Today, CD Projekt RED released a new The Witcher 3 update on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles. Version 4.03 delivers a host of improvements, chiefly for the PC version, which now supports Intel Xe Super Sampling (XeSS) upscaling.
Most exciting is the mention of several performance enhancements for ray tracing effects like global illumination and reflections. Introduced with the Next-Gen edition, the ray tracing proved to be extremely taxing even on the most high-end PCs.
Beyond that, there were several lingering visual bugs that this The Witcher 3 update aims to address, such as ray traced shadows from vegetation appearing and disappearing depending on Geralt's proximity and camera angle, or black shadows coloring the edge of objects if the user had repeatedly enabled and disabled ray tracing.
A grid of light spots previously showed up on walls and the ground in certain weathers with ray tracing enabled. That has been fixed now, and so has the issue of spider webs shifting colors with camera movement while ray tracing is active.
CD Projekt RED also fixed some lighting bugs caused by Screen Space Reflections (SSR) when ray tracing is disabled. Moreover, AMD GPUs using DirectX11 shouldn't experience the crashing bug on launch or after loading a save anymore.
The Witcher 3 update 4.03 has a handful of console-specific fixes, too:
- The Cross Progression pop-up will now properly display which account is logged in.
- Fixed an issue where dark stripes or shadows appeared on Geralt in the inventory screen when Performance Mode was enabled on PlayStation 5.
- Fixed an issue where the game could briefly freeze or stutter when autosaving on next-gen consoles.
- Addressed the issue of performance drops on next-gen consoles while using Witcher Senses in Beauclair and Novigrad.
It's not all about technical fixes in The Witcher 3 update 4.03, anyway. CD Projekt RED also added the community mod Next Gen Script Fixes to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series S|X and introduced the following features and additions to all platforms:
- In the Eternal Fire's Shadow - The ambient music from the quest will no longer continue playing after completion. For players who have already experienced this issue, it may be necessary to enter the Novigrad or Oxenfurt sewers again to resolve it.
- Added an option to auto-apply oils in combat.
- With the exception of potions and decoctions, it's now impossible for Geralt to eat or drink underwater.
The Witcher 3 update 4.03 hasn't been deployed on the Nintendo Switch version yet, though the developers are reportedly working to release it as soon as possible.
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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