GUIDE The Return Of The White Wolf (a comprehensive Witcher 3 modding guide)

[rootsrat]

Hey there Astakos. Thanks for the recommendation. It's actually on the "to be tested" list :)

 

Glad you confirmed it working! I was planning to add an "Optional Mods" section and include it there. The progress was somewhat delayed by the problems with nvidia drivers and I spent most of my evening yesterday on getting the user.settings and rendering.ini right for performance, but I'll do some mod testing tonight and update the guide. 

 

The other mods I was going to test are these:

 

• Trophy Bonuses Redone by Sezurus (I think the vanilla trophies are boring, but I may hold off with introducing this mod until I advance my game a bit more to get more of the vanilla ones)
• Books after potions by ghost (seems like a really convenient inventory fix)
• Craft fix for runes and glyphs by ghost (makes sense)
• Improved Saddlebags by iforgotmysocks (thinking of using 1.5 version, as the other ones would be OP - however I have read that W3 may get a storage chests sometime soon so I may ditch this mod if that's the case)

 

::EDIT::

 

It's GeralT! :D

[Astakos]

Hey root! Yes...it is GeralT  !! My bad! 

 

Regarding the mods you mentioned above...i would hold on a bit for the 3rd one, as from what I understand (nothing officially confirmed) this issue will be addressed in patch v.1.07.

As CDPR had stated this will be released soon enough (doubt it will be this week) and will address A LOT of fixes.

 

The other 3 mods seem quite interesting from what i read in their description page although for the 2nd one I am a bit skeptical as there is an issue of not being able to drop the books.

 

Speaking of user.settings...have u ever tried the following ones (found them in the Real Graphical Suite ReShade preset that I am using):

 

To increase texture quality in gameplay and cutscenes

 

Add these lines in user.settings using a text editor:

[streaming/Textures]

UseMipRefiner=true

CinematicModeMipBias=-0.3

 

To smoothen animations in gameplay

 

Add these lines to user.settings

[behavior]

AnimatedComponentUpdateFrameSkip=false

SuppressAnimatedComponent=false

 

 

Also I have noticed that you are using DecalsSpawnDistanceCutoff=40, while from what I understand from various sources, they usually double the vanilla setting of 10. Any reason/profit from using 40 instead of 20?

Also in your rendering.ini you have it as 20.0f...shoulnd't be the same as of user.settings?

 

BTW, and since mentioned, I would strongly recommend The Real Graphical Suite preset (it actually has 4 presets in there). I am using it since almost its first release and I am loving it. E3FX has become a bit over-bloomy for my taste in its latest versions...just some alternative to have in mind since you mentioned that you are looking for other presets as well!

 

Thanks mate! 

[rootsrat]

Nice one, thanks for all the info. Where can I find information about 1.07?

 

I wasn't aware of those settings file 2 tweaks, I'll test them out!

 

As for the decals spawn I'll need to have a look at my notes at home and see where it came from. I think that user.settings takes priority over rendering.ini. It's still a grey area, as there isn't much info about it. The 20.0f came from Hunter's Config Tool, which I initially used to improve the settings, which I then fine tuned manually, so the 40 must came from elsewhere. It may have been nVidia Tweak Guide for W3 or that Polish Gry-Online forum thread by A.l.e.x. 

 

I need to check. 

 

This record controls how far away you can see the cuts with blood splatters on enemies as far as I'm aware, so perhaps there is no difference between 20 and 40... Not sure if these can be caused by crossbow, which would be the only way to test it, unless you have a VERY long sword :)

 

::EDIT:: 

 

Actually this may be the range at which that the blood splatters are visible on the ground... I'll need to check this out. Thanks for pointing this out.

 

::EDIT2::

The RGS is one of the presets on my list :) Great minds think alike!

 

::EDIT3::

 

I actually just realised that this:

 

[Localization]

RequestedSpeechLanguage=

SpeechLanguage=PL

RequestedTextLanguage=

TextLanguage=PL

Subtitles=false

 

Could change the language to Polish, but not sure what'd happened if you don't have the Polish one installed... I'll need to change that, as majority of people on these forums will play in Enlish I reckon...

[Astakos]

 

There is no changelog or any sort of info that I could find abt the content of patch 1.07. Only rumor-articles and an announcement from Marcin Momot of CDPR that the patch is already in the works, will be released soon (no idea how soon is soon; read somewhere that it will not be during this week) and will contain A LOT of fixes.

 

So I assume that among these fixes it will be the crafting fix for runes and glyphs. CDPR has admitted that this issue is in their books for quite sometime.

 

Let's wait and see..!!

[rootsrat]

Thanks, I'll hold off with these 2 mods then. That's actually another reason I don't want to add too many fix mods at this stage and focusing mainly on visual ones or the ones that make sense from lore and game story point of view.

 

Not all the DLC's are released yet and I'm sure there'll be a ton of updates and fixes in the coming months. 

[Guest]

Rooty please tell us if someone figures the texture repacking out. Me and Monty were trying to improve the water, but it tailed off a few weeks back because the devs used some weird container. Monty uploaded all the textures somewhere and was first to do so. Even though I don't have the game and have just made some test textures, it is kind of sad how unfriendly it all is for their users. Oh yeah, and there is a controller texture for the tessellation I think. It looks like someone spat paint on a black canvas.

 

Edit: Saw naked Ciri, but perhaps a different method? Well it has been weeks. Your guide is really easy to follow by the way, even for a idiot like me! Niiiiiiice.

Edited June 25, 2015 by Guest

[rootsrat]

There was a discussion on the Polish forums about the textures today. Sadly, at this point, there's no way to do it. We need RK for that. Naked Ciri model was in game from the beginning, it's a vanilla asset that was never used in the release version, from what I read on that mod's page. 

 

Thanks for good word, I learned from the best: STEP, Skyrim Revisited and Fear and Loathing in New Vegas. It's those guys that deserve the credit for an easy to follow template that can be used for any guide really. I actually have a GTA V mod guide in the works, but it's merely a draft for now, as I am focusing on W3.

 

Enjoy!

[EssArrBee]

Who is this Monty you speak of? He's not our Monty right? 

[Guest]

I assumed the RK is used to pack this stuff up. I would also assume you can point it to a custom archive because I can't see modding being any good if there are only about 10 archives to replace. I suppose Skyrim was damn easy with its standard BSA and loose files.

 

Yes to your question Ess as well. It was odd as he created a mod request on Nexus forums for a water mod and it was the one time I visited there in years. I pointed him to some LUA scripts or something and he eventually got it all sorted on his own. I created some water surface textures and a new caustic as a test. The default textures still use DX9 compression which I am sort of annoyed about being me and all - although it is kind of a good thing as the DX11 version is SDK only (Alien Isolation uses it though fo' sho). I think we will have to go uncompressed again.

[rootsrat]

Quick update of the guide:

 

25/06/2015

 - Added couple of warning messages to the Configuration Files section

 - Added Requirements section

 

Time to test these additional settings and couple of those mods mentioned earlier. Watch this space! :)

[rootsrat]

I assumed the RK is used to pack this stuff up. I would also assume you can point it to a custom archive because I can't see modding being any good if there are only about 10 archives to replace. I suppose Skyrim was damn easy with its standard BSA and loose files.

 

Yes to your question Ess as well. It was odd as he created a mod request on Nexus forums for a water mod and it was the one time I visited there in years. I pointed him to some LUA scripts or something and he eventually got it all sorted on his own. I created some water surface textures and a new caustic as a test. The default textures still use DX9 compression which I am sort of annoyed about being me and all - although it is kind of a good thing as the DX11 version is SDK only (Alien Isolation uses it though fo' sho). I think we will have to go uncompressed again.

Yeah, it was exactly this. They can't re-pack the new textures into the right format. I wonder if the new RK will be based on the one for Witcher 2. I may actually have a look at the old one, just to get a feel for it. I've only ever made 1 mod - for Skyrim, it was quite a simple one and I used TES5EDIT for it, but I'm really itchy to learn how to make mods for Witcher 3...

[rootsrat]

LATEST UPDATES:

• 26/06/2015
  • Added Full Update Log
  • New mods added:
    • W3HC - Witcher 3 Hunter's Config
    • Cutscene Lighting Mod
  • Changed ReShade preset from E3FX to Real Graphical Suite for Real Cutscene Lightning
  • Updated user.settings file contents with the new settings required for the above new preset

 

::EDIT::

 

Moar updates!

 

• 26/06/2015
  • Added Monitor Calibration section
  • nVidia Control Panel settings
  • nVidia Inspector settings

[rootsrat]

Argh, sorry for multiple posts, but I've been working on the guide all day today, so lots of updates!

 

Speaking of user.settings...have u ever tried the following ones (found them in the Real Graphical Suite ReShade preset that I am using):

 

To increase texture quality in gameplay and cutscenes

 

Add these lines in user.settings using a text editor:

[streaming/Textures]

UseMipRefiner=true

CinematicModeMipBias=-0.3

 

To smoothen animations in gameplay

 

Add these lines to user.settings

[behavior]

AnimatedComponentUpdateFrameSkip=false

SuppressAnimatedComponent=false

 

 

I tested both of them and I didn't notice any difference whatsoever in texture quality or animations... But maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, I'd love to see some compares showing these settings working.

[rootsrat]

Update:

 

• 06/07/2015
  
  • Added Gameplay and Mechanics section and a new mod: Fix Exp for quest
  
  
  • Testing new ReShade presets
  
  
  • Researching how to merge mods that change the same bundle files
  
  
  
  

[Astakos]

Hi again root,

 

Regarding merging mods that change the same bundle files...

 

From what I understand (please do correct me if I am wrong), there is no need to merge mods that change the same bundle file, for example YourWitcher3Directory\content\patch0\bundles\patch.bundle, if these mods are injecting/changing a different file within the same bundle archive. This "merging need" would be true for mods that change the same file within the same bundle depending on nature of mod ofc.

 

For example, I am using, without any problem whatsoever, the following mods which all modify the patch.bundle file located in above mentioned path:

 

1. More Horses Mod - modifies the file: characters\npc_entities\animals\horse\player_horse.w2ent into patch.bundle
2. Fix Exp for quest - modifies the file: gameplay\rewards\rewards.xml into patch.bundle
3. Over 9000-Weight limit mod - depending on choice (I am using a custom number) it modifies the file: gameplay\abilities\geralt_stats.xml into patch.bundle

So, the way I see it; installing the 1st mod first it will modify the relevant path of patch.bundle file...then installing the 2nd mod it will use the already modified patch.bundle (from mod#1) and inject/modify again the other relevant path, and so on.

 

As mentioned I have all 3 mods running successfully without any hick-ups or problems.

 

 

Regarding the user.settings that I proposed the other day...

 

The differences are extremely subtle (I mean really extremely subtle) and from what I understand VGA card plays a significant role on how subtle or no subtle these effects are. Running on an AMD 7970 3GB Vapor-X, the only thing I have noticed is a bit, just a bit, smoother character movement in cutscenes. Same goes for textures in cutscenes...just a bit sharper. During gameplay I have not noticed any worth-mentioning difference texture-wise.

 

Just my 2 cents on what I have experienced so far playing this game lightly modded.

 

Thanks mate!