CD Projekt has spent the past few months telling everyone why The Witcher 3 Remastered is worth revisiting. Today, the company laid out the full list of changes in a single document — and it is a lot. The game arrives September 29, and CD Projekt wants to make sure nobody misses it.
The Question Everyone Has to Answer First
The pitch starts with a simple question: have you played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt? If you answered no, the answer is easy. The game is a landmark role-playing game, and the remaster is a chance to jump in fresh. For those who already played through it, the argument gets harder. The remaster adds new systems, new polish, and a new accessibility setting — but it also resets your skill points.
What Changed Under the Hood
The biggest technical change is the engine itself. The game now renders natively with DirectX 12, which means it splits processing across multiple threads for better performance. The company also added GTAO (Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion) as a new Screen Space Ambient Occlusion option, along with Ray-Traced Local Shadows. The HDR calibration panel gained new options, and Subsurface Scattering was updated for more natural skin rendering.
The list runs deep. Here is a quick rundown of the visual and rendering updates:
- Improved shading model
- Textured and modeled assets from The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project
- Better lighting and shading for grass and foliage
- Updated visual effects for Signs, including their upgrade versions
- New visual effects for skills
- Native DirectX 12 rendering with multithreading
- Updated tone mapping for improved colors, lighting, contrast and detail
- GTAO and Ray-Traced Local Shadows
- Updated Screen Space Reflections and Shadows
- Updated the HDR calibration panel
- Improved Motion Blur with a more cinematic look
- Updated Subsurface Scattering
- Improved terrain and material rendering
- New Image-Based Lighting (IBL) for ambient lighting
- Reworked Bloom for improved lighting effects
The Skill System Gets a Complete Overhaul
The skill tree is the most notable gameplay change. Instead of spending a fixed number of points, unlocking new skills now requires having the necessary prerequisite skills. Each skill has three ranks, and the tree has been rebalanced with refined bonus values, effects and synergies. Some skills were renamed to better reflect their actual effects.
The catch is that your skill points have been reset. If you have an existing save, you will need to rebuild your character from scratch.
Monsters Move Better Now
Combat behavior for many non-boss monsters has been polished. Attack patterns, counterattacks, movement, reactions, flight and the application of effects all got attention. The new finisher and idle animations for Geralt add more personality to the fights, while ledge climbing, ladder climbing and vaulting animations have been improved for more responsive movement.
Roach’s and Geralt’s movement, player control and animations have been refined as well. Geralt’s jumping animation feels more natural, though the jump distance and height remain unchanged. New finisher and idle animations give him a fuller presence in combat.
Accessibility Gets a New Setting
The Bard’s Ballad preset is designed for players who experience mental fatigue or have difficulty concentrating. It streamlines or disables certain mechanics and features to create a smoother, more focused adventure. It is a small but meaningful addition for players who found the original game overwhelming.
The company also added a new “Horse control input sensitivity” slider in Settings → Controls, giving players finer control over how their mounts respond.
Reforging Changes Appearance Without Stats
Equipment can now be reforged to change its appearance without affecting its stats. Only master craftsmen — Yoana and Hattori — offer this service. Players unlock appearances by adding new equipment and crafting diagrams to their inventory. Dyes from Blood and Wine applied to equipment will carry over to the reforged item.
The System Requirements Are Slightly Lower
CD Projekt revealed the minimum spec earlier this year, but the new listing goes all the way up to the very high end. One change from the previously announced minimum: 60GB of SSD drive space is required instead of the previously indicated 70GB.
| System | Previous Minimum | New Minimum |
|---|---|---|
| SSD Drive Space | 70GB | 60GB |
The Free Offer
All of this is free for existing owners. The remaster includes every update listed above, and CD Projekt is nudging veterans toward doing it.
Why This Is a Great Idea
The sheer volume of changes is the argument. From the Bard’s Ballad preset to the exhaustive list of visual and gameplay tweaks, the remaster offers a strong reason to return. The skill reset is a one-time cost, but the payoff is a rebuilt character tree with a clearer path forward.
The remaster is out tomorrow. If you have not played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the answer is obvious. If you have, the question is whether the polish and the new systems are enough to pull you back. CD Projekt has made the case — now it is up to the player.
Source material: “CD Projekt lays out why you should play The Witcher 3 Remastered,” PC Gamer.
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