CD Projekt Red has announced the release of update 4.02 for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The update comes three months after The Witcher 3's next-gen update was first released, as the developer attempts to smooth out the remaining issues.
Although many players suffered technical problems on the PC version of The Witcher 3's next-gen update, it was generally well-received by the community. It brought a huge visual upgrade to one of the most beloved RPGs of all time, and alongside The Witcher TV series, drove a huge surge in interest in the franchise as a whole. CD Projekt Red added lots of surprises for long-time Witcher 3 players to find, with many recognizing the extra effort that had gone into the free update, when it could have just been a simple port.
The new 4.02 patch was announced on The Witcher website, and seems to mostly be comprised of a variety of small fixes. The Witcher 3's next-gen update caused some performance issues with the game upon its release, and some of the PC-specific fixes seem to be focused on resolving those issues. For many players, the big issue seems to have the addition of ray tracing. Real-time ray tracing is still a relatively new technology for developers to work with, and hopefully it's something that becomes easier to optimize as developers become more familiar with it.
It's been over a month since the last update for The Witcher 3 was rolled out, after it was first teased in late January. As with this, 4.01 was a small update that mainly brought performance optimizations with many still suffering from the issues introduced with the next-gen update. With the 4.02 update still rolling out across all platforms, it remains to be seen the degree to which these fixes are effective this time around.
Currently, players are in the dark about how long CD Projekt Red is planning to support The Witcher 3. The game turns eight years old this year, and it's incredible that it continues to receive updates of any size, especially with the developer's continued support of Cyberpunk 2077​​​​​​. CD Projekt Red has already confirmed that The Witcher 4 is currently in development, and it's unclear how the company is splitting its resources to ensure that everything receives the right amount of attention. With The Witcher 4 likely still years away, it's possible that The Witcher 3 will still be receiving updates for some time to come yet.
The Witcher 3 Update 4.02 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.
VISUAL - PC and Next-Gen Exclusive
- Improved immersion of water appearance by adding refraction to SSR and ray-traced reflections.
- Fixed a visual issue with brick textures where black artifacts covered stone arches.
- Added a Motion Blur slider. It can be found in Options → Video → Graphics.
QUESTS & GAMEPLAY - Available on all platforms
- Battle Preparations - Fixed the lack of a dialogue option that would progress the quest during the objective "Let Avallac'h know everything's ready."
- Reason of State - Fixed an issue where the door to the warehouse could become permanently locked if the player knocked, entered and then immediately left the building.
- Scavenger Hunt: Cat School Gear Upgrade Diagrams Part 1 - Fixed an issue where the quest could stay active even after the diagrams were looted.
- Fixed an issue where trying to start a New Game+ on an incompatible save would block the player from starting the expansions in standalone mode until the game was restarted.
LOCALIZATION - Available on all platforms
- Fixed an issue with the Korean localization of Ciri's and Geralt's Gwent card descriptions.
- Fixed punctuation issues in Arabic localization.
- Updated Traditional Chinese font.
Please note: these are only the most notable changes. The patch contains other minor fixes that didn't make it onto this list.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: CD Projekt Red
