The free The Witcher 3 Next-Gen update landed last week on PC and next-generation consoles, delivering massively improved visuals compared to the vanilla version of CD Projekt RED's masterpiece.
The PC version goes one step further, thanks to the ray traced effects (global illumination, shadows, ambient occlusion, and reflections) and the Ultra+ graphics preset. However, we always imagined modders wouldn't be content for long, even with the updated graphics, before tinkering further.
In just a few days, we already have the first graphics mod that pushes The Witcher 3 Next-Gen beyond the developers' vision. NexusMods user A100N found working additional parameters for all the following settings:
- Number of background characters +1 setting
- Shadow quality +4 setting
- Terrain quality +1 setting
- Water quality +3 setting
- Foliage visibility range +2 setting
- Grass density +3 setting
- Texture quality +1 setting
- Detail level +1 setting
As you can see in the video above, the result is quite impressive. The Extreme settings mainly enhance the LOD and detail of meshes and foliage over the default The Witcher 3 Next-Gen version. Additionally, the ray traced effects such as reflections take advantage of the enhanced range, enabling awesome sights on lakes and open waters.
Of course, this will make it even harder on your PC to run the already heavy new version of The Witcher 3. Still, the mod's creator provided a DX11 file for those willing to forego the ray tracing for improved performance. Installation is supposed to be pretty simple, too, requiring users to merely paste the "BIN" folder into the main directory of the game. In case you get the double graphics menu bug, delete the graphics_ORG.xml or graphicsdx11_ORG files and copy the original ones.
In other The Witcher 3 Next-Gen news, CD Projekt RED released another hotfix today on PC, further improving the overall stability and introducing fixes to photo mode, Arabic language in the game, toxicity bug, Steam Deck, and more.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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