We are just a day away from the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered , or the free upgrade to the game that existing owners will receive, which launches on Sept. 29 across PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch 2.

While CDPR has shown off a number of upgrades to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered that go beyond simply making it look better (and it does look better), it has now released patch notes for a full look at the biggest changes coming to the game, from those visuals to gameplay and UI/UX. Here’s the list of the key ones, though you can see the entire thing here.

  • Implemented an improved shading model.
  • Updated multiple textures and models based on assets from The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project.
  • Improved lighting and shading for grass and foliage.
  • Updated the visual effects of Signs, including their upgrade versions.
  • Added new visual effects for skills.
  • The game now features native DirectX 12 rendering with multithreading for better performance and visuals.
  • Updated tone mapping for improved colors, lighting, contrast and detail.
  • Added GTAO (Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion) as a new Screen Space Ambient Occlusion option.
  • Updated the HDR calibration panel by adding new options and other improvements.
  • Added Ray-Traced HairWorks for improved lighting and shading on hair.
  • Improved Motion Blur with a higher-quality, more cinematic look.
  • Updated Subsurface Scattering for more natural skin rendering.
  • Improved terrain and material rendering for more natural lighting, shadows, reflections, and highlights.
  • Implemented new Image-Based Lighting (IBL) for improved ambient lighting and reflections across different environments.
  • Reworked Bloom for more improved lighting effects across different environments.
  • Improved the skill system. Skills are now organized into a skill tree and each skill has three ranks. Unlocking new skills now requires having the necessary prerequisite skills rather than spending a set number of skill points. IMPORTANT: As a result of these changes, your skill points have been reset.
  • Rebalanced the skill tree by refining skill bonus values, effects and synergies.
  • Renamed some skills to better reflect their effects.
  • You can now Reforge your equipment to change its appearance without affecting its stats. Only master craftsmen (Yoana and Hattori) offer this service. Unlock appearances by adding new equipment and crafting diagrams to your inventory. Dyes from Blood and Wine applied to equipment will carry over to the reforged item.
  • Polished the combat behavior of all non-boss monsters, including their attack patterns, counterattacks, movement, reactions, flight and the application of effects.
  • Cantering and galloping now requires pressing the button instead of holding it.
  • Added a new “Horse control input sensitivity” slider in Settings → Controls.
  • Improved Roach’s and Geralt’s movement, player control and animations:
  • Refined Geralt’s jumping animation so that it feels more natural and polished. Note: This doesn’t affect jump distance and height.
  • Added new finisher animations for Geralt.
  • Added new idle animations for Geralt.
  • Improved Geralt’s ledge climbing, ladder climbing and vaulting animations as well as his speed for more responsive, fluid movement.
  • Improved Geralt’s gap closing animations in combat for smoother gameplay.
  • Improved target-lock switching when moving the camera in combat.
  • Polished animations for mounting and dismounting Roach, as well as cantering and galloping.
  • Meditation now features a timelapse instead of a UI screen for a more immersive feel.
  • The skill screen is now reorganized into a more intuitive skill tree layout.
  • Updated the map screen to make switching between tracked quests easier. Untracked quests now have a distinct marker and can be tracked by selecting it.
  • You can now hide herbs, boats and corpses on the minimap in Settings → Video → Interface for a cleaner, less distracting view.
  • Improved quest notifications by combining quest updates into a single HUD notification.
  • Nearby loot can now be grouped into a single window, so you no longer need to browse through multiple loot windows. You can enable this feature in Settings → Gameplay.
  • Added a loot feed that displays recently collected items on the left side of the screen. You can disable it in Settings → Gameplay.
  • Added item tooltips to the loot window, allowing you to preview an item’s details before picking it up.
  • Renamed the “HUD Configuration” section in Settings to “Interface”.
  • Updated the CD PROJEKT RED Account connection, My Rewards and telemetry consent menus.

There are additional significant updates to Photo Mode, Accessibility, QoL, Modding and general fixes after all these years. Also some additional settings and support for PC, console and Switch specifics.

Some players who already have The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered are showing off bits and pieces of what it looks like now, and everyone is very impressed. It’s largely regarded as one of the best games ever made, and CDPR one of the best developers. The studio is currently working on The Witcher 4 , to be followed by a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, with the goal of avoiding huge gaps between releases. For now, however, another hundred hours in The Witcher 3 ought to do it.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy .