The Witcher 3’s latest next gen patch promises improved DX12 performance

As great as the visual upgrade has been for The Witcher 3 following the release of its next-gen version, the update didn't arrive without problems. There have been some lingering graphics and performance issues in the game for a while now but today, a sizable new patch began rolling out on all platforms. 

Patch 4.02 has now released for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The update is already available on PC and should begin rolling out on Xbox Series X/S and PS5 consoles today. The update improves CPU core utilisation while using DX12 on PC, and on console, the game's performance mode should run better.

Here are the PC-specific and console-specific patch notes:

PC-SPECIFIC

• Improved CPU core utilization in the DX 12 version.
• Restored horizon-based ambient occlusion. Players who had previously turned Ambient Occlusion off will need to do so again. You can find it in Options → Video → Graphics.
• Fixed an issue where the “My Rewards” section was not localized in REDlauncher.
• Fixed an issue with a flickering landscape in Toussaint that occurred when NVIDIA HairWorks was disabled.
• Fixed an issue related to particle optimization which could result in temporary stuttering.

CONSOLE-SPECIFIC

• Improved Performance Mode on next-gen consoles.
• Fixed an issue where characters could become slightly blurry during dialogues and cutscenes on PlayStation 5.
• Fixed an issue related to memory usage in Ray Tracing Mode which could result in crashes on Xbox Series X.
• Whatsoever a Man Soweth… – The game will no longer crash if Geralt runs away from Shani after starting the conversation on next-gen consoles.
• Fixed an issue where quicksaves couldn't be loaded when using cross progression on Xbox One.
• Added two missing “Top notch swords!” on previous-gen consoles.
• Fixed an issue with overwriting manual saves where in some circumstances the oldest gamesave was deleted on PlayStation 5.
• Addressed performance issues in Beauclair and Novigrad that occurred after loading a gamesave.

Other improvements with this patch include several quest bug fixes, improved water appearance by adding refraction to SSR and ray-traced reflections, a brick texture issue has now been squashed and a motion blur slider is now available in the options menu. Additionally, localisation issues in Arabic and Korean languages have been fixed and the Traditional Chinese font has been updated.

That's everything the patch notes covered at least, CD Projekt Red does say that the patch contains other minor fixes that weren't listed.

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KitGuru Says: I've been slowly working my way through the game again following the next-gen update. Seeing more optimisation for the PC and console versions is encouraging. Have many of you been playing The Witcher 3 since the next-gen update? Have you noticed improved performance after this update? 

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