I tried "The Witcher 3: Next-Gen Update"... 

I've played through The Witcher 3 probably 4 times, and spent 100s of hours in it. I've been waiting so long to play again on PS5. SO EXCITED!!

It looked insane before, and now it looks insanely fucking gorgeous.

I have 500+ in this game. I was honestly pretty exhausted by it and thought I had run my interest out on it, but with this update it feels like a fresh experience. I’m probably doing one final play through, and watch that anniversary video and cry again.

This is probably the last update we'll ever receive for this masterpiece. Enjoy it while it lasts ladies and gents

Music,lore, atmosphere in this game is just priceless 👌 my favorite game all time. Witcher 3 is a classic.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned in the 10s of these vids I've seen is that you sprinting doesn't drain your magic bar anymore! I can't be the only one that loves this. Also probably huge for speedrunning

Coming from a person who started playing the Witcher 3 on the PS4 slim (1080p TV) and then migrated to the PS5 with a 4K TV, this update looks and feels absolutely INCREDIBLE. With the improved graphics & framerate, and the addition of Haptic feedback and smoother controls, playing this again feels like a fresh experience! I'm jealous of all you PC users who've had the opportunity to experience this masterpiece as it was intended for years. Hats off to CDPR for providing this update for free and to everyone else reading this good luck on The Path!

Got Witcher 3 in June 2021, deliberately waited for the next gen update. So excited to get started!

As a PC player, who's never bothered to learn how to mod, and a MASSIVE Witcher fan, this is so exciting to me. I Look forward to run through the game for the umpteenth time. And another excuse to get that Witcher tattoo I've been meaning to get

Those sunset soaked fields in White Orchard, holy, I was not expecting it to look this beautiful when it's already visually impressive pre-patch.

Put 236 hours in looks like a good time to hop back in for some fun. The hidden HUD is a big thing I wanted but having the buffs kinda shoved up there feels a bit off still. Hope everyone enjoys there return to this wonderful game!

As per Digital Foundry, reflections are not raytraced on console, but SSR has been implemented and improved. I think raytracing only applies to Global Illumination and Ambient Occlusion (which only come into effect in the 30fps mode). Luckily, improved SSR applies to both the 30fps and 60fps modes, so still a noticeable improvement from last-gen (along with other upgrades you mentioned). Edit: Improved* SSR is in fact not included in performance mode, which is kind of surprising.

The closer camera view is what I’m most excited for been wanting that forever

This couldn't have come at a better time. My all time favorite game that I haven't played in years and never molded on pc. Just got a new rig and will be playing it in 4k. Very excited!

Super excited for this, haven't played the Witcher 3 in about a year. I play on pc, so I had the hd rework and other mods. Im very keen to experience Geralds world from other his shoulder. Thats going to be next gen enough for me! Thanks Luke always enjoy your commentary and insight!

I forgot how much i love this game, can't wait to start another cozy winter playthrough

I paused my first playthrough of TW3 when the next gen upgrade was announced like two years ago. So psyched to jump back in.

What you're looking at with 30fps mode is actually screenspace reflections for the water, which is why they go away when you point the camera down (it falls back to the simplified reflections). Performance mode and the original game did not use full screenspace reflections, instead having simplified reflections. Detailed SSR like this does have a noticeable framerate impact in games, which is probably why it's in the 30 fps mode. Not sure to what extent raytracing is used for reflections, if at all. Maybe on the PC version.

Between the main game, DLC and mods, this has to be my favorite game of all time.

The trees hardly blow in the wind like it did before, little things like that bothers me lol

I was LITERALLY just watching your video where you went back to play Witcher 3, and sure enough I’m surprised with this video. I’m excited to jump into Witcher 3 for the first time on Wednesday!

I guess I’ll finally go for the platinum on this now that next gen is out!

I've had this game for 2 years. I heard about the next-gen upgrade back then, and I can finally play it now!

I've been holding off a new playthrough for this update. I CAN'T WAIT!

So refreshing to see a normal scheduled video being dedicated to charity❤️

I actually finished witcher 3 for the first time a month ago, and can confidently say that closer camera is exactly what it needs, also some of next-gen features were mods before like dynamic mini-map and so on

Anyone watching this today, it has been further updated to include Quick Oil applications and Bomb changes in the radial menu too.

I'm so stoked abt this. I was late to the party, and only tried W3 a couple years ago. I couldn't get into the 30 frames, so I put it down pretty quick. Now my first playthrough is gonna be all sexy.

A quick correction, the raytracing effects global illumination, meaning the, indirect lights, not reflection. Reflections are still screenspace (reflects what have been already rendered, but flipped instead. that's why the reflection disappear at tight angles).

I can’t wait to play this game again. I just beat it for a 3rd time in the beginning of this year . Personally my favorite game of all time . The next gen upgrade releases on my BIRTHDAY!

Im so excited for this to drop! My favorite game of all time. Been wanting to play this again for over a year but forced myself to wait for this update.

Wonder how many people were excited on the day of this video and then got the update and were like....oh.....is that it? That's if it actually ran at all for them...

As a PC player without the best newest GPUs, this update was a godsend. The game run better than ever at higher graphics I could never run before. That and the small improvements across the board and new content give me another reason to play the game again, which honestly I was going to do eventually anyway. Very happy with this update.

Never had the chance to play this game so I’m super excited for this one. Going to be like a brand new game for me

Gee thanks for pointing out the shadows on the trees. Now I can't help but notice it. Awesome video. Hope you are well 😀

The artefacts in the water are due to the the fact that the reflections are done with cube maps with screen space reflection on top. If the objects are not present in screen space, the reflections disappear, with only the cube maps left, which normally tend to be inaccurate. If the reflexions were done with ray tracing, the artefacting would be lesser, or even non present (if done completely with ray tracing).

The update is already being criticized: poor performance on high end PCs, toxicity is bugged, stealth nerfs to alchemy; on my game it deleted my manual saves and replaced them with corrupted auto-saves. Great update indeed

I wonder how the quick sign casting works with the alternate signs where you hold the button down. (Like the flamethrower sign) Also for me, I prefer better image quality mode over better frame rate, I guess I just like looking at a pretty picture over being more smooth.

I'm so glad that I'm finally gonna be able to play this game after wanting to play it years ago, I even haven't seen anything regarding of the story (some bits but no mayor spoiler) and now with this update it's like the heavens are helping me 😂

The new quick sing feature is so amazing. Also, there will be a new fast travel point for the Crow's Perch much closer to the fort.

I’ve started this game like 4 times and only ever got about 10 hours in each time. But this time I’m gonna finish

Why do people think you have to pull up menu for signs? while on combat all you have to do is hold the block button and move left or right on the D-pad to change the sign without ever having to pull up the sign menu

I've only played W3 on Switch Lite and thought the game was gorgeous there - it was my first modern video game, and it blew my mind. And then I saw it on my brother's gaming PC and was just stunned. Compared to that, this next gen upgrade isn't as big of a deal to me - I've played 400 hours on Switch Lite, that's my baseline. The shadows are pretty damn neat though.

WoW didn’t expect early gameplay before release! You got the plug, thanks

I love W3 and I spent over 300h playing it BUT the Complete Edition optimization sucks on PC... I have some kind of strange visual glitches where the resolution goes down and everything looks like a pixel art game, droping frames ect.. in version 1.32 with the tone of modes games worked significantly better than in this new version.

Witcher 3 is one of my all time favorites, so excited for the next gen update on PS5 🐺⚔️

I think the reason that there's that kind of artifacting with the water reflections is because it's actually using screen space reflections - can't reflect what's not on the screen, so it's replaced with some kind of approximation/stand-in, and it has to cut off when changing between the two, causing the artifacting (also why the trees seem to change angle when panning the camera, it has to stretch what's on the screen to fill out the reflections, to the reflections of the trees seem to bend/stretch towards the borders of the screen), so no ray-traced reflections, at least on PS5. It's probably referring to ray-traced lighting, global illumination, or something.

As a PC player that used to have a mod installed on the og Witcher 3 called something like "Beyond Ultra Settings" which gave each setting in the graphics menu, "Ultra + Ultra ++ & Ultra +++" it's cool seeing this PC update include 'Ultra +' graphics options on PC haha. Immediately made me think of that mod, which essentially just edited the INI files for you to increase shadow resolution/draw distance/grass density etc.

I've been waiting a year 2 touch this game again. Nice detailed review. I have PC I'm really looking to see how this official mod holds up compared to the Witcher 3 HD mod and camera angle mods. My 12th playthrough awaits! Might use a mage this time around with the new game play setup

Did they only give out early codes to creators on console? Because no one warned us how awfully unoptimised it is on PC, it almost seems intentional. The Witcher 3 is my favourite game so it's pretty frustrating for them to come along with an update 7 years later and make the game substantially worse for a lot of PC players. If they didn't know the PC version wasn't finished then it's a level of oversight bordering on incompetence, so I can only assume that they knew it wasn't ready and are making us play test it for them.

Not only do I prefer 60+ fps, but I weirdly preferred the performance modes water reflections on that lake for some reason.

No more loot window opening when picking up herbs. Its worth it.

This looks great, like that they've added some QoL changes to the update as well as just graphical improvements, and the fact that it's all free and not a re-release. Time to do my 4th full playthrough of my favourite game, hope my laptop can do it justice, it can run 2077 on high so should be good for my standards (Idk about having everything on ultra with 60fps as long as I've got a smooth framerate and enough stuff turned on to show off the updated graphics).

They have done us proud, what an amazing job guys .

so glad my first playthrough is gonna be the enhanced version. ive got 20hrs in the game and i love it so much already

Played Witcher 3 on release twice, hadn't touched it for years. I'm late to the party on learning about the update, but I had already planned to replay, and reinstall last week. Then I hear about the update, can't wait!

it's kinda sad, when in 2023 my most anticipated games on pc are witcher 3 and the last of us :)

I can't wait to play this game for the very first time!

60 fps Witcher 3? A wet dream lol. Started my playthrough for the first time in 5 years. I first played and beat the game twice back to back in 2017. I had tried to play it again but never followed through, as with time the age began to show. This update finally gives me a chance to relive my favorite open world rpg of all time. Even if just one more time.

Damn man, do I really want to start all over again?!!! This game is just so big so much content even before the DLC’s come into play

I literally beat the game multiple times and went to every question mark On the map.. can't wait to play again...

Game is now completely fucked up on PC. Maybe CDPR shouldn't release any more patches cause game might be completely unplayable after few more

I feel so blessed to have been 15 at the time this game came out, had all the time in the world. It not only helped mend my heart from the disaster that was fallout4 but it also became my favorite game of all time. 10th play through (with upgrades) hell yes, great way to end the year.

The only problem with the PC version I had was rainbow artifacts with the water reflections. Then, AMD released a driver update for the 6000 series cards the next day and that fixed the problem. Great update, and it being free makes it even better.

Conversion is rough. It runs worse than cyberpunk with RT

I’ve not played the two DLCs yet, so am itching to get back into it with this update. After the main game I tried the first two games. Didn’t finish them. Just wasn’t as much fun. Did any of you try the first two games after 3..?

The ray tracing bit with the water is just screenspace reflections XD

i prefer to reference the netflix nilfgaardian armor as the " black ballsack set"

The Witcher 3 is one I've slept on, I had it on PC when it first came out, but I ended up quitting gaming for a few years and never got around to playing it. I'm excited to finally experience this masterpiece!

4:33 That is screenspace reflection. Basically, mirrors whatever that is on your screen. If you make the camera not "see" the area, it loses that info, hence the reflection is lost as well.. and it gets substituted by a "cube map" (a texture that has basically no relevance to the scene).

I was a little late with the Witcher games/books but my Polish girlfriend got me into this fantastic world. I read the books first then played Witcher 1, 2 and 3(I never finished 2 cause of its horrible controls) I only finished the main story of 3 this year and still have all of the expansions to get through. Gonna be sweet with this new update/upgrade!

Skyrim AE was $20, not $60

playing games on 30 fps is horrible

Got the Witcher 3 on a steam sale and its a great game and as someone who wants to explore all the sidequest before getting into main quest it is so much content. It's my first playthrough so I feel like I'm gonna be on this game for months to finish it and I still have Red Dead 2 to start.

Ive only played about 10hours of witcher 3 but this might be the time I finally dive deep into it

I never got the chance to play either of the DLC. But I love this game so much I cannot wait to try it out.

Correction at 4:31, the Reflections aren't Ray Traced, its a higher quality SSR being used on the water. PC has ray traced reflections but Next-Gen consoles do not.

just found ur vids today and have been watching a few of them. its pretty cool how you have random fundraisers instead of sponsors for certain videos. i bought the CE for witcher 3 when it came out and barely played it thanks to destiny 1 consuming me. even bought the GOTY edition on pc and havent played that either lol but i think third time's the charm and at some point ill try playing the game and getting the platinum trophy on the ps5 version

That quick Sign feature seems so obvious that I don't understand why that original selection menu ever existed.

Unplayable on PC. Disgusting how all games these days are only optimized for consoles.

So, about that "runs great" part... Turns out it doesn't, at least on PC.

i never noticed / heard anyone talk about the sprint button being changed. that will be really nice lol

Thsi uodate was such a nice surprise Been loving replaying over my break

Alright time for this game to take another 100 hours from my life

I have never played the Witcher 3. I have had it on the list, but other games seems to pop up ahead of it. I am excited to try it out when the new update comes out!

i made a reference screensho of the first time we see the mountains at kaer morhen, im so exiceted how much changed.

I still love CD PR, I think their following is very demanding and mean sometimes, and Cyberpunk was a combo of trying to appease the butt heads and scaling up too quickly without the infrastructure. I don’t think they’ll ever repeat their mistakes and I am so so excited for the next Witcher trilogy

I love this update, but I highly recommend performance mode. Ray Tracing looks nice but the frame rate feels inconsistent. Performance mode still looks excellent, much better than the last gen version

Thanks Luke, Happy Holidays…nice on the charity too😊

The reflections changing in the water are a sign that those particular reflections are using screen space reflection. This means that when the trees in the background aren't being rendered, the reflections have to change. RT removes this limitation, but it's very expensive to run.

the pc version is awful, when will people address this?

camera way too close, default was better

I honestly think I'm most pumped for the fighting with the new sign setup I hated feeling like I was playing a 90's turn based game because I had to pause the fight to use a different sign

CD Projekt working on Raytracing for .... years. And everybody, literally EVERYBODY..."Yeah, I'd rather have 60 fps, thank you though."

Still overrated, never liked the gameplay, especially how geralt moves its like a ps2 game with good graphics

Those water reflections aren’t raytracing, they’re screen space reflections. The actual raytracing you get with this is global illumination which basically affects how light bounces off surfaces in the world. This is most noticeable when indoors or the shading on Geralts armor and chain Mail and results in darker richer shadows

Never played this game before... been waiting for the upgrade since I've heard of it and I'm excited to dive in!

Think that tree artifact you was talking about with the raytracing is just the cloud above the trees haha

Thank you!! Can't wait to jump back in. One note: those aren't ray traced reflections in the 30fps mode. They are higher quality screen space reflections. Only pc is getting RT reflections, unfortunately.

this explains why the camera was bugging me. thx! looks really nice