Dude! Geralt!




Roach is just being Roach-y.




With no fast travel, I'm riding around a lot more (naturally), and have come across a few other things that I hadn't noticed before. Like when I randomly walked into this location while blindly going around Novigrad. Recognise them?

Spoiler, click me

It's two brothers who are artists, sculpting statues. One of them will later get murdered. The brother said something like "All this womanising is going to be the end of you". Definitely not 100% correct, because I'm just going by memory, and didn't hear everything all that well. Not like we can make them repeat it either. It's just random chatter, and some of it only happens once I think (but maybe not this, if I happened to go back out and in a few times)

This is from a small group of people sat by the roadside somewhere while I came riding along. Turns out they talked about different things, and then the topic turned to whether one of them was a spy or not. Pretty sure I've never seen this before. If I did, it was in the first playthrough and I've forgotten about it.

Honestly don't remember any more how the Shrieker fight was in the vanilla game, but in Ghost Mode, it's freakishly difficult. Hands down the most difficult boss fight in the game, probably also more so than the very last fights (spoiler-free).

I tried maybe 10 times while at level 8 (it's a level 8 or 9 quest in Ghost Mode (GM) iirc), and I died and died, without ever really being close. Came back at level 10 and tried again. Excruciating fight, and I'm "only" on BBB difficulty (next highest). The bird causes bleeding all the freaking time, and Swallow doesn't stop it unless the instant you take the potion. It won't stop bleeding caused while Swallow is active (don't remember if the vanilla game handles it like this too). It's quick, attacks non-stop really, aggressively walks or dodges/jumps after you. I'm using potions left and right, only to heal a little (the "potion heals" skill has been nerfed, with all points it heals 15% of max vitality). Had to use White Honey just to remove health degeneration from over-toxicity, and then go again.

Don't know how many hits were needed to bring the bugger down, but around 50 I reckon. The health bar barely moves upon hits. Very, very tricky fight, but eventually I managed to bring it down, and Geralt was able to meditate and bring his badly bruised body back into balance. Phew!


As you can see, toxicity is very high (max is 173-ish at this point) and health is in bad shape.




This shows that I'm bottomed out of most potions. Some were just to heal up a little bit along the way.




It's finally over, and Geralt can sit down and enjoy the sight of entrails and bloodied dirt.



Last edited by Pangaea on 1 July 2021 at 8:57 pm UTC

Finally managed to get Sapphire Pulse RX 6800 XT. Major performance boost for TW3 on max settings (2560x1440):

Sapphire Pulse RX 5700 XT:

~80 fps in the wild


Sapphire Pulse RX 6800 XT:

~150 fps in the wild


Last edited by Shmerl on 2 July 2021 at 9:00 pm UTC

Now with this new GPU TW3 is rendering above my monitor refresh rate. But built in framerate limit is capped at 60 fps in the UI.

You can fix it by adding 144 fps option to bin/config/r4game/user_config_matrix/pc/rendering.xml

<Var id="FPSLimit" displayName="framerate_limit" displayType="OPTIONS" tags="refreshViewport">
  <OptionsArray>
    <Option id="0" displayName="framerate_limit_unlimited">
      <Entry overrideGroup="Engine" varId="LimitFPS" value="0"/>
    </Option>
    <Option id="1" displayName="framerate_limit_30">
      <Entry overrideGroup="Engine" varId="LimitFPS" value="30"/>
    </Option>
    <Option id="2" displayName="framerate_limit_60">
      <Entry overrideGroup="Engine" varId="LimitFPS" value="60"/>
    </Option>
    <Option id="3" displayName="framerate_limit_144">
      <Entry overrideGroup="Engine" varId="LimitFPS" value="144"/>
    </Option>
  </OptionsArray>
</Var>

The label for it is messed up in the UI, but it works.

Last edited by Shmerl on 4 July 2021 at 2:52 am UTC

Do you play with that HUD up, or is it just for testing?

*plug* I've loved playing the game with nothing on the screen at all (except when combat kicks in), which is possible with Friendly HUD mod :)

PS: Depending on the fallout of the NexusMods powergrab, it's possible the mods from that author will be removed or hidden, or at least not updated any more, but in that case they will be available elsewhere, like for example GitHub.

About that config change (very nice!), it's possible to make the text show up properly as well, by making a small mod and changing the localisation. Probably not worth it for such a small thing, mind you.

I switch off in-game HUD for screenshots to make it look nice. I use it most of the time but minimize things in the settings. Sometimes I turn it off for fun during playing.

The DXVK HUD is just for testing / benchmarking.

Last edited by Shmerl on 6 July 2021 at 9:26 pm UTC

Quoting: PangaeaAbout that config change (very nice!), it's possible to make the text show up properly as well, by making a small mod and changing the localisation. Probably not worth it for such a small thing, mind you.

Oh, I was looking into how to do that. Do you know what has to be added for it?

Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: PangaeaAbout that config change (very nice!), it's possible to make the text show up properly as well, by making a small mod and changing the localisation. Probably not worth it for such a small thing, mind you.

Oh, I was looking into how to do that. Do you know what has to be added for it?

I'm not entirely sure, because I haven't tried it myself. Something like this thread may be a good place to start: https://forums.cdprojektred.com/index.php?threads/utility-strings-encoder-for-adding-new-strings-new-ids-and-keys-as-standalone-w3strings-file.62959/

Know I looked at strings with a program I downloaded, either from CDPR forums or Nexus. Seem to recall one could add new strings with it too, but I don't really know the details. After that, I suppose you need to "cook" the mod so the game can properly compile and include it.

PS: Looking at downloaded mods, it may be one called "w3strings_encoder". It's an exe, but I'm sure a pro like you can get it working in Linux :)

What?! Are you crazy? Of course not!




PS: I was more honest this time, to see what would happen, and ended up having to pay 1000 crowns. To Vivaldi.

Last edited by Pangaea on 8 July 2021 at 9:36 pm UTC

WitcherCon is on, for those interested: https://www.twitch.tv/cdprojektred

I only dropped in half an hour ago or so. It's been okay, if a little awkward at times.

I suppose it's news that the show will start on December 17? They seemed to make a big deal out of it.