The Witcher 3's next-gen ports for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S may have been delayed a few times already, but developer/publisher CD Projekt Red confirms it's still on track for Q4 2022. This means fans will get their crack at Geralt Of Rivia's adventures again by the holiday season, complete with all the bells and whistles of next-gen gaming.
witcher 3 next-gen
But which bells and whistles, exactly? That's what we're going to talk about here. Here's a list of what fans want the most in Witcher 3's return on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Ray Tracing
The first one is the most obvious (and perhaps biggest part of next-gen gaming). As per Dexerto, it's more or less confirmed that Witcher 3 next-gen will have official support for real-time ray tracing, as it should. This visual upgrade will be the most next-gen thing to happen to the game, giving it far more realistic-looking lighting, shadows, and reflections.
As for just how much of a graphical upgrade this can bring, it depends. Numerous reshade mods have been trying to imagine what ray tracing could look like in Witcher 3, and their efforts are extremely impressive in their own right:
Ray tracing is more or less a surefire addition to the PlayStation 5 and Series X ports of the game. As for Series S, that remains to be seen - though the tiny, capable console does support ray tracing out of the box.
Support For NVIDIA DLSS/AMD FSR On PC
Consoles have it a bit easy with ray tracing effects. All users need to do is go to the video/graphics settings and go for Quality/Ray Tracing mode by toggling it on, instead of Performance/Framerate mode. On PC, it's not so straightforward - which is why NVIDIA's DLSS and AMD's FSR is explicitly needed.
Ray tracing on PC is extremely hardware-demanding. As such, the performance downgrade must be offset by a supersampling tech like DLSS or FSR. These techniques render the game at a lower resolution and upscale them to fit a display's native res, mostly with not a lot of difference in terms of quality. The lower render resolution results in significant performance upgrades.
If Cyberpunk 2077's next-gen port is able to add DLSS and FSR, then there's no reason why Witcher 3 next-gen shouldn't. Otherwise, even the most powerful GPUs will be brought to their knees with RT and all other graphics settings turned way up - more so in resolutions beyond 1440p.
A Full-Blown New Expansion
CD Projekt Red made it clear that Witcher 3's last expansion, Blood And Wine, is the definitive end to Geralt's story. That's it. It followed the similarly excellent Hearts Of Stone, making the two DLC expansions among the best to ever release. They were so good that many folks were saying they could've been standalone games on their own.
witcher 3 blood and wine
But as GameRanx puts it, there's not a lot of better ways to bring players back than a new expansion to the story. They're arguing that an expansion could serve as a potential bridge between Witcher 3 and Witcher 4, which is already in development. This is NOT at all a confirmation that a new expansion is coming, but it will be an extremely welcome addition.
Read Also: Is Ray Tracing Worth It? Here's The Truth About 'RTX On'
Improved Hairworks Effects
Even if many modern graphics cards can run the game's NVIDIA HairWorks feature, it's still an iffy graphics setting to turn on these days. Perhaps Witcher 3 next-gen will feature far better implementation of this tech, and it makes sense given the power of new hardware.
According to GameRant, however, the effect shouldn't stop at Geralt's white mane where it sits on at the moment. It should be available for literally every character you meet (even NPCs), and animals wherever applicable. Some mods on PC are already doing this, but it's an exciting thought to have it done official-like. One thing is for certain: all those individual moving hairstrands do look next-gen.
Better Load Times And Draw Distance
Next-gen gaming on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S is also characterized by extremely fast load times. This allows the game to render the world far more effectively, but things shouldn't stop there.
With better loading times should also come increased draw distances. Even at Ultra settings, assets in The Witcher 3 as of the moment don't load up until you're within striking distance. This is particularly egregious with NPCs, which still suffer from pop-in even on the most powerful hardware. It's weird that CDPR still hasn't fixed this over the years, but it should be with the next-gen port.
A Benchmarking Suite
When Cyberpunk 2077's next-gen patch 1.5 launched, it came with an extremely useful benchmarking option in the graphics settings. This allowed PC players to thoroughly test their graphics settings before jumping into the game itself. In it, they can see whether or not performance is tanking, so they know which settings to turn down or up for a balanced gaming experience.
witcher 3 steam
Witcher 3 next-gen must have a benchmarking option. Bar none. Given that it will include ray tracing and potentially DLSS/FSR, then even more so. If it doesn't come with a benchmarking suite, then that would be inexcusable.
Related Article: Fans Of The Witcher Series Are Clamoring For A Remake Of The First Two Games
This article is posted on GameNGuide
Written by RJ Pierce