Witcher 3 patch adds new graphics options and improvements

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 1.03 patch is now live on Steam and GOG. Developer CD Projekt says the update improves both stability and performance, and adds additional graphics settings as well.

The full list of changes:

• Improves stability in gameplay and the UI
• Improves performance especially in cutscenes and gameplay
• Fixes grass and foliage popping that could occur after density parameters were changed
• Improves Nvidia Hairworks performance
• Boosted texture anisotropy sampling to 16x on Ultra preset
• Sharpen Post-process settings extended from Off/On to Off/Low/High
• Blood particles will now properly appear after killing enemies on the water
• Corrects a bug where player was able to shoot bolts at friendly NPCs
• Improves menu handling
• Corrects an issue with Stamina regeneration while sprinting
• Fixes a cursor lock issue that sometimes occcured when scrolling the map
• Generally improves world map focus
• Improves input responsiveness when using keyboard
• Corrects some missing translations in the UI
• Corrects an issue in dialogue selections
• Rostan Muggs is back
• Minor SFX improvements

The release of the patch follows comments made by CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwinski, who hinted that future updates to the game could enable improved visual quality. The statement came in response to complaints that the game's graphics had been downgraded from what had been shown in a 2013 promotional trailer.

Graphically downgraded or not, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is by all reports an outstanding game. Read our review to find out why.