The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt officially made its way to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in December 2022 (alongside an upgraded PC version), and CD Projekt Red has been steadily patching it since. This new 4.02 update fixes a ton of bugs and even addresses issues introduced in the game’s previous patch.
As shown in the detailed list provided by CD Projekt Red, the game reportedly now runs a little more smoothly on Xbox Series X and PS5 in Performance Mode. The 4.01 update did improve the game’s performance in its Quality Mode, but it somehow also slashed the frame rate in its Performance Mode. Tests performed by Digital Foundry demonstrated how it ran at a lower frame rate with the 4.01 update installed when compared to the previous versions.
PC and current-gen consoles also now have a motion blur slider and better water reflections. There are also a few console-specific changes, like how the PS5 version now won’t delete the oldest save when rewriting a manual save and how Xbox One users will be able to more smoothly load cross-console saves.
There are many other fixes, as noted by the full update patch notes below (some of which aren’t directly listed, however):
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.
