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

[Spock]

Thank you for the guide!

 

I would highly advise against FXAA though. It blurs textures and thus reduces image detail. It also bugs with long edges. Here are some examples:

 

https://m.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTM3NzA1NzMxNkVZNWVSbllTcVpfNF81X2wucG5n

https://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o240/walkingdog/fxaa%20smaa/GOTHIC3.jpg

https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/uploads/gallery/album_34/gallery_371_34_32435.png

https://i.imgur.com/NIi0A.png

Edited July 8, 2015 by Spock

[rootsrat]

Hey there Spock. Thanks for your post and feedback. I actually use a different ReShade preset to the one in the guide and therefore I use in game AA again. I did notice that FXAA was quite bad! I still need to test that new preset in a few more weathers and locations, because it wasn't designed specifically for Cutscene Lighting mod, but it seems to be working really well with it - but it needs more testing to ensure it looks good in all conditions.

 

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LATEST UPDATES:

• 09/07/2015
  • Added Miscellaneous section and a new mod: Gwent Redone and Alternate Art
  • Replaced user.settings and rendering.ini file with a new one with some modified values

[rootsrat]

LATEST UPDATES:

• 14/07/2015
  • Changed ReShade preset to Uber Fidelity Suite 2 and added the relevant installation instructions
  • Replaced user.settings and rendering.ini file with a new one to accommodate changes for the new preset
  • Removed "Naked Ciri is Naked" mod. After all it's unlikely that Ciri would be naked in that scene.

 

To uninstall Naked Ciri is Naked mod unpack the mod archive again to \The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt\content\content0\bundles folder and run Uninstall.bat file.

[rootsrat]

The Witcher 3 Patch 1.07 - modding related changes

[rootsrat]

NOTICE

 

The guide is non-usable for 1.07 game version.

 

It was a massive patch and I need to check everything out. There already are new mod versions coming out, so I'm hoping to have the new guide version out as soon as.

[rootsrat]

CURRENTLY SUPPORTED GAME VERSION: 
1.07

 

LATEST UPDATES:

• 19/07/2015
  • Updated the guide to be working with 1.07 version of the game. Updated mods:
    • Debug Console Enabler Updated
    • Fix Exp for quest
  • Updated the configuration files section to accommodate 1.07 changes

[rootsrat]

• 20/07/2015
  • Reinstated Naked Ciri is Naked mod.
  • Introduced custom user.settings file modifications with description

 

I spent all afternoon today testing and comparing custom user.settings file modifications and their impact to performace, which resulted in much more knowledge of what given setting is actually controlling in game. The results are included in the guide now :) 

 

[thibaudv]

Awesome! I'm new to these forums btw, got here from CDPR forums, so hello :)

 

Does the rendering.ini file need to get updated with 1.07 too?

 

Love this modding guide, and I have some suggestions for additions. These are mainly for people who have completed the vanilla game and want to start another playthrough:

 

https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/212/? Better Combat Enhanced really is an improvement in balance etc over the original game, and especially on death march, provides a nice challenge while reversing the difficulty curve (so the first 10 levels aren't way harder than the others)

Combined with that mod, the instant sign casting mod (or equivalent for controllers) is kinda required and improves the immersion in combat: https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/81/?

 

Other mods to be considered for second playthroughs are the disable storybook and intro mod and the more horses mod (which has been suggested earlier in the thread)

 

I've read you are interested in the Real Graphical Suite reshade too (made by the same guy that did better combat enhanced) and I gotta say right now I'm loving the medieval preset, scroll down and take a look at these comparison screenshots (the one in the swamp made me switch) https://sfx.thelazy.net/games/preset/3818/

Combined with this extreme weather conditions mod https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/29/? it really enhances the 'dark witcher universe where nothing is black and white universe' - feel, imo.

 

Another graphical enhancement worth looking into is this one https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/165/? . It enables hairworks on the monsters, but not on Geralt (so you get the awesome fur but no noodle hair). It does seem to have problems with the 970 though (I too have a 970 which is why your guide was perfect for me). Ideally there'd be a mod where Hairworks is enabled on everything but Geralt's hair (so hairworks on the beard would work) but I don't think that's possible as of yet.

 

That's it for now - keep up the good work!

[rootsrat]

Rendering.ini does not need to be updated by you, but if you've had it at read only, change it back. I think the HariWorks AA is now controlled via user.settings, so rendering.ini is not used in the guide at all.

 

Thanks for the mod suggestions! I was actually looking at BCE2, but I'm saving this for a 2nd playthrough, I want to finish the game with vanilla mechanics first (that's why I'm adding mostly cosmetic mods or the ones that make sense from story/lore point of view). As for the Reshade preset I'm using Uber Fidelity Suite 2 at the moment, but it's quite taxing on my FPS. I need to play with the settings to see if I can reduce the performance impact. 

 

Also, I still have lots of testing to be done with user.settings file, there are many more parameters I need to look at and assess the impact to the game and figure out the good balance for my set up. I may have to decide to ditch ReShade altogether if I find out that the user.settings changes make the game look amazing while retaining performance. 

 

There are quite a few settings that people recommend to change and tweak, but sometimes it can be just a placebo and I never change anything I'm not sure about, you never know the impact to the game. Learned that the hard way with Skyrim and ini file modifications... So now I don't trust just anything I read on internet and prefer to test things myself to ensure they actually work or change anything :)

[darkside]

rootsrat, Thanks for a great guide. Do you have any recommendations or sources for any users that need more performance?

[rootsrat]

Don't use any ReShade preset would be my first advise and then look at your shadow settings and (especially) foliage visibility range settings. They're the most taxing ones. In all fairness you can just use in game sliders, unless you want to fine-tune it by playing with specific values in your user.settings file (see the descriptions next to the values in my guide). 

[thibaudv]

Rendering.ini does not need to be updated by you, but if you've had it at read only, change it back. I think the HariWorks AA is now controlled via user.settings, so rendering.ini is not used in the guide at all.

 

Thanks for the mod suggestions! I was actually looking at BCE2, but I'm saving this for a 2nd playthrough, I want to finish the game with vanilla mechanics first (that's why I'm adding mostly cosmetic mods or the ones that make sense from story/lore point of view). As for the Reshade preset I'm using Uber Fidelity Suite 2 at the moment, but it's quite taxing on my FPS. I need to play with the settings to see if I can reduce the performance impact. 

 

Also, I still have lots of testing to be done with user.settings file, there are many more parameters I need to look at and assess the impact to the game and figure out the good balance for my set up. I may have to decide to ditch ReShade altogether if I find out that the user.settings changes make the game look amazing while retaining performance. 

 

There are quite a few settings that people recommend to change and tweak, but sometimes it can be just a placebo and I never change anything I'm not sure about, you never know the impact to the game. Learned that the hard way with Skyrim and ini file modifications... So now I don't trust just anything I read on internet and prefer to test things myself to ensure they actually work or change anything :)

Allright, let me know if you need some help testing stuff, i got some free time these next couple of days so i'd be glad to help. This is the only real guide there is right now for people looking to start modding their game and it's a good one. If we can turn this into what STEP is for Skyrim, it might spike some modders' interest in this game, which it could really use.

[WilliamImm]

I'm keeping track of Better Combat Enchanced for my next playthrough of Witcher 3, perhaps after playing the previous games in that series first. The game looks and feels amazing with the mods, that's what I'll say. And def. using the controller quick sign casting mod myself.

 

EDIT: In fact, I'd add this to a section of the guide. This makes the game feel more smooth to play, and is good future-proofing if and when the combat mod does get added. For me, the controller user, I had to replace (with backups, ofc) each of the input_*.ini files in bin\config\r4game\legacy\base with the contents of this file, and used the Antimicro right trigger file from this mod. Credit to them. Have not tried the version for keyboards yet.

[rootsrat]

Good to see you here Will :)

 

Yeah, the instant casting mod is on my radar, I haven't tested it yet. I play on keyboard + mouse rather than a controller (I use that mainly for racing games tbh, just used to K+M too much, because the last console I owned was the original PSX ;) ). Not sure if I'll like the instant casting though, will need to test and see how it plays in game. It certainly sounds convenient!

 

Another thing is, I don't want to put too many optional mods in there or the stuff that I don't use myself. I want to test the mods to ensure they work correctly and the more the optionals that I won't be using, the greater chance for mod conflict and incompatibilities that I won't be aware of.

[tizgrilo]

Nice guide over there!

 

I'll try some of this settings when I get home.

 

For players who use 1080p resolution I recommend the following mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/36/?

Edited July 25, 2015 by tizgrilo