Tweet
CD Projekt Red's latest patch 1.03 is a must if you haven't already downloaded it, with The Witcher 3's frame-rates tweaked for the better on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One over its day one state. Counting in at 500MB, a 30fps cap is crucially also added to Xbox One with this update, at last evening out its frame-pacing to give smoother results. We've seen miraculous improvements to games like Borderlands: The Handsome Collection thanks to patches late in the day, but is this the one to fix The Witcher 3's rockier stretches of performance?A look at the patch's changelogshows a focus on various bug fixes, plus adjustments to minimise shadow pop-in. However, it's fair to say the core visual setup on console isn't much different. LODs are perceptibly the same as before, still borrowing from PC's medium and high settings for foliage and shadows, while post-process effects are left as-is in quality. Resolutions are unchanged too; PS4 makes the most of a native 1920x1080 frame-buffer, while Xbox One upscales from 1600x900 in most areas.
Performance is another matter though. On Xbox One especially, we see the addition of a proper 30fps cap giving us a far more consistent rate of motion in play. Where before it ran unlocked between 30-40fps, causing stutters as frame-rates lurched up and down the graph, patch 1.03 forces all motion to a single rate of refresh. The end result is exactly as you'd expect; battles and fast gallops across The White Orchard benefit hugely by running at a straight 30fps - a smoother ride, only dropping frames as heavy transparencies enter the picture.
Read more…
More...