The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered launched for free earlier this week, and has since been subject to debate over whether its visual changes have been for the better. One aspect that has routinely dominated the conversation is how overly bright the remaster makes the game look, and it’s evident developer CD Projekt Red agrees that it went too far.
A patch for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and the Xbox Play Anywhere version of the game on PC has been released that makes “various lighting adjustments” across the game, among other things. CD Projekt Red detailed the patch on social media, stating that the team is working on another hotfix for PC that will address a save game issue that numerous players have reported. The brief patch notes can be found below.
- Fixed an issue where DLSS was unavailable in the Xbox Play Anywhere version of the game on PC
- Made various lighting adjustments, including fixing some interiors that appeared too dark
- Made various other adjustments to ensure parity with the PC version
The patch isn’t being released for other PC versions because it’s likely that the fix centers around the game’s bloom setting. It’s one that PC players have suggested turning off to regain some contrast in the game’s image, but one that wasn’t available for players on consoles. A different hotfix released on October 1 has a slightly different list of notes:
- Fixed an issue where the game couldn’t be saved or loaded if the path to the Documents folder contained special characters.
- Fixed an issue where voiceover audio could become significantly quieter than other in-game audio after navigating through the pause menu tabs.
- Made various visual adjustments in Velen, including tweaks to Bloom, vegetation lighting, saturation, and Path Tracing lighting.
- Reverted a change that caused significant performance and visual issues with HairWorks enabled for some users.
- Fixed an issue where marketing telemetry settings weren’t saved properly.
- Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to launch the Classic (1.32) version of the game.
This patch doesn’t introduce a toggle, but likely toggles it off for all console players. If you’re playing on Nintendo Switch 2, however, you won’t be able to benefit from the fix just yet.
The bloom setting doesn’t fix everything though. Players have still taken issue with the game’s HDR implementation, path tracing visual presentation, and overall system performance on PC. CD Projekt Red hasn’t yet commented on whether it is planning to make changes to those areas, but this patch does indicate that they are aware of the most glaring issues players are facing.
The Witcher 3 Remastered released as a free update for all versions of the game, introducing enhanced character animations, world detail, improved combat and role-playing systems, and more. An expansion for the 11 year old game, Songs of the Past, is scheduled to release in 2027 and will tie into the events of the The Witcher 4, which is currently in development.