 May 2015 at 16:15

Just paid for the pre-order, going to hope my Tri-X holds up. Trying to find excuses to not buy another..

If only 3XX series were coming out.. If only I promised the GF my PC spare parts.. A whole PC can be counted as a spare part right?

ValiantUK91 · 13 May 2015 at 16:16

Anyone who uses GoG galaxy do you know of any pictures similar to the one in the background when your on the witcher wild hunt page/download screen really want to make a signature using it but cant find the picture or one similar

razorpakk · 13 May 2015 at 16:21

Option 1: CDPR didn't have enough resources/time to keep all the extra details of the old builds, while also working on PS4/One, so they decided to "downgrade" the PC version so that bug fixing and optimization could be streamlined.

Option 2: CDPR downgraded the PC version to not make console versions look bad.

Since the option 2 is ridicolous, how can you fault the developers, which didn't really have a choice in this situation?
I'm clearly a fan of The Witcher, and maybe I cannot see what is obvious, please explain.