The Witcher 2 Performance Issues SOLVED

[Disgustipated]

NBR users that have had performance issues with Witcher 2, listen up!

Mod edit 5/27/11 : The Witcher 2 Becomes DRM-Free: Patch 1.1 Released
http://en.thewitcher.com/community/entry/35/

Edit: I removed all of the old info pertaining to DRM performance fixes, CDP Red has removed DRM entirely so the previous performance tips are unnecessary. I'm going to instead post custom configurations with the User.ini file + relevant info to making custom configurations work.

From my posts at NeoGAF:

Ok, there seems to be a lot of confusion about custom user.ini settings so I'm going to do my best to help clear it all up.

The problem with the Witcher 2 custom user.ini's is twofold: first, the configurator is bugged so that it doesn't always set custom settings correctly, retaining old settings (like the max shadow size etc) or even forgetting to completely put in whole variables (it loves to leave the FoliageDistance variable out, which means your grass/foliage distance is at some unknown level.)

When editing your user.ini, it needs to have ALL of these variables in it. If your user.ini doesn't have these in it, you're not adjusting all of the settings!

[Rendering]
TextureDownscale=0
AtlasTextureDownscale=0
DetailTextureDownscale=0
MaxTextureSize=2048
MaxAtlasTextureSize=4096
TextureMemoryBudget=400
TextureTimeBudget=10
MaxCubeShadowSize=2048
MaxCubeShadowCount=3
MaxSpotShadowSize=2048
MaxSpotShadowCount=3
FoliageDistanceScale=1.0
MeshDistanceScale=1.0
CharacterLodGameplayDownscale=0
AllowBloom=1
AllowShafts=1
AllowAntialias=1
AllowBlur=1
AllowDOF=1
AllowDecals=1.0
AllowVignette=1
AllowSharpen=1
AllowRain=1
AllowSSAO=1
AllowMotionBlur=1
AllowScatterDOF=1
AllowCutsceneDOF=1
DanglesLimiter=0
ShadowQuality=3
ShadowedLights=3
Fullscreen=1
VSync=1
UberSampling=2

The premade configs have all of these, but the idiotic configurator loves to leae them out. Keep all of this in mind and make sure your User.ini has all of those variables in it!

Next, if you want to make sure the Configurator doesn't your custom made settings, you MUST right click on your user.ini, go to Properties, and set it to Read-Only. Otherwise the game will muck everything up.

Here's some of my suggested configs for different PC's: Medium/High (Performance Focused), High Settings with Balanced IQ/Performance, and Ultra+ for those of you who max out Ultra and want more detail.

GeForce 260M GTX/360M GTS/GTX 280M/Radeon 6770M recommended

[Rendering]
TextureDownscale=0
AtlasTextureDownscale=0
DetailTextureDownscale=0
MaxTextureSize=1024
MaxAtlasTextureSize=2048
TextureMemoryBudget=500
TextureTimeBudget=10
MaxCubeShadowSize=512
MaxCubeShadowCount=2
MaxSpotShadowSize=512
MaxSpotShadowCount=2
FoliageDistanceScale=0.9
MeshDistanceScale=0.9
CharacterLodGameplayDownscale=0
AllowBloom=0
AllowShafts=1
AllowAntialias=0
AllowBlur=0
AllowDOF=0
AllowDecals=1.0
AllowVignette=1
AllowSharpen=0
AllowRain=1
AllowSSAO=0
AllowMotionBlur=0
AllowScatterDOF=0
AllowCutsceneDOF=0
DanglesLimiter=0
ShadowQuality=2
ShadowedLights=2
Fullscreen=1
VSync=0
UberSampling=0

5870M/GTX 460M/GTX 480M recommended

[Rendering]
TextureDownscale=0
AtlasTextureDownscale=0
DetailTextureDownscale=0
MaxTextureSize=2048
MaxAtlasTextureSize=4096
TextureMemoryBudget=650
TextureTimeBudget=10
MaxCubeShadowSize=1024
MaxCubeShadowCount=2
MaxSpotShadowSize=1024
MaxSpotShadowCount=2
FoliageDistanceScale=1.0
MeshDistanceScale=1.0
CharacterLodGameplayDownscale=0
AllowBloom=0
AllowShafts=1
AllowAntialias=0
AllowBlur=1
AllowDOF=0
AllowDecals=1.0
AllowVignette=1
AllowSharpen=0
AllowRain=1
AllowSSAO=0
AllowMotionBlur=0
AllowScatterDOF=0
AllowCutsceneDOF=0
DanglesLimiter=0
ShadowQuality=2
ShadowedLights=3
Fullscreen=1
VSync=0
UberSampling=0

For those of you with beefier GPU's and that have at least 1.5GB of VRAM (Radeon 6970M and GTX 485M recommended), try this:

[Rendering]
TextureDownscale=0
AtlasTextureDownscale=0
DetailTextureDownscale=0
MaxTextureSize=2048
MaxAtlasTextureSize=4096
TextureMemoryBudget=1000
TextureTimeBudget=10
MaxCubeShadowSize=2048
MaxCubeShadowCount=4
MaxSpotShadowSize=2048
MaxSpotShadowCount=4
FoliageDistanceScale=1.6
MeshDistanceScale=2.2
CharacterLodGameplayDownscale=0
AllowBloom=0
AllowShafts=1
AllowAntialias=1
AllowBlur=1
AllowDOF=1
AllowDecals=1.0
AllowVignette=1
AllowSharpen=1
AllowRain=1
AllowSSAO=1
AllowMotionBlur=1
AllowScatterDOF=1
AllowCutsceneDOF=0
DanglesLimiter=0
ShadowQuality=3
ShadowedLights=3
Fullscreen=1
VSync=0
UberSampling=0

Feel free to play with MeshDistanceScale and FoliageDistanceScale to acquire your ideal image quality/performance balance on object LOD and foliage LOD/pop-in.

YMMV with these configs, but a couple of users with higher end PC's have reported increased image quality, FPS, and smoothness with the first config I posted (which was a more tame Ultra+ config). I personally believe CDProjekt Red erred on the side of caution with the stock Ultra config; other than the boneheaded move of enabling Ubersampling, everything is set too low to really take advantage of the increased horsepower the higher end GPU's offer.

I originally posted this HERE: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost...postcount=2825

Please see the last few pages of THIS thread for additional help: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=430456 My username @ GAF is "Boobphysics101".

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in this thread. All of this is my OWN work and may not necessarily have positive results on your machine; your mileage may vary, but I'm fairly certain that almost anyone can benefit from these settings. If you're going to post this work elsewhere, please link back to this thread or the thread @ NeoGAF giving due credit.

[maskedformed]

I can confirm this. I bought the retail version and tried swapping the GOG.com's DRM-less files and I've seen a bump of 5-10 fps.

System:
Gateway P-7801u
2.26 Ghz Core 2 Duo
9800m GTS 1GB
4GB DDR3 Ram

Read: I have tried the latest beta drivers without any results (including removing 3D drivers) without any result. The lack of DRM does seem to make a big difference.

[SomeRandomDude]

Not working for me.
meh, whatcha gonna do.

[Disgustipated]

Updated first post. If you don't have the Steam or GOG version, DRM is causing performance issues. So that means if you bought the game from retail or D2D, you need to swap exes.

Also uploaded more proof (a comparison video I made and comparison screenshots). I was using the Direct2Drive version of the game.

[Syberia]

Another example of how DRM only hurts the consumer...

[narsnail]

Yup confirmed to work, 10-20 FPS increase on same settings. I might be able to crank it 1920x1200 now.

[nikolai090]

I can confirm this too, gives me an FPS boost and launches significantly faster, thanks for this great find.

[darkphase]

Confirmed.. Retail edition with audio soundtrack and guide. FPS difference is 10-17fps. Flotsam started at 28fps, degraded to 21-24 fps.

Post GOG update, lowest is 29 at higher settings than before and averages around 34 fps.

Great post!

+rep to Disgust

[Jamaro85]

Not noticing any frame rate difference so far from my few tests. I will definitely do more in depth testing later.

The game is now launching in 5-8 seconds now as opposed to 45 seconds before though!

[DEagleson]

Nice thread. ;D
Luckily i got the GoG version so this DRM issue is new to me.