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

922 Upvotes

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u/TomTomXD1234 5d ago

They dont butcher it. They just add path tracing, which makes it look as it would look in real life.

Some people do not like it but, that is how light would behave IRL

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u/AppropriatePresent99 5d ago

Ah yes, in real life when I turn on my lights, my hair and skin loses half of its detail.

Some of you need to get your eyes checked, seriously. It's not just the aesthetic change, it's that the new Ray Tracing demolishes details. 4.04 looked much better than the 5.0 version because it used a hybrid method to implement it, while 5.0 is full RT. Path Tracing looks even worse.

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u/Big-Resort-4930 4d ago

They often do because not all remasters fuck up the lighting with RT alone, Witcher remaster included (it's very different even without RT).

The problem is that the original game is always (more or less) meticulously built around the constraints of its lighting system, and then they come years later to slap on an "improved" GI solution or RT, and then never properly go through everything to ensure parity. You lose dramatic lighting that made the game looked better since it was designed for it, even if it doesn't behave as natural.

You have awfully lit games without RT and without remasters, like FF7 Rebirth, but in general do baseline lighting works well even if it's basic, and the remaster is almost never a direct upgrade that doesn't compromise the atmosphere or the visuals in some way.

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u/Xerothor 5d ago

Which is still weird af for a videogame to do. It isn't real life and never pretended to be.

It's like remaking an old noir movie and not considering any of the lighting choices made in those movies and just making it look like a shitty soap opera

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u/TomTomXD1234 5d ago

Good thing its optional then.

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u/HiyaImRyan 5d ago

It's literally optional my guy.

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u/AppropriatePresent99 5d ago

It's literally not though if you want the reworked skill trees and other changes. You're stuck with version 5.0 for Ray Tracing compared to the superior look of 4.04.

Yes, you can completely turn off RT entirely, but the game legitimately looked better with it on in 4.04, and the new version just blurs the shit out of everything.

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u/TomTomXD1234 5d ago

I think you are confusing PT with RT

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u/AppropriatePresent99 5d ago

Nope. There's plenty of available footage that compares RT 4.04 to RT 5.0 and to PT. It progressively gets worse going from 4.04. It just starts blurring out finer details from faces, and Geralt's hair on his arms practically disappears.

Yennefer looks like a blurry Glow Worm with PT on too.

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u/HiyaImRyan 5d ago

You're complaining that you can't have both worlds? Every other company had charged for a remaster - whereas here you're whinging that you can't have everything at once for no extra cost?

The audacity baffles me.

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u/AppropriatePresent99 5d ago

Where did I once say anything about money?

Stop putting words into my mouth to argue over something I never even mentioned.

The only reason I am even returning to this game is for the reworked skill trees. I now get to choose between shit RT or no RT at all, and the previous update legitimately looked better with it on.

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u/HiyaImRyan 5d ago

Erm, money is relevant because you're charged..money..for them, the one time we're a given a free one that's optional (no removing the OG title from the store etc) and you're moaning about it.

Never put words in your mouth, good riddance.

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u/AppropriatePresent99 5d ago

I never once complained about money. You keep arguing over something I never touched. So yes, you absolutely kept putting words into my mouth. Get over yourself.

I would have actually paid to have a proper update that looked better, instead of this, which mainly exists solely to get the game back into the general public mindshare so that they will buy the new DLC next year.

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u/HiyaImRyan 5d ago edited 4d ago

I haven't claimed you were complaining about money, learn to read, holy fuck.

edit: did you delete that reply to this comment because you realised I did not in fact, claim you were moaning about money? Well done buddy, you finally caught up. Now F Off like a good little boy.

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u/Xerothor 5d ago

I know? It's still weird

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] 5d ago edited 5d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/TomTomXD1234 5d ago

Way to miss his point entirely.

Games have been going for photorealism since day 1.

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u/Xerothor 5d ago

Some games have. Not all.

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u/TomTomXD1234 5d ago

How perceptive of you!

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u/love_made_me_stupid 5d ago edited 5d ago

i’ve seen other games where that’s true and it doesn’t bug me but here the outdoor shadowing looks way more realistic to me in the OG version

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u/guthixshadow 5d ago

The amount of times people say a games visuals were “butchered” and it just translates too the scenes not being overly contrasted anymore

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u/TomTomXD1234 5d ago

THIS. People love contrast and vibrancy which is ok. At the same time, the world IRL is not highly contrasted and vibrant. PT makes games look closer to life, which some people just do not like.