Game News The Witcher patched to 1.2

[Elwro]

Tags: CD Projekt; Witcher, The

The much awaited 1.2 patch for <a href="http://www.thewitcher.com">The Witcher</a> is finally out. Get it from <a href="http://www.thewitcher.com/registration/en/www/patch.html">here</a>. There's no official changelog, but here's what CDProjekt have <a href="http://www.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?topic=7466.0">said</a> on the forums:
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<blockquote>Patch 1.2 fixes, among all, the issues of older versions that were most commented on, such as long loading and saving times, loading/saving mechanism, removes many possible random crashes, as well as several minor bugs. Patch 1.2 works with older versions of the game, starting from 1.0.</blockquote>
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Thanks, <strong>1eyedking</strong>!

 

[Seboss]

About time

 

[Nedrah]

Anyone got it, yet?
Please let us know if it does what it says, especially considering loading times.

 

[Suicidal]

Does it by any chance fuck up old saved games or anything of that sort?

Also, will 1eyedking's english text fix work after the patch?

 

[Pimpernel]

Changelog describing the major fixes can be found in the Readme file.

Edit: Full changelog has been released on the official site (may contain spoilers):

======================================================
5a. Patch 1.2 Major Fixes
======================================================

Gameplay and text bugs fixed:
- Fixes for Alina not being at her home when she should (Act 4).
- Wife's Tears Potion fixes.
- Fixes for usable doors on the swamps (Act 5).
- Fixes for Alchemist in manufacture giving quest items to Geralt (Act 3).
- Fixes for some items to be found in Fields (Act 4).
- Fixes for a disappearing enemy in quest Haunted House (Act2).
- Fixed problems with Alvin's spawn (Act 1).
- Few minor text fixes for all languages.

Code bugs fixed:
- Loading times are much faster!
- Saving is much faster!
- Another portion of stability improvements.
- Fix for rare "red rectangle" effect on loading bar.
- Quest tracking fixes.
- Some cursor fixes connected with finishers in tight places.
- Quest now won't update when Geralt is dead causing multiple problems.
- Autosave mechanism fixes (numeration).
- Savegame files fixes – some irrelevant information was sometimes generated inside.
- The game won't make an autosave if Geralt has an effect preventing him from talking (like knockdown, stun, push) - the result would be no talking at all for the rest of the game.
- Now you can't attack neutral NPCs if you input the second (etc.) sword sequence in them, while first attacking a hostile.
- Dandelion's music won't be 'echoed' while changing location twice.
- The game can handle broken savegames now – it returns to main menu.
- Motion blur effect won't stay active despite Blizzard potion wearing off – drinking, then changing location, then cutscene.
- Final fixes for weapons disappearing from enemies’ hands.
- Grass and small stones being multiplied – fixed.
- Fixes for receiving damage from Striga while being far away.

Art bugs fixed:
- Few level decoration fixes.
- Fixes for barghest attack animation.

 

[1eyedking]

Also, will 1eyedking's english text fix work after the patch?

It's still working :D .

 

[Suicidal]

Glad to hear it.

Finally downloaded and installed it. Everything seems intact and the load times are definitely shorter. Happy day!

 

[Texas Red]

WIN WIN WIN OH GOD

Before I had definitely over a minute long loading times when exiting to the streets. Now they are only several seconds!

Now the number 1 complaint of reviews is fixed but I doubt anyone will care to correct the reviews.

 

[aron searle]

Wonder if they have fixed the lag in the trade district?

 

[Elhoim]

Wonder if they have fixed the lag in the trade district?

Me too.

On a side note, IIRC, they were going to change something with the sword sheeting animations, but I can´t see any changes about that in the log.

 

[1eyedking]

Wonder if they have fixed the lag in the trade district?

Fixed :D .

The swamp plays much more smoothly as well!

 

[Madman]

It works, saving is MUCH faster, loadings also. Worth of downloading, definitely. Haven't checked swamps yet

 

[Suicidal]

Fixed .

The swamp plays much more smoothly as well!

Really? That's great! So far the swamp and the battle with The Beast were the only times when the game actually lagged.

A big thanks to CD Projekt for further improving their engine and showing that a game can have BOTH great graphics and a good performance. This is by far the first game I've played which runs smoothly with everything set on MAX on a PC that barely satisfies the recommended requirements.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

CDP Red should get an official hug from the Codex.

 

[made]

Wonder if they have fixed the lag in the trade district?

Fixed :D .

The swamp plays much more smoothly as well!

The only slowdowns I've noticed was in chapter 5, with all those NPCs fighting and fires everywhere. The patch didn't improve that as I had hoped, although turning shadows off makes it playable at least.

 

[The Internets]

Does this patch remove the Polish?

Also, I made a claim a while back that this patch would increase nudity by 15%. Has this been brought to fruition?

If not, I'm whipping out TEH UNINSTALLZ!

 

[Black_Willow]

Does this patch remove the Polish?

You certainly have a problem.

 

[The Internets]

^ So true.

Anyway, for me, load time improvements seems to be hit and miss. Trade Quarter still takes about 45 seconds for the first load, same as with 1.1a. Subsequent loads are a bit faster, but again, not noticeably so over 1.1a. Mind you I've got a RAID 0 boot disc config, so I find this a bit disheartening.

Same with saves, they used to take 15 seconds on average, they still do now.

Also, the dreaded play for more than 2 hours in Vista and it crashes is still there. Seriously, it crashes my system every time.

Finally, there seems to be a problem with Specular highlights. I first noticed it with Geralts hair, and now Trisss' face is completely blown out with highlights.
i really don't care, but it's something that's hard not to notice. Could be video drivers though.

On the plus side it feels like opening inventory for the first time is faster.


On the whole, I'm sick of waiting, so I'm just gonna be happy with what I've got and start playing again.

[EDIT]
One last thing, in addition to the crash issue stated above, after playing now for a couple hours I can say the game crashes much more frequently now. Some guy posting on the official forums basically states the same thing:

Is it just me, or is there an issue with the game crashing more? I'm in ACT IV right now, and the game crashes randomly, and I get an xfire error report. Is there some sort of computability issue?

I'm updating my graphics drivers right now to make sure that its not a system error. I think the game only crashed once from my entire play through until 1.2 installation. Now, its crashed twice in the last couple of hours.

I hope they get this straitened out, but with the holidays basically here, it may be a long wait.

 

[Elwro]

With 3 GBs of RAM and Windows XP, I've noticed a clear improvement of the loading times and general framerate.

 

[AdrianWerner]

Huge improvement. Mostly because the game finally caches. The big loads might take half the time they took in 1.1, but most importantly when you enter the building the game doesn't dump all the outside data. So going back to the exteriors takes couple seconds, the game doesn;t load the whole level from scratch anymore.

Good job CDProjekt

 

[Admiral Rimjob POOBUM]

Is it still going to make me cry if I only have 1GB of RAM

 

[Humbert Humbert]

Huge improvement. Mostly because the game finally caches. The big loads might take half the time they took in 1.1, but most importantly when you enter the building the game doesn't dump all the outside data. So going back to the exteriors takes couple seconds, the game doesn;t load the whole level from scratch anymore.

Good job CDProjekt

This is very good news, I'm glad that's fixed now because it made me dread entering any house.

 

[Elhoim]

I like that now in 1024x768 the GUI doesn´t look like shit.

 

[yarpen]

Is it still going to make me cry if I only have 1GB of RAM

Loading times should be a little shorter with 1gb as well (especially in the enter/exit situation, when we can cache some data), but I wont shit you -- it works much worse than with 2gb. Game just takes so much memory, that it uses swapfile almost constantly with 1gb of RAM.

 

[[Jez]]

Is it still going to make me cry if I only have 1GB of RAM

Loading times should be a little shorter with 1gb as well (especially in the enter/exit situation, when we can cache some data), but I wont shit you -- it works much worse than with 2gb. Game just takes so much memory, that it uses swapfile almost constantly with 1gb of RAM.

Honesty from a Dev..... its a brave new world we live in
Thank you for the patch, I stopped playing to wait for it and now I can go back to dog fat collecting