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The Witcher

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
The Witcher
The Witcher cover
Developers
CD Projekt Red
macOS (OS X) Virtual Programming
Publishers
Atari
Poland CD Projekt
Engines
Aurora
Release dates
Windows October 26, 2007
macOS (OS X) April 5, 2012
Reception
Metacritic 81
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres RPG
Themes Fantasy
Series The Witcher
The Witcher on HowLongToBeat
The Witcher on IGDB
The Witcher guide on StrategyWiki
The Witcher on MobyGames
The Witcher on Wikipedia
The Witcher
The Witcher 2007
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings 2011
The Witcher Adventure Game 2014
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 2015
Gwent: The Witcher Card Game 2018
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales 2018
Gwent: Rogue Mage 2022
The Witcher: Remake TBA

The Witcher is a singleplayer third-person RPG game in the The Witcher series.

General information

Official Forums
Official Witcher Wiki (Fandom)
Official Witcher Game Series Wiki (Gamepedia)
GOG.com Community Discussions
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
TAGES Solidshield v1.9.5.1 and TAGES v5.5.2.8 DRM. DRM removed in the latest Patches.
GOG.com key
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
Enhanced Edition Director's Cut.
Provides high quality bonus goodies.[1]
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Humble Store
GOG.com key
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Enhanced Edition Director's Cut.
GOG.com key
Windows
macOS (OS X)
GamersGate (unavailable)
DRM-free after installation (requires an internet connection during installation)
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Origin (unavailable)
Origin
Windows
All versions can be registered on GOG.com even if a product key was not included; see here for details.
The GOG.com version can be obtained for free at any time if subscribed to the site's newsletter, as part of the Gwent Welcome Bonus.

Essential improvements

Patches

There are two patches available for download on the official page:

  • Patch 1.4 upgraded the game to the Enhanced Edition.
  • Patch 1.5 removed the DRM and fixed bugs introduced by patch 1.4. It also contains five community-made adventures.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CD Projekt RED\Witcher\Settings\
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/20900/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\The Witcher\saves\
macOS (OS X) $HOME/Library/Application Support/com.cdprojektred.TheWitcher/GameDocuments/The Witcher/saves/
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/20900/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Origin
OneDrive
Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud
Approx. 954 MB available.

Video

Video settings.
Video settings.
Graphical settings.
Graphical settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
Use the aspect ratio fix for the cutscenes.
4K Ultra HD
In-game AA must be disabled.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Use Borderless Gaming with Auto-Maximize disabled.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Up to 4x MSAA; SGSSAA is available via 0x000010C1 flag in Nvidia Inspector.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
See Force Vsync.
60 FPS
120+ FPS
High fps cause hair physics glitch and crashing during all times along with the script issues.needs 60fps cap to prevent major issues with hair physics also with the gravity and all script-issues related.[2]
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

HBAO+

Use Nvidia Profile Inspector[3]
  1. Open The Witcher driver profile via Nvidia Profile Inspector.
  2. Change Ambient Occlusion compatibility to 0x0000002D (MechWarrior Online).
  3. Change Ambient Occlusion usage to Enabled.
  4. Change Ambient Occlusion setting to high quality.
  5. Apply changes.

Input

Input settings.
Input settings.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Negative acceleration cannot be turned off.[citation needed]
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Controller types

Logitech GamePanel

Information such as statistics, ammunition, health and items the player is currently holding can be displayed on the LCD panel or smartphone application.
Display Notes
Arx Control application Native support in Enhanced Edition.
G19 color screen Native support in Enhanced Edition.
G15 monochrome screen Native support in Enhanced Edition.

Audio

Audio settings.
Audio settings.
General settings.
General settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Music, battle music, SFX and voice.
Surround sound
Requires EAX
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
EAX 4.0 only.[4] In-game option may need to be re-enabled after every launch.[5][6]
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Traditional Chinese
Czech
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Fan translation, Download.
Russian
Spanish
Turkish
Fan translation.download.
Ukrainian
Fan translation. Available to download.
Installation size can be decreased by almost one third by deleting voice files of unnecessary languages. By default, the game installs almost all languages. The voices_X_00.bif files in <path-to-game>\Data can be deleted for languages you don't use, with X standing for a number for each language. For which number corresponds to which language, see here.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
vorpX
G3D
Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues unresolved

Poor performance on AMD

There is an issue where the game caps at 20fps, at some point it might go higher.[citation needed]

Crash at launch

On AMD: DirectX to OpenGL wrapper[7]
  1. Download wrapper from here.
  2. Extract d3d9.dll, wined3d.dll and libwine.dll to <path-to-game>\System.
Run witcher.exe in compatibility mode for Windows 7.[8]

Minimum system requirements not met

Run witcher.exe with the -dontforceminreqs command line argument[9]
The fix above is known to cause other issues. The game's resolution can not be changed above a certain limit, and the texture quality and antialiasing settings might be locked to the lowest settings. To avoid this, try the following.
Use replacement TexSettings.d2a
  1. Download TexSettings.d2a.
  2. Move the file to <path-to-game>\Data\Override (create the folder if not found).

No mouse in the main menu

Press Shift[citation needed]

In some cases (when the intro cinematic is skipped or if opening the Steam overlay), the mouse cursor does not function on the main menu. This can be fixed by holding the key that releases the mouse in Over the Shoulder view ( Shift by default).

Frequent game crashes

Set the game to run in windowed mode[citation needed]

Use a program such as Borderless Gaming to force the game to run in a borderless window.

Disable Steam overlay[citation needed]

Disabling Steam overlay fixes the crashing.

Pre-rendered cutscenes do not display

Audio will still play, but the video will freeze to the last displayed frame.
Lower the lighting setting[citation needed]
  1. Go to Advanced Settings.
  2. Set Lighting to low. Cutscenes should now display correctly.
The lighting setting can be reverted afterwards. However, the setting will need to be altered before each pre-rendered cutscene.

In-game cut-scenes appear pixelated

Use any 16:9 resolution[citation needed]

Lights visible through walls

On some systems with SLI enabled, light sources are sometimes visible through walls.
Change SLI rendering mode[citation needed]
  1. In the Nvidia control panel go to "Manage 3D settings."
  2. Hit the tab "Program settings" and add <path-to-game>\system\witcher.exe.
  3. Scroll down through the settings to the one called "Multi-GPU rendering mode" and change it to Force Alternate frame rendering 2.
  4. Click Apply.

Broken physics/Constant crashing when attempting side quests above 60fps+/script issues above 60fps/exiting to desktop frequently due to extremely broken scripts above 60fps/runtime errors when attempting to start a quest/

High fps cause hair physics glitch and crashing during all times along with the script issues.needs 60fps cap to prevent major issues with hair physics also with the gravity and all script-issues relatede[citation needed]
Limit the framerate. to 60 FPS[10][11][12]

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c
OpenGL
OS X only.
Executable 32-bit 64-bitARM Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Build compatible with macOS 10.15 (Catalina) added on 27 July 2022 and at the same time 32-bit binary was removed.
Native ARM binary added on 20 November 2023.[13]

Modifications

Setup

Prior to modding The Witcher, make sure you have an Override folder in your game's Data folder. You will need to create the folder if you do not have it already.
While not necessary, it is highly recommended to unpack mods into their own separate folders within Override for organization and troubleshooting purposes.
Several mods contain specific installation and usage instructions that should be reviewed before attempting to use them, failing to do so may result in your game breaking.

4GB Memory Patch

Improves RAM management in The Witcher 32 bit engine.

Skip intro - straight to the Main Menu

Removes all Witcher intro videos.

AI Upscale Textures

More detail in textures thanks to artificial intelligence.

School of the Wolf

This mod aims to differentiate all Witchers in the game, with unique looking armor and high quality character retextures.
A couple of characters faces are now more in-line with their Witcher 3 models.
Includes unique cat-like eyes for all witchers.
If you use W1 Vanilla remaster, you will need to remove or overwrite the textures provided in that mod. Most of the textures are the same resolution, so there should be almost no visual difference apart from character's new appearances.

Project Mersey - The Witcher Fix Pack

This mod focuses on bugfixes and restoring cut content.
Also provides general quality of life improvements.

TW1 All Herbs

All herb spawn amounts are increased.
Also Fixes the Han plants giving Berbercane bug.

Geralt Random Speed Fix

Fixes a bug that causes Geralt to have a different running speed every time you load a save or enter a new chapter.

The Witcher Enhanced Walk Enabler

Adds a missing option in OTS view that allows Geralt to walk instead of run.

Permanent Bodies Mod

Stops the disappearing of dead bodies where it is not lore-friendly. Certain creatures bodies, such as Ethereal beings, will still disappear.
May cause performance issues.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
AMD Athlon 64 2800+
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 15 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 6600
ATI Radeon 9800
DirectX 9.0c compatible
Sound (audio device) DirectX version 9.0c-compatible sound card
macOS (OS X)
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 11.0, 12.0, 13.0
Processor (CPU) Intel Core i5
Apple Silicon M1/M2
System memory (RAM) 4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 14.5 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce GT 650M
AMD Radeon HD 6750M
Intel HD Graphics 5000
256 MB of VRAM
Other Not recommended to use native Retina resolutions
A 64-bit operating system is required.


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/20900/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (20900) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. Steam Community - last accessed on May 2023
  2. New 120Hz Games Report - last accessed on May 2023
  3. docs.google.com - last accessed on May 2023
  4. EAX and X-FI Alchemy | Forums - CD PROJEKT RED
  5. EAX DOES Work with Alchemy - Steam Users' Forums (retrieved)
  6. EAX has to be re-enabled after every launch - Forum - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023
  7. [1]
  8. [2]
  9. Fixes to Common Problems at GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023
  10. Steam Community - last accessed on May 2023
  11. gog.com - last accessed on May 2023
  12. Steam Community - last accessed on May 2023
  13. Steam :: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition :: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition now supports Apple silicon chips! - last accessed on 2023-11-21