Game News The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Revealed

[Grotesque]

where the fuck are the horse reins in those pictures?
that detail it totally destroys the immersion for me
fuckin' trillion dollars project and misses one trivial aspect as this?

 

[tuluse]

It was my understanding that TW2 didn't even sell that much on consoles - or at least I can certainly say no console gamer I'm friends acquainted with was really going "oh yeah, I've been eagerly anticipating this game all along!" Should just make it PC exclusive, come on CDP, you know you want to...

I think they did 2 million sales on PC and .5 on Xbox. Wasn't released on PS3.

 

[Jaesun]

They didn't do a simultaneous launch like most titles today do though. That more than likely effected the XBox sales (they would probably be higher).

 

[Dexter]

I just had a realization, maybe CDProjekt is trying to show the superiority of potato Poland over great Kwa nation by outdoing them with every one of their games?

They set out to beat Obsidian's Neverwinter Nights 2 with The Witcher.
Then they set out to beat Bioware's Dragon Egg/Mass Defect Series with The Witcher 2.
Now they set their gaze on Bethesda and Skyrim with The Witcher 3.
Also they got their sights on Fallobst 4 and Deus Ex: HR with Cyberpunk 2077.

Also I updated my Post on Page1 to add all the shit from throughout the thread. Hyped and I hoped to not be that again ever about video games after what Battlefield 3 turned into.

I understand. But I've still never seen any game that had featured such detailed interiors without requiring them to be loaded as their own cell. In Witcher2 once you opened the door to the tavern, you could see everything inside, but Geralt was on automatic pilot there for a second as he stepped inside (or out). That's how they performed the "cell load" (if I'm using that term correctly). Maybe they're doing the same thing here, but it's hard to tell from the screenshots.

The difference, though, is the presence of an open doorway. What if you walk up just close enough to it to look inside, but the transition hasn't happened yet? Maybe you only see part of the tavern with no NPC's moving around yet? It's going to be a little awkward to have them and more detail just "pop in" to view once you cross the threshhold.

Then again, knowing CDP, who do push the tech boundaries, maybe they can pull off a truly seamless outdoor/indoor world with transitions occurring efficiently in the background. It's certainly intriguing and I have to admit rather encouraging from the consoletards' standpoint if the new units will be able to handle that kind of demand.

Bro, PCs have been capable of this shit for years, there's Backface Culling/Occlusion Culling/Frustum Culling etc. implemented in most engines so that you only render exactly what you can see and not waste any Rendering Time on other shit.
The reason Skyrim, Witcher 2 and even FPS games like Portal 2 or Crysis 2 have levels that small and with constant loading screens (and the more open-worldy ones with a lot less detail, a lot of repeating set-pieces/models and the same textures, as well as using content-streaming) is because consoles only have fucking 512MB RAM (which is shared on the Xbawks and the PS3 has 512MB too, but split between 256MB XDR for the Cell and 256MB GDDR3 for the graphics).

Some of this shit has been possible for ~5+ years on PCs, but games were simply not designed for those Specs (including Witcher 2 from its Core Design) because they had intended them to run on those machines.

I mean, just look at what CryTek had to do to Crysis, so it can run on the Xbawks cause not enough memory:


In fact I wouldn't be surprised if they delayed GTAV to be able to make it a "cross generation" game or something that releases on both these and "Next Gen" consoles, even if they're denying it right now: http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/05/t...has-nothing-to-do-with-the-next-gen-consoles/ and even most of EAs games by internal studios will jump on more "Open Worldy" engines e.g. Dragon Egg 3 and Mass Defect 4 are using Frostbite 2, which might both become an even greater failure than imagined, since BioWare never seemed to be the techy types and they get to develop their next games without any previous experience on an engine developed by DICE, which are right up there with CryTek while EA is breathing down their necks to release as soon as possible.

 

[Rivmusique]

It was my understanding that TW2 didn't even sell that much on consoles - or at least I can certainly say no console gamer I'm friends acquainted with was really going "oh yeah, I've been eagerly anticipating this game all along!" Should just make it PC exclusive, come on CDP, you know you want to...

One of the next-gen consoles launch titles I'd say. Witcher 2 showed that is what they prefer to build for.

 

[Metro]

Why are most gamers so obsessed with trivial things like horseback riding?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Miss January likes horseback riding, naked volleyball and luring idiots to their deaths.

 

[Crispy]

Good info, Dexter, thank you.

I still maintain that no computer game has ever featured the kind of seamless interior detail that I'm speculating Witcher 3 might have, and for whatever reason that is it'll be interesting to see if it's the first.

 

[codexian reject]

Have you played any Piranha Bytes game ? Gothic 3 specifically having the best graphics among them ? Or goddamn Crysis for that mater ? We have this on PC exclusives for years.

BTW, they promised this for The Witcher 2 already. I still remember gamedev videos describing throwing a gas bomb through a window and then putting gas on fire with igni sign and burning everyone inside...
We will see if they deliver this time. It'll still most probably be like in W2 when you had simplified scene without NPCs behind a door and opening animation with following fade to black is when loading was happening.
There are only four *loading screens* in W2, lack of them does not mean seamless transition, lol. Open world also can be nothing like TES games, but a bunch of W2 styled locations connected through chokepoints.

Given RED engine being such a clunky mess of middleware, this is what I expect after W2 lies. Renderer was a bit meh too, W2 has amazing assests quality and that carried visuals.
That said, I am looking forward to W3. I've enjoyed both Witcher games well enough. Shitty gameplay, but nice atmosphere, story and art. I just don't get my hopes high on technology aspect and don't expect much interactivity.

 

[Black]

Why are most gamers so obsessed with trivial things like horseback riding?

No idea, I always found horses boring and shit animals.
No offence, Andyman.

 

[Borelli]

I couldn't help but notice longboats and pseudo-vikings in those screenshots. I'm not particularly versed in Witcher's geography but didn't at the end of W2 Geralt travel from Northern kingdoms south towards Nilfgaard?

 

[Storyfag]

The pseudo-vikings of the Skellige Islands live to the southwest of the lands seen in TW1 and to west by southwest of the lands seen in TW2. And if it's winter, well, some snow is a given even well into southern Nilfgaardian territories, let alone the borderlands with the Northern Kingdoms.

Also, the snow might be a plot point. Keep the story of TW1 in mind :]

 

[MasPingon]

Is it me or The Witcher lost it's eastern european landscapes and architecture feel since TW1? Running through the Outskirts of Vizima or Visima itself you could tell the difference between what you see on the screen and all the other shit in the market. What I liked most was that the landscapes were flat, which makes them natural. This was largely caused by the engine limitation, still it was a nice change from Bethesda "lets put a mountains in PC field of view everywhere, to make a world look bigger" philosophy. Now look at this

If I didin't know it's TW3 I would say it's one of those random Oblivion/ Skyrim towns

 

[Mrowak]

Is it me or The Witcher lost it's eastern european landscapes and architecture feel since TW1? Running through the Outskirts of Vizima or Visima itself you could tell the difference between what you see on the screen and all the other shit in the market. What I liked most was that the landscapes were flat, which makes them natural. This was largely caused by the engine limitation, still it was a nice change from Bethesda "lets put a mountains in PC field of view everywhere, to make a world look bigger" philosophy. Now look at this

If I didin't know it's TW3 I would say it's one of those random Oblivion/ Skyrim towns

A natural consequence of having open world, methinks. Skellige Islands and their Norse-like culture with landscapes and all are canon, so CDPRed are not betraying the roots. For me it's good that distinctive parts of the world have their own customs, arts and architecture. You don't see that too often in games.

 

[Metro]

Guess Medieval Eastern Europe had a lot of neon lights and bloom.

 

[bonescraper]

Some of this shit has been possible for ~5+ years on PCs, but games were simply not designed for those Specs (including Witcher 2 from its Core Design) because they had intended them to run on those machines.

I mean, just look at what CryTek had to do to Crysis, so it can run on the Xbawks cause not enough memory:

Similar thing happened recently with Far Cry 3.

Early build E3 presentation:

Actual game (maxed out settings, my screenshot):

 

[MasPingon]

Is it me or The Witcher lost it's eastern european landscapes and architecture feel since TW1? Running through the Outskirts of Vizima or Visima itself you could tell the difference between what you see on the screen and all the other shit in the market. What I liked most was that the landscapes were flat, which makes them natural. This was largely caused by the engine limitation, still it was a nice change from Bethesda "lets put a mountains in PC field of view everywhere, to make a world look bigger" philosophy. Now look at this

If I didin't know it's TW3 I would say it's one of those random Oblivion/ Skyrim towns

A natural consequence of having open world, methinks. Skellige Islands and their Norse-like culture with landscapes and all are canon, so CDPRed are not betraying the roots. For me it's good that distinctive parts of the world have their own customs, arts and architecture. You don't see that too often in games.

That shit on the screenshot is nothing unique, Skyrim all the way. Dwarven town in TW2 was also a mess. What's the point of making distinctive parts of the world have their own customs, arts and architecture if it looks just like in any other western european game? It's like one step forward, two steps back

 

[Infinitron]

The Witcher isn't exactly supposed to be a portrayal of Eastern Europe. It's more like Western European fantasy viewed through Eastern European eyes.

Besides, Eastern Europe is actually more mountainous than Western Europe.

 

[Mrowak]

Is it me or The Witcher lost it's eastern european landscapes and architecture feel since TW1? Running through the Outskirts of Vizima or Visima itself you could tell the difference between what you see on the screen and all the other shit in the market. What I liked most was that the landscapes were flat, which makes them natural. This was largely caused by the engine limitation, still it was a nice change from Bethesda "lets put a mountains in PC field of view everywhere, to make a world look bigger" philosophy. Now look at this

If I didin't know it's TW3 I would say it's one of those random Oblivion/ Skyrim towns

A natural consequence of having open world, methinks. Skellige Islands and their Norse-like culture with landscapes and all are canon, so CDPRed are not betraying the roots. For me it's good that distinctive parts of the world have their own customs, arts and architecture. You don't see that too often in games.

That shit on the screenshot is nothing unique, Skyrim all the way. Dwarven town in TW2 was also a mess. What's the point of making distinctive parts of the world have their own customs, arts and architecture if it looks just like in any other western european game? It's like one step forward, two steps back

Because reality is the best teacher. It's western european because these parts of the world have been described as western european, even in the novels. They have the subject matter and they stick to it. And the Dwarven town in TW2? I thought it was quite original. I mean, where do you have architecture like that in Western Europe? Or where did they portray Dwarven towns in the same vein?

 

[Gerrard]

where the fuck are the horse reins in those pictures?
that detail it totally destroys the immersion for me
fuckin' trillion dollars project and misses one trivial aspect as this?

The horses look pretty unfinished even in terms of basic textures. Calm your... horses.

Bro, PCs have been capable of this shit for years, there's Backface Culling/Occlusion Culling/Frustum Culling etc. implemented in most engines so that you only render exactly what you can see and not waste any Rendering Time on other shit.

Explain to me then, why, in pretty much every game I can think of, if you stand at the edge of the map/level and look towards the center while standing in front of a wall it still drops your FPS. Then try looking towards the "outside" of the map and notice the difference.

 

[Kahlis]

Why are most gamers so obsessed with trivial things like horseback riding?

No idea, I always found horses boring and shit animals.
No offence, Andyman.

The horses you have in games like Oblivion and Skyrim don't compare to the real freedom and maneuverability you had from casting a 50pt Jump spell on yourself and leaping across rivers in Morrowind. Or casting levitation on your horse in Daggerfall.

I don't know, I'm just not really a fan of any of those situations where your character's movement becomes all clunky, with the cut to third person and shitty full body awareness motion capture animations. I want to slide around like in Doom and Quake!

 

[Semper]

Explain to me then, why, in pretty much every game I can think of, if you stand at the edge of the map/level and look towards the center while standing in front of a wall it still drops your FPS. Then try looking towards the "outside" of the map and notice the difference.

because there's to be a balance between calculating what you will see and rendering the assets. you simply can't cluster your engine with occlusion processing because all the evaluation of that data would destroy exactly that performance you tried to get. sometimes it's just better to live with speed drops instead of bombing your cpu with tons of formulas to calculate what to render. to get a better hang of it and somewhat simple entry you could read some articles about visibility optimization, occlusion culling / ued occ culling. plus there's tons of other stuff like lod, visibilty range, background streaming and so on.

basically every engine has those optimizations integrated.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Why are most gamers so obsessed with trivial things like horseback riding?

No idea, I always found horses boring and shit animals.
No offence, Andyman.

None taken.

I have the same opinion about blacks.

 

[Dexter]

Guess Medieval Eastern Europe had a lot of neon lights and bloom.

"CD Projekt RED has provided the screenshots you see here from its current in-game assets running on its Internal PC development hardware. However, the renderer - the part of the engine that translates the game files into what you ultimately see on screen - is still in development and will boast significant improvements by the time The Witcher 3 ships. "Right now you see the game in the old renderer, but it's going to be taken to a truly next level," says gameplay producer Marek ZSiemak. In particular, the developers tell us that skin shaders and the dynamic lighting model will be markedly more advanced in the final version."

It's probably still their DX10 Witcher 2 Renderer somewhat modified to allow for Open World, but I still don't see some of the stuff they've been talking about like the Tessellation effects.

 

[mikaelis]

Guess Medieval Eastern Europe had a lot of neon lights and bloom.

"CD Projekt RED has provided the screenshots you see here from its current in-game assets running on its Internal PC development hardware. However, the renderer - the part of the engine that translates the game files into what you ultimately see on screen - is still in development and will boast significant improvements by the time The Witcher 3 ships. "Right now you see the game in the old renderer, but it's going to be taken to a truly next level," says gameplay producer Marek ZSiemak. In particular, the developers tell us that skin shaders and the dynamic lighting model will be markedly more advanced in the final version."

It's probably still their DX10 Witcher 2 Renderer somewhat modified to allow for Open World, but I still don't see some of the stuff they've been talking about like the Tessellation effects.

Witcher 2 was DX9 only game, so no tesselation there.

I really hope they will have DX9 and DX11 renderer in the final game. Something like STALKER having different ones. I still remember you could run Stalker on really modest computers back then and it still looked ok. And when you had strong enough machine you could switch all bell and whistles.