Witcher 3-texture and aliasing fix

First off I'd like to point out this fix is only effective if you've updated your game to version 1.04.

Until recently, I actually thought this games anti-aliasing technique worked pretty well for such a low performance cost, and all-in-all, I thought the game looked fantastic for how massive a game it is (CDPR is not getting enough credit for their work on this masterpiece, YES I said masterpiece). But a few days ago after starting up the game, everywhere I'd look I'd see aliasing and low textures (especially in foliage). I thought maybe I changed some settings accidentally so I tried changing settings around in-game and in the Nvidia control panel, but to no avail. I scoured the internet and after a while, I figured out the problem.

It seems that with the version 1.04 update, CDPR changed a few settings to improve performance across the majority of platforms, and in doing so, compromised the look of the game. Luckily, this is an easy fix.

Simply go into your "The Witcher 3" documents folder and click on "user" (open with notepad if it doesn't do this automatically). Inside you'll find numerous settings, but the one you want to change is the line "TextureMipBias". If you've updated to version 1.04, the value will be set to -1 and will look like this: TextureMipBias=-1 . You want to change this value to 0, to look like this: TextureMipBias=0 , then save and exit. This simple change will get rid of almost all the "shimmering" aliasing effect, especially on Geralt's armor, and will also make the foliage in Geralt's immediate vicinity look, in my opinion, drastically better.

A few sidenotes:

1) If your rig is hurting for frames, this value can theoretically be set anywhere between 0 and -1, so -0.5 or -0.7 etc values should be easier on performance at the cost of more aliasing. Honestly though, the performance impact of being set to 0 is so negligible I wouldn't recommend any other value. For more on this, check this site: http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-graphics-performance-and-tweaking-guide

2) After adjusting this value, your in-game "Texture Quality" setting's slider will be set to Low. DON'T change it! Though it says it's set to low, I assure you it will stay the same quality it was set to when you made the change. If you change the slider at all, "TextureMipBias" will be changed back to -1 and you'll have to switch it back again to your preferred value. Not sure why this is the case, but it is. Also, after playing then exiting the game, the "TextureMipBias" will be missing from the "user" folder, but don't worry, this is just because this line was added to this folder in the patch 1.04, and when set to 0, it is an unnecessary line for this folder.

3) If you are running hairworks, I recommend making a small change in your rendering file. To find this file, navigate to where The Witcher 3 is installed and click on the folder. Then click on the files/folders in this order: bin, config, base, rendering. In your rendering file find this line: HairWorksAALevel=8 . Change this value to 4 (changing to 2 looks awful and performance difference between 2 and 4 is negligible, but looks vastly different). Changing this value might buy you a few frames whether running AMD or Nvidia.

Hope this post helps....Sorry it's so long.\

EDIT: I have found that putting this value to 0 greatly reduces the aliasing in most cases, but reduces the texture quality in certain instances, especially when the camera zooms in on Geralt. So it's a tradeoff; put at 0 for less aliasing, or between -0.5 and -2 to increase mipmap quality.

@gimpshot22: thanks i ll try this when i get home .

I don't know what the heck happen, but my game is rock solid... Super smooth FPS now.

I can't believe that changing hair from 8x to 4x would do it? Maybe.

But it's nice to have clean and clear textures now with TextureMipBias=0.

Should look up some more tweaks, but the game already looks great. I don't want to play with it any more now that the stuttering is 100% gone.

@Truth_Hurts_U: in their update report it stated something along the lines of "disabled high and ultra textures". don't get what they meant unless it was just toning down the MipBias and LOD. i didn't notice much difference after 1.04 but have my Catalyst Control Center settings all on override with 12xEQ for AA, 16 anisotropic and tessellation. will have to try your settings with those CCC settings turned back to default and see how different it looks.

definitely does something. "1" almost all texture is gone from Geralt's armor, colors aren't as vibrant, and distant images are blurred. "0" the lines are more visible in the patterns on his armor. "-1" his armor is totally detailed but ground and house textures look exactly the same as "0".

I think I'll continue sitting this game out until patches are done for the time being. From what I've heard the game works fine, but I'd rather not have to deal with little changes every few days. I have a metric tonne of other games to play in the meantime.

@spector000: I didn't have to make any adjustments to the files properties, so I'm assuming it'd be fine at whatever its default setting was.

How come this is at top with 2 years, 16 days ago last post and not post done sooner?.

This is not me bumping the post either it was already up here be for I posted and was just wondering.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!!