The Witness
From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
This page is for the 2016 puzzle game. For the unrelated 1983 text adventure game, see The Witness (1983).
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| Developers | |
|---|---|
| Thekla | |
| Release dates | |
| Windows | January 26, 2016 |
| macOS (OS X) | March 8, 2017 |
| Reception | |
| Metacritic | 87 |
| OpenCritic | 86 |
| IGDB | 88 |
| Taxonomy | |
| Monetization | One-time game purchase |
| Modes | Singleplayer |
| Pacing | Relaxed |
| Perspectives | First-person |
| Controls | Direct control, Point and select |
| Genres | Puzzle |
| Art styles | Stylized |
| Themes | Fantasy |
 |
|
Key points
- Colorblind and hearing-impaired players may have trouble playing the game in full.[1]
General information
Availability
| Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Epic Games Store | |
Can be played without Epic Store Launcher being open. | |
|
| GOG.com | |
|
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| Humble Store | |
|
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| Mac App Store | |
|
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| Steam | |
Can be played without Steam being open. | |
|
| Origin (unavailable) | |
|
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
| System | Location |
|---|---|
| Windows | <path-to-game>\data\Local.variables[Note 1] %APPDATA%\The Witness\Launcher.variables |
| macOS (OS X) | <path-to-game>/The Witness.app/Contents/Resources/data/Local.variables ~/Library/Application Support/The Witness/Launcher.variables |
| Steam Play (Linux) | <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/210970/pfx/[Note 2] |
Save game data location
| System | Location |
|---|---|
| Windows | %APPDATA%\The Witness\ |
| macOS (OS X) | $HOME/Library/Application Support/The Witness/ |
| Steam Play (Linux) | <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/210970/pfx/[Note 2] |
Save game cloud syncing
| System | Native | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Epic Games Launcher | ||
| GOG Galaxy | ||
| Origin | ||
| Steam Cloud | Syncs up to 100 MB of game saves. Launcher preferences are also synced. |
Video
| Graphics feature | State | WSGF | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Widescreen resolution | Resolution setting is for rendering resolution, game always uses desktop resolution in fullscreen mode. Resolutions above 1920x1080 require changing the internal resolution to fix blurriness; see the WSGF entry. | ||
| Multi-monitor | |||
| Ultra-widescreen | |||
| 4K Ultra HD | |||
| Field of view (FOV) | Adjustable in Settings menu. Can set from 80° to 120°. | ||
| Windowed | Toggle with Alt+↵ Enter or set in launcher. | ||
| Borderless fullscreen windowed | Use the -no_window_border parameter. |
||
| Anisotropic filtering (AF) | Labelled as "Texture Filter Quality". Unknown samples. | ||
| Anti-aliasing (AA) | MSAA up to 8x. Downsampling possible with custom rendering resolution. FXAA forced by default, see Configuration file options. | ||
| Vertical sync (Vsync) | |||
| 60 FPS and 120+ FPS | |||
| High dynamic range display (HDR) | PlayStation 4 version only.[2] | ||
Launcher settings.
Advanced launcher settings.
In-game video settings.
Input
| Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Remapping | ||
| Mouse acceleration | ||
| Mouse sensitivity | Separate for camera and cursor. | |
| Mouse input in menus | ||
| Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
| Controller | ||
| Controller support | ||
| Full controller support | Mouse/keyboard required to navigate the launcher. Bypass the launcher by using -skip_config_dialog launch parameter or by adding show_config_dialog false under the :/display section in the configuration file. |
|
| Controller remapping | ||
| Controller sensitivity | ||
| Controller Y-axis inversion |
| Controller types |
|---|
| XInput-compatible controllers | ||
|---|---|---|
| Xbox button prompts | ||
| Impulse Trigger vibration |
| DualShock 4 controllers | ||
|---|---|---|
| DualShock button prompts | ||
| Light bar support | Static blue, lightbar keeps being light up after terminating the game, resets controllers Bluetooth pairing. | |
| Connection modes | V1, Wired V2, Wireless adapter and Bluetooth untested. |
|
| Tracked motion controllers |
|---|
| Generic/other controllers | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. |
|---|
| Additional information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Controller hotplugging | ||
| Haptic feedback | ||
| Simultaneous controller+KB/M |
| Steam Input | ||
|---|---|---|
| Steam Input API support | ||
| Hook input (legacy mode) | ||
| Official controller preset(s) | ||
| Steam Controller button prompts | ||
| Cursor detection |
In-game control settings.
In-game keyboard binding settings.
In-game gamepad binding settings.
Audio
| Audio feature | State | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Separate volume controls | ||
| Surround sound | ||
| Subtitles | ||
| Closed captions | Statement on Steam store page is incorrect.[3] | |
| Mute on focus lost | ||
| Royalty free audio |
Localizations
| Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | ||||
| Arabic | ||||
| Simplified Chinese | ||||
| Traditional Chinese | ||||
| French | ||||
| German | ||||
| Italian | ||||
| Japanese | ||||
| Korean | ||||
| Polish | ||||
| Portuguese | ||||
| Brazilian Portuguese | ||||
| Russian | ||||
| Spanish |
- To use a different language, change the language in the properties window in Steam for the game. Alternatively, use the command line argument
-languagewith the correct language code.
VR support
| 3D modes | State | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native 3D | |||
| Nvidia 3D Vision | See Helix Mod: The Witness. | ||
| Headsets | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| SteamVR | Might require launching the game outside Steam with Oculus compatibility layer. | ||
| Oculus VR (LibOVR) | Buggy and incomplete implementation, puzzles almost impossible to play and most likely require taking headset off and completing puzzles on monitor. Turn on with the command line argument -vr.You will also be required to run the game in Windows 7 Compatibility Mode, otherwise VR will not launch properly. |
||
| Windows Mixed Reality | This game might be playable with the Revive Compatibility Layer. | ||
| OSVR | |||
| Devices | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tracked motion controllers | |||
| Traditional controller | See Input for details. | ||
| Keyboard/Mouse | |||
| Play area | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Seated | |||
| Standing | |||
| Room-scale | Incorrectly detected and forced. Allows moving in the enviroment while the main body stays in the center, breaking the game even more. | ||
Other information
API
| Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Direct3D | 11 | |
| Metal support |
| Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | |||
| macOS (OS X) |
- Metal supported Mac is required.
Middleware
| Middleware | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Cutscenes | Bink Video |
Configuration file structure and options
- This lists all the possible variables that can be used with the games configuration file,[4] however developer does point out that some of these settings can break the game in non-obvious ways.[5]
| Description | |
|---|---|
| low_res_reflections | Force reflections to be low resolution. Can be true or false. |
| shadow_quality | |
| sun_shadow_resolution | Resolutions of shadows cast by the sun. Can be 256, 512, or 1024. |
| point_shadow_resolution | |
| allow_non_essential_spot_lights | |
| antialias_panel_rendering | Enables additional anti-aliasing for the puzzle panels. Can be true or false. |
| fxaa_panel_rendering | |
| panel_mipmaps | |
| grass_detail | |
| grass_fade_begin | |
| grass_fade_end | |
| mipmap_filter_quality | |
| skip_mipmaps | Changes texture resolution. Lower is better. Can be 0, 1, or 2. |
| aa_mode | 2 for FXAA, 0 for no FXAA. Other values are the same as 0. |
| msaa_sample_count | Sets number of MSAA samples. Can be 1 for 2x, 2 for 4x and 3 for 8x. |
| msaa_coverage | |
| msaa_coverage_sample_count | |
| panel_render_width | Value must be a power of two. Values below 512 are not recommended. |
| render_width | Changes rendering width. Can also be set with command line argument -width. |
| render_height | Changes rendering height. Can also be set with command line argument -height. |
| dynamic_resolution | Dynamically changes the resolution to maintain framerate. Can be true or false. |
| show_config_dialog | Show configuration dialog before starting the game. Can be true or false. |
- See here for the location of the file on each system.
- These need to be added to a graphical quality category called
:/render/low(ormedium,high).[6]
Command line parameters
- See command line arguments on how to use the following options.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| -width | Force a specific width. |
| -height | Force a specific height. |
| -language | Force a specific language: ar/ko/ja/ru/zh_CN/zh_TW |
| -vr | Enables Oculus Rift support. |
| -fullscreen | Enables fullscreen mode. |
| -windowed | Enables windowed mode. |
| -no_window_border | Hides window border. |
| -no_hud | Disables the HUD. |
| -profile | Set render quality: low/medium/high/ultra |
| -no_log | |
| -no_sound | |
| -no_entities | |
| -new_game | |
| -demo | |
| -non_interactive | |
| -no_svn | |
| -map | |
| -centered | |
| -profiling | |
| -skip_config_dialog | Suppress the launcher when you start the game |
System requirements
| Windows | ||
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Recommended | |
| Operating system (OS) | 7 | |
| Processor (CPU) | 1.8 GHz | 2.4 GHz |
| System memory (RAM) | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| Hard disk drive (HDD) | 5 GB | |
| Video card (GPU) | Intel HD Graphics 4000 DirectX 10 compatible | Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 |
| macOS (OS X) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Minimum | Recommended | |
| Operating system (OS) | 10.11.6 | 10.12.4 |
| Processor (CPU) | Intel Core i5 1.8 GHz | Intel Core i7 2.4 GHz |
| System memory (RAM) | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| Hard disk drive (HDD) | 5 GB | |
| Video card (GPU) | Intel HD Graphics 4000 AMD Radeon R9 M290 Nvidia GeForce 640M 1 GB of VRAM | AMD Radeon R9 M390 Nvidia GeForce 780 2 GB of VRAM |
| Other | Metal support is required.[7] | |
- A 64-bit operating system is required.
Notes
- ↑ When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below
%PROGRAMFILES%,%PROGRAMDATA%, or%WINDIR%might be redirected to%LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStoreon Windows Vista and later (more details). - ↑ 2.0 2.1 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>/210970/in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (210970) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.
References
- ↑ Colorblind And Hearing-Impaired Players Won't Be Able To Do All The Puzzles In The Witness - Kotaku - last accessed on 2016-01-28
- ↑ HDR output coming to PC? :: The Witness General Discussions - last accessed on May 2023
- ↑ Verified by User:Anonymous on 2016-01-31
- ↑ Command line arguments and config file variables :: The Witness Technical Support - last accessed on 2020-01-28
- ↑ FAQ: Launcher, Tweaking graphics settings :: The Witness Technical Support - last accessed on 2020-01-28
- "Also, there are various forum posts out there in which people have figured out how to edit even more settings. Be aware that doing so can break certain puzzles and game functionality in subtle non-obvious ways, which is why they're not included here."
- ↑ Tweaking graphics settings :: Steam Community Discussions - last accessed on 2016-01-28
- ↑ the-witness.net - last accessed on May 2023