The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - The Enhanced Edition

Sorry it turned out to be false, no visual changes with this update ^^

 

I'm finishing off a clean install and a repatch and it seems like all the files have been sorted out. I'm not getting the error I did last time and it's almost done.

 

On the end of the page are language packs
http://en.thewitcher.com/ee_manual/
Enjoy

 

yeah worked like a charm thx!

 

Apologies for what might seem like laziness, but not online at home, so have to try and pick up dribs and drabs of info while at work, but was that first shot of the enhanced lighting fake then?

Would be a pity as it looked much better to me.

Back online at the weekend, so hopefully i can dive into this properly.

 

I installed the EE easily. I downloaded the manual files and it installed on the first go.

I uninstalled the game first just to test if it would work from Vanilla > EE. ( I do this with all manual game updates so I know for future reference which patches are needed and in what order ).

The reason my file wouldn't download earlier is because there is obviously a limit on simultaneous files to your IP address ( likely to avoid server problems )

@Darren

TW2 has always had noticeable pop in for me, more so than most other games, this is up to an including the last patch.

After you have set your in game settings to your desired settings ( I always disable each of the DOF settings as they are overblown and detract from the visuals ) then go into the user.cfg file and change the following


MeshDistanceScale=4.0 ( default max is 1.2 )

TextureMemoryBudget=1000 ( default max is 600 )

FoliageDistanceScale=4.0 ( this command is hidden but the default is 1.0, you will need to add this line in )

If you're in the forresty in chapter 2 ( ? ) this setting is very noticable.

I have taken pictures with each of the settings ( mesh and foliage distance ) incrementally and each of them up to 4.0 makes a difference.

Between the default of 1.0 ( foliage ) and 1.2 ( mesh ) compared to both settings at 4.0 I only lost 5 frames average when I was previously getting 50 frames so the difference in draw distance is significant compared with only a small performance loss.

The Hunter also verified this with me before his first ban.

Open the images side by side. It might not seem like much in a still. But in motion there is a lot less things popping up in the fore and midground.

default ( 1.0 and 1.2 )
http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/9305/foliage10mesh12.png

modded ( 4.0 and 4.0 )
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9077/foliage40mesh40.png

 

@dchalf10 - Thanks for the reply.

I had to uninstall and reinstall the game and upon starting it post-EE patch it reset my original settings so it may be that I'm seeing more texture pop in because the config file no longer has the same MeshDistanceScale (I was using 2.4 I believe), TextureMemoryBudget and FoliageDistanceScale settings I was previously using. I don't recall seeing any texture pop in previously. The reinstall would also have fragmented the hard drive somewhat, considering it's a 23 GB install, so I suspect adding the settings and defragging my D: drive will reduce the texture issue substantially. At least, I hope they will.

 

I just wanted to report to all doubting the necessity of this patch that it has made the game noticeably smoother.

I was planning on waiting until my GTX680 upgrade as I thought that the stuttering between loading cells ( opening a door or going between areas ) was because my GPU wasn't up to the task.

Previosuly loading a new area would cause the area you go into to have no shadows for 1/3 of a second coupled with a slight pause.

This no longer happens at all. There is a slight camera snap when loading areas, but no stutter or pause at all.

The stutter also used to happen in combat and it doesn't happen at all now.

So far I don't know if the frame rate has been improved but it has certainly been better optimised.

Also within the first few minutes I noticed the lighting had been improved. When the guard opens your tent door when you're with triss in the tent, there is noticeable beams of light coming in which never used to.

It isn't as hyperbolic as that console screen, but I think the lighting has been beefed up. It's more subtle in normal gameplay, but what was previously bloom seems to have more direct lighting effects.

EDIT:

There is definite light improvements. When Letho jumps out of the window there is noticeable god rays coming in once again. It just isn't as severe as the previous console screens suggest.

Performance also seem sot be slightly up. Less than 10 frames avg maybe but 5 frames or so for sure.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Games being multiplat improves performance by ensuring a minimum level of performance.

 

I got every set to max and still have great performance.

 

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/the_witcher_2/ee_videos_broken

So that's why the EE videos didn't play properly, strange issue but hopefully it'll be fixed without changing aspect ratio.

 

Please stop talking sense.

 

yeah same here

:bonk:

no xbox still looks better

 

Plough the lillies!

 

Note: having 'FoliageDistanceScale' and 'Mesh' distances set to very high has an extremely huge performance hit in chapter 2, when you are playing in the fog sections of the game...especially in the start.

Don't play the game at 'Insane' with these settings, and expect to reload the game a few times with 'Dark'.

Yepp there is some addition of god rays, its also visible in the tent where Geralt wakes up with Triss and a solder interrupts them.

This wasn't there previously..

 

was it the reason for the cutscene slowdowns encountered? i remember not having that huge framerate drop before EE

 

I'm on chapter 2 now and as soon as you step out to the lake outside Vergen the new lighting gobsmacked me.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

Blue sky, all sorts of ambient lighting as before but god rays shinging through the trees.

TW2 has the best lighting of any game I've seen.

Great job with the EE.

 

Isn't the lighting the same?

 

Various enhancements here and there as per the readme file / changelog although it's often quite subtle but as seen above it seems it can also be quite noticeable.
(I didn't notice much in the prologue but those god-rays used here and there were apparently new to this update.)

 

That's because of the DOF, it seems it's a nVidia issue, or CDproject did something with the DOF that only affects nVidia cards. I don't suffer from it, but on the GoG forums I've seen a lot of nVidia users encountering the same problem.