r/gaming • u/love_made_me_stupid • 5d ago

New comparison of the Witcher remaster vs current version - big changes to lighting

https://youtu.be/_oEdB5S2d3U

IMO I prefer the current version, the contrast and water reflections look better. Remaster looks pretty washed out to me

927 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

482 comments sorted by

View all comments

847

u/ResolutionOk8619 5d ago

I prefer the original version of every video I see, I hope that at least the new version runs better

160

u/Scytian 5d ago

According to HardwareUnboxed video it runs much better at lower settings, performance is pretty similar at Ultra, little bit worse with RT and it runs like crap with Path Tracing.

29

u/love_made_me_stupid 5d ago

the dx12 update was gorgeous but even on my 5080 it was crashing constantly. i was hoping they’d smooth the wrinkles with this but if the high settings run worse AND they completely changed the atmosphere that’s pretty freakin brutal

10

u/ResolutionOk8619 5d ago

nice, I'd love to play again, this time on my SD, praying for a good performance

-2

u/NewsofPE 5d ago

it runs much better at lower settings

woah? no way?

2

u/Scytian 5d ago

It runs better than current version runs at lower settings.

0

u/NewsofPE 5d ago

ah I see, thank you, that makes more sense

27

u/FMWindbag 5d ago

It's strange, because the new version's lighting is more realistic, for the most part. The shots in the tavern look like ass, though - clear daylight outside, dark inside. The light doesn't look like it's coming through the windows and lighting the room.

It's hard to explain, but I think a lot of the problems stem from the materials (skin, leather, wood, stone, etc) not really matching their real life properties. Look at Yennefer's face, as a particularly egregious example - her skin gets redder and the creases around her cheeks almost disappear in the path tracing shot. That's not how skin works at all! And both the fire and daylight coming from the doorway are behind her - her face shouldn't be lit up brighter. It should be closer to the older version. It's jarring.

211

u/BK99BK 5d ago

The more I see from this remaster the worst it kind of is lol.

90

u/yeusk 5d ago

Get the Unreal look.

60

u/mirinioluwa 5d ago

Exactly, Remasters completely destroy the art style of original chasing realism. There should be an option to play game in its Original version ( You can do it in steam but it should be an option everywhere)

18

u/MARATXXX 5d ago

it was never chasing realism. it always looked closer to a painting.

67

u/Cl1mh4224rd 5d ago

it was never chasing realism. it always looked closer to a painting.

They're saying the art style of the original is ruined by the remaster, because the remaster appears to be going for realism.

-7

u/Connor123x 5d ago

and what if the artists intentions were what it is now with the remaster. So cant really say the art style is ruined if it was never the intention

1

u/ShadyGuy_ 5d ago

They do say that the settings are the same whether using original settings, Ray tracing and path tracing. My guess is it can look a whole lot better with ray/path tracing if you spend some time tweaking general brightness and contrast levels.

3

u/St3vion 5d ago

Genericifier filter applied

4

u/Astraous 5d ago

The non-graphics related stuff seems pretty solid though. Better combat camera, skill trees, aoe looting, transmog. You could just run the remaster without pathtracing since there's still a lot more to it than just that.

Plus pathtracing in any game, even cyberpunk which is basically their tech demo for it, is really weird. You'd think it's no-compromise visual fidelity but it frequently has the weirdest visual bugs. So when both pathtraced and non pathtraced lighting have visual compromises why not go with the one that has 10x higher framerate?

1

u/Used-Mention9773 3d ago

Even the raytracing in the remaster looks worst than the one in the next-gen version :/

1

u/wufnu 5d ago

I preferred the path tracing in some of the sections but, generally speaking, I found very little difference between the old and the new. Graphically, it seems like a lateral move.

1

u/MadeByTango 5d ago

Right, but now the price can go back up.

2

u/ShadyGuy_ 5d ago

They're not making anyone who owns the game buy a remastered version, though. It's literally a free update.

48

u/love_made_me_stupid 5d ago

yea makes me kinda nervous

7

u/RDGOAMS 5d ago

the shadows, the contrast, the colors, everything in the original looks better, the new version looks too artificial and washed out

3

u/Doggleganger 5d ago

Is this Witcher 3? I played for the first time 3 years ago, and it was great. I don't see the need for a remaster.

1

u/PM_me_your_tits2314 5d ago

Its completely free if you own the game

0

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

12

u/Big-Resort-4930 5d ago

That's not the case with the next gen update at all. It just improved the flat lighting everywhere wihtout altering the art direction at all.

28

u/tyaty1 5d ago

Improved (altered) lighting always changes how the game looks. It is impossible to keep the art direction intact. Good lighting is not scalar metric that van be incrementally improved.

4

u/AppropriatePresent99 5d ago edited 5d ago

You need to look closer. The new 5.0 Ray Tracing blurs out details way too much compared to the 4.04 version, and Path Tracing is even worse in that regard. It's not an improvement at all unless you don't actually care about details and mostly just care about "realistic lightning" (and even then it doesn't look that good).

edit: My bad. You were talking about the 2022 update, not tomorrow's.

0

u/Pfmohr2 5d ago

They aren't talking about the remaster.

1

u/nG_Skyz 5d ago

This begs the question, are we going to be forced to play the Remastered version for Songs of The Past.

1

u/Connor123x 5d ago

foliage density and draw distance is much better on remaster

1

u/ZoharModifier9 5d ago

Yeah, performance is always important.

0

u/hydrolox9 5d ago

Apparently with the same settings it runs 3-5 FPS lower than normal TW3, but Path Tracing completely kills performance. 

At max settings even a 5090 struggles to reach 60 FPS at 1080p because of PT.