Year of construction 2008-2015
Genre:RPG
developer: CD Projekt RED
Released: Atari, New Disk, 1C SoftClub
The self-contained world brought to life by the imagination of Polish writer Andrzej Sapkowski is reborn as a legendary RPG game on PC. There is not a single positive character here: the governors are corrupt, the princesses are lascivious, and the knights are ruthless… The game’s plot unfolds after the events of the Witcher saga – barely surviving, Geralt falls into amnesia and is forced to relearn his native calling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu0b1moTW1g
The player rebuilds the lost experience of the main character while playing with human rivals and monsters. At the same time, a moral choice is set before him, on which the upcoming fate of the game world depends.
This subsection of our review highlights the main graphical aspects of this game. Particular attention is paid to the version of the graphics engine used, the version of the API used, graphic settings and the quality of development of the main visual aspects.
The Witcher – Trilogy is supported on Windows 7/8 and Windows 10. The game is distributed through the digital gaming sales service Steam and GOG:
The priority and main graphics API for The Witcher is DirectX 9/11.
The first part of The Witcher was based on Aurora Engine technology, a game engine developed by the Canadian company BioWare and first used in the computer role-playing game Neverwinter Nights, which was released on June 18, 2002.
Of course, even by the standards of 2007, the Aurora Engine was an outdated graphics technology and it is clear that the new part of the series The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings needed an updated graphics engine. And it became RED Engine. This engine focuses not only on graphics and physics, but also on building a non-linear quest system, allowing you to make the gameplay even closer to real life. RED Engine supports dynamic shadows, normal mapping and parallax.
The first version of the RED Engine in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings only supports DirectX 9, which somewhat constrained the game in terms of technology, although it made it inaccessible to previous generation consoles. The new version of the REDengine 2 engine made it possible to earn The Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings on Xbox 360, albeit with a lower level of detail and quality. This game was never released on PS3; apparently the developers were unable to adapt to the architecture of the Sony console.
In February 2013, CD Projekt RED officially introduced its new engine – REDengine 3, on which their two new games were created – Cyberpunk 2077 and the then-unannounced Witcher 3. REDengine 3 is a technology that was specifically designed to create non-linear story-driven RPGs with a system that allows large-scale open worlds to be streamlined. The advanced technology of REDengine 3 allows RPGs to be compared with top shooters, both in terms of the presentation of the world and the huge events in which the player participates.
The engine was natively compatible with current generation consoles, allowing it to blur the line between pre-rendered CGI movies and real-time graphics, giving us the most believable worlds ever created in a video game. A living ecosystem filled with objects that are like works of art, allowing the player to become part of the environment. New facial and body animation systems implemented in REDengine 3 provide realistic conveyance of emotions, cinematic scenes and character interactions.
The technology uses HDR rendering with 64-bit depth, which produces the highest image quality with more realistic and accurate lighting without losing detail. Flexible rendering, ready for delayed or advanced rendering, features a wide range of cinematic post-effects, including depth of field bokeh, color gradation, and light source flares. High quality terrain allows for multiple words of seamlessly merging materials and uses tasseling to achieve maximum detail. The technology also includes seamless linking of animation and physics and a number of other features.
REDengine 3 uses a new version of the REDkit editor with tools designed specifically for creating RPG games. The editor allows you to create complex, branching quests and distribute them across the open world with a simplicity not found in any other editor.
| Test configuration | |
| test stands |
Test bench No. 1 based on the Intel Socket 2011 platformv3 Test bench No. 2 based on the Intel Socket 2011 platform Test bench No. 3 based on the Intel Socket 1155 platform Test bench No. 4 based on the AMD Soket AM3+ platform Test bench No. 5 based on the Intel Socket 1150 platform Test bench No. 6 based on the Intel Socket 1151 platform Test bench No. 7 based on the AMD Soket AM4 platform |
| Multimedia equipment | Monitor ASUS PQ321QE |
| Software configuration | |
| Operating system | Windows 10 Pro |
| Graphics driver |
Nvidia GeForce/ION Driver Release 382.05 AMD Radeon Crimson Edition 17.5.1 |
| Monitoring program |
MSI Afterburner v4.3 FRAPS |
Our video cards were tested at different screen sizes of 1920×1080, 2560×1600 and 3840×2160 with maximum graphics quality settings (the absolute maximum available for all games). SLI and AMD CrossFireX is fully supported by all games in the series.
In the video card test, the default resolution is 1920×1080; other resolutions are added and removed manually. You can also remove and add any positions of video cards. You can also select any of our test processors from the list in the drop-down menu, comparing its performance with the given video card tests (by default, the most productive solution is selected).
- The Witcher
- The Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
For The Witcher There is enough for almost absolutely all modern video cards and for each of the tested resolutions. The exception, of course, is the 4K mode, where only the lowest graphics solutions could not cope with the game (but we used the most graphically heavy segment, so the FPS in the game itself will be significantly higher).
The Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings at maximum settings it turned out to be the most voracious game. And until now, its extreme quality is unattainable for many users. And most importantly, in 4K there is finally a single graphics card capable of handling this game. It’s called GTX 1080 Ti…
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is still one of the most graphically advanced games of our time. Well, of course, after two years, the performance is no longer as terrifying as at the start of the game, although for the most comfortable FPS, upgrading the system will result in very substantial amounts…
Testing of video memory consumed by the game was carried out by the program MSI Afterburner. The indicator was based on the results on video cards from AMD and NVIDIA with separate screen sizes 1920×1080 and 2560×1440 with different anti-aliasing settings. By default, the graph displays the most current solutions. Other video cards are added and removed from the schedule at the request of the reader.
- The Witcher
- The Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
GameGPU
The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings can consume up to 1,5 gigabytes of video memory in 4K mode. For The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 3 gigabytes of video memory are required for 1920×1080 and 2560×1440, and 4 gigabytes for 3840×2160.
Testing was carried out at a resolution of 1920×1080. In the processor test, you can remove or add any processor positions. You can also select any tested video card from the list in the drop-down menu, comparing its performance with the given processor tests(by default, the most productive solution from NVIDIA is selected).
- The Witcher
- The Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
For the first part The Witcher 2007 had to choose the most video-dependent test segment, so the FPS in the test is very respectable (from now on, our tests of processors and video cards will always have one test segment to accurately compare their results). In the second part The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings processor dependence is almost on the verge – here the architecture and frequency potential already decide. Well, the third part can be considered the height of optimization – the more cores, the higher the performance, although the architecture also plays a role.
In DX9 mode, in the first and second parts of the series, there is no difference in terms of processor dependence between the use of AMD and NVIDIA video cards. But in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt CPU dependence when using NVIDIA video cards is slightly lower.
- The Witcher
- The Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
GameGPU
The Witcher 2007 uses 2 processor cores, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings about 3 processor threads, well The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt capable of using up to 12 processor threads.
The test was carried out on the basic configuration of Core i 7 [email protected] GHz with 32 GB DDR4 2400 MGz pre-installed memory. The entire used operative memory was taken as an indicator. The RAM test on the entire system was carried out on various video cards without launching third-party applications (browsers, etc.). In the graphics, you can add and remove any resolutions and video cards as desired.
- The Witcher
- The Witcher 2: The Assassins of Kings
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
GameGPU
All RAM consumption for the first The Witcher is about 3500 gigabytes for all video cards and resolutions. The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings will already require 4 gigabytes of RAM on the system. Well, for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 6 gigabytes are already needed for all video cards and resolutions (the only exception is video cards with 3 gigabytes of onboard memory, where 4K requires 8 gigabytes of RAM in the system).
Our modular graphics are at the development stage, so we leave all messages, shortcomings, errors and wishes in the appropriate thread of our forum.
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Evaluation test |
Graphics rating |
Optimization |