The Witcher 3 Remastered Day One Update Adds Major Visual and Gameplay Improvements

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The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Remastered day one update introduces a wide range of visual, gameplay, interface, accessibility, and quality of life improvements. The update also adds an expanded Photo Mode, Cross Platform Mod Support, new accessibility options, and several fixes.

Nintendo Switch 2 players receive dedicated features including multiple playstyles, motion controls, mouse sensor support, touch controls, Joy Con 2 HD Rumble, VRR, HDR, and a dedicated Motion Controls tutorial. PC players also receive support for Path Tracing, NVIDIA DLSS 4.5, AMD FSR 4, and Intel XeSS 2.0.

Patch Notes

Visual and Rendering

• Implemented an improved shading model.
• Updated multiple textures and models using assets from The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project.
• Improved lighting and shading for grass and foliage.
• Updated visual effects for Signs and their upgraded versions.
• Added new visual effects for skills.
• Added native DirectX 12 rendering with multithreading.
• Updated tone mapping for improved colours, lighting, contrast, and detail.
• Added GTAO as a new Screen Space Ambient Occlusion option.
• Updated the HDR calibration panel with new options and improvements.
• Added Ray Traced HairWorks.
• Improved Motion Blur with a higher quality, cinematic presentation.
• Updated Subsurface Scattering for more natural skin rendering.
• Improved terrain and material rendering for more natural lighting, shadows, reflections, and highlights.
• Added new Image Based Lighting for improved ambient lighting and reflections.
• Reworked Bloom for improved lighting effects.

Gameplay

• Reworked the skill system into a skill tree with three ranks for each skill.
• Changed skill unlocking to require prerequisite skills rather than a set number of skill points.
• Reset existing skill points as a result of the skill system changes.
• Rebalanced the skill tree by refining skill bonus values, effects, and synergies.
• Renamed some skills to better reflect their effects.
• Added Reforge equipment functionality, allowing players to change an item’s appearance without affecting its stats.
• Reforge is available from master craftsmen Yoana and Hattori.
• Equipment appearances can be unlocked by adding new equipment and crafting diagrams to the inventory.
• Blood and Wine dyes applied to equipment carry over to reforged items.
• Polished combat behaviour for non-boss monsters, including attacks, counterattacks, movement, reactions, flight, and effect application.
• Changed cantering and galloping so they require pressing the button instead of holding it.
• Added a Horse control input sensitivity slider under Settings and Controls.
• Improved Roach and Geralt’s movement, controls, and animations.
• Refined Geralt’s jumping animation without changing jump distance or height.
• Added new finisher animations for Geralt.
• Added new idle animations for Geralt.
• Improved Geralt’s ledge climbing, ladder climbing, and vaulting animations and responsiveness.
• Improved Geralt’s gap-closing animations during combat.
• Improved target-lock switching when moving the camera during combat.
• Polished mounting and dismounting animations for Roach, as well as cantering and galloping.

UI and UX

• Replaced the Meditation UI screen with a timelapse.
• Reorganised the skill screen into a skill tree layout.
• Updated the map screen to make switching between tracked quests easier.
• Added distinct markers for untracked quests that can be selected for tracking.
• Added options to hide herbs, boats, and corpses from the minimap.
• Combined quest updates into a single HUD notification.
• Added an option to group nearby loot into a single window.
• Added a loot feed showing recently collected items.
• Added item tooltips to the loot window.
• Renamed HUD Configuration to Interface in Settings.
• Updated the CD PROJEKT RED Account connection, My Rewards, and telemetry consent menus.

Photo Mode

• Updated the Photo Mode interface and expanded its features.
• Added multiple characters that can be placed in shots.
• Added poses and expressions for Geralt and placeable characters.
• Added a Look-at dropdown for character gaze direction.
• Added placeable lights with adjustable brightness, colour, angles, and more.
• Added a confirmation prompt before exiting Photo Mode.
• Added camera position locking.
• Added environment presets.
• Added camera presets that can be saved and reused.
• Added screenshot aspect ratio options.
• Added a first-person camera mode.
• Added an option to enable or disable camera collisions with objects and walls.
• Added weather and time of day controls.
• Added adjustable weather effect intensity.
• Added Rule of Thirds lines with optional cinematic black bars.
• Added camera coordinates to the interface.
• Added an option to hide surrounding NPCs.
• Added placeable props.
• Made the cursor visible in Photo Mode on PC when using a mouse.

Accessibility

• Added a dedicated Accessibility section to Settings.
• Moved existing accessibility options into the new section.
• Added Ukrainian text localisation.
• Added the Bard’s Ballad preset for Just the Story difficulty and during an existing game.
• Added Vitality Regeneration Boost options for activation threshold and regeneration intensity.
• Added Infinite Breath.
• Added Unlimited Item Durability.
• Added Unlimited Boat Durability.
• Added Ignore Item Weight.
• Added Faster Boats.
• Added a Toggle Witcher Sense option.

Quality of Life

• Streamlined tutorials to focus on core game mechanics.
• Added an option to quickly disengage from combat.
• Players can hold the dodge button to unlock from their target and press the sprint button to run away.
• Players can now collect loot without dismounting Roach.

Modding

• Added Cross Platform Mod Support through mod.io.
• Added an in-game Mods section for browsing and installing player-created mods.
• Added engine, UI, and other improvements for REDkit.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue preventing Right Stick Sensitivity from being changed when settings were accessed directly from the main menu.
• Added the ability to set Stick Sensitivity to 0.69.
• Fixed an issue where HDR settings could sometimes fail to appear on consoles.
• Fixed an issue in The Eternal Fire’s Shadow where Forgotten Wolf School Gear Diagrams were not displayed in the UI after being received as rewards.
• Fixed an issue in Wine is Sacred where fast travelling out of Toussaint during the Search the wine cellar with Anna Henrietta objective could block quest progression.

PC Specific

• Added Path Tracing support.
• Added NVIDIA DLSS 4.5 with Ray Reconstruction.
• Added AMD FSR 4 with Frame Generation and Anti Lag 2.
• Added Intel XeSS 2.0 with Frame Generation and Low Latency.
• Added DualSense controller haptic feedback.

Console Specific

• Added PlayStation 5 Pro support.
• Added Xbox Play Anywhere support.
• Implemented multithreaded rendering on PlayStation 5.

Nintendo Switch 2

• Added support for Nintendo Switch 2.
• Added four playstyles: Handheld, Pro Controller, Dual Grip with Motion Controls, and Mouse Sensor.
• Added Motion Control Patterns with Always Enabled and Horse Only modes.
• Added Mouse Sensor support with Always Enabled and Dynamic modes.
• Added three Mouse Sensor control schemes: Comfort, Dynamic, and Default.
• Added Gyroscope Mode aiming for Handheld, Pro Controller, and Dual Grip playstyles.
• Added Always Enabled and Ranged Weapons Gyroscope Mode options.
• Added touch screen input for menus, dialogue, the world map, Gwent, and Photo Mode.
• Added Joy Con 2 HD Rumble.
• Added VRR and HDR support.
• Added a dedicated Motion Controls tutorial accessible from the Main Menu and Pause Menu.

The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Remastered launches on September 29, 2026, for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. The game was developed by CD Projekt Red and published by CD Projekt, with the day one update releasing alongside the remastered version on September 29, 2026.

Are you excited for these changes? Let us know what you are looking forward to in the comments!