Enhanced Edition of The Witcher 3 Economy Mod Now Available for Next-Gen Platforms

Modders of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt have recently dropped the next-gen update for the renowned Lore-Friendly Economy Mod.

On December 14th, CD Projekt Red released an updated version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S consoles. This new version adds ray tracing, 4K textures, a new weather system, improved meshes, water, animations, a photo mode, an alternate camera setting, and various bug fixes. The PC version of The Witcher 3 also has a new “Ultra+” setting which increases the number of background NPCs, extends the distance of foliage, and enhances shadows, textures, and other details.

The Lore Friendly Economy mod, a popular add-on to The Witcher 3, has been updated for next-gen consoles and can now be found on Nexus Mods. This mod was designed to bring the economy of The Witcher 3 closer to what is seen in the novels. As the mod’s creator mentioned, Geralt often struggles to make ends meet in the book series, yet it is easy for him to become wealthy in the game. The Lore Friendly Economy mod works to bridge this gap and make the game more consistent with the source material.

The mod keeps quest rewards intact but significantly reduces the cost of items in The Witcher 3. Merchants will no longer pay much or at all for trinkets. Although a few items can still yield thousands of gold pieces, these are mostly obtained later in the game and need to be searched for. This is done to make quest rewards more meaningful in comparison to loot in terms of the amount of gold obtained. Nevertheless, the prices of loot are still proportional to the rewards from quests, making looting worthwhile.

In 2017, stefan3372 uploaded the initial version of The Witcher 3’s Lore-Friendly Economy mod to Nexus Mods. Since then, it has been downloaded an impressive 30,000 times by more than 14,000 users. Despite not being to everyone’s taste, many see Lore-Friendly Economy as one of the top mods for The Witcher 3, as listed on Gamerant. Recently, on January 16th, user hackaim uploaded the updated version of the mod, yet stefan3372 remains the primary author, as indicated on the mod page.

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For the past five years, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has been seen as a standard for high-quality storytelling and visuals in the gaming world. Its mature content, hard choices, and strategic battle sequences have earned it a place of honor in many gamers’ libraries. Despite CD Projekt Red’s success in creating a video game based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels over the last decade, they have recently experienced a few difficult years.

CD Projekt Red has been working hard to repair their then-unblemished record ever since the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020. 2022 saw the game’s popularity resurge with the anime adaptation and various bug fixes. As a grand finale to the studio’s revival, the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition on PS5 boasts enhanced visuals, 60 FPS, and other improvements. It acts as a sign of CD Projekt Red’s redemption while also honoring The Witcher 3 as a leading RPG of both last-gen and current-gen consoles.

For this generation of consoles, the most remarkable advancements in graphics can be found in the use of real-time ray tracing for producing realistic lighting effects in game worlds that already have impressive meshes and polygon counts. The next generation update for The Witcher 3 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consists of Ray Tracing Mode with ray-traced global illumination (RTGI) and ray-traced ambient occlusion (RTAO). On the other hand, the PC version of the game has ray-traced reflections and shadows as well as Nvidia DLSS. Although the PS5 version of The Witcher 3 has fewer ray tracing features than the PC version, the images are still stunningly improved when compared to the last-gen iteration.

Ray tracing performs the task of generating global illumination, which allows light-emitting objects to be realistically illuminated on other surfaces. Additionally, ray-traced ambient occlusion ensures that shadows appear accurately at any intersection of two objects, thus creating a sense of depth. In terms of The Witcher 3, this technique is particularly helpful for outdoor environments, as it can generate realistic bouncing of light from the sun onto terrain, wagons, characters, and other entities. On the other hand, ray-traced ambient occlusion is most effective in areas with high object density, such as inside huts or buildings, to provide accurate illumination and shadows.

The visuals of The Witcher 3 have been greatly improved thanks to the added ray-tracing features. No longer are shadows blocky and pixelated, but rather they accurately reflect their source. The scene composition has been altered in certain settings such as forests and interiors, creating a darker atmosphere that only accounts for the actual source of light. In particular, Kaer Morhen looks quite stunning with the inclusion of ray-tracing and environmental mesh upgrades.

Adding to the multitude of videogames that have incorporated AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2.1 (FSR) into their graphical tool sets, is The Witcher 3 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Compared to the anti-aliasing methods of its 2015 release, the current version looks much better, resulting in a more subtle image with much less shimmering. Video comparisons of the next-gen update, while helpful, don’t do the game justice, as many of the improvements can only be noticed in person. After experiencing the game in its latest form, it’s difficult to go back to its last-gen version.

CD Projekt Red was not solely responsible for the upgrade of The Witcher 3. Rather, they utilized a selection of mods and enhanced visuals from the gaming community to make this version of the game look more pleasing. For example, the Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project and HD Monsters Reworked Mod were designed to feature 4K textures and other improvements. Though these modifications are not always obvious, they are still highly valued when they are noticed, particularly on surfaces like wood and rock, rather than on character models and equipment.

The Witcher 3 has had two noticeable visual upgrades recently, which include enhanced water reflections due to an improved implementation of screen space reflections and a revised vegetation and environmental meshes. The vegetation looks much better than before, being more plentiful in foliage and more lifelike when interacted with by Geralt. The combination of all these graphical enhancements produces an impressive result. The ray tracing features and other graphical updates of The Witcher 3 make the world of The Witcher look captivating, as well as more realistically dark, due to the new lighting effects that have reduced the brightness of the post-processing effects from the previous version. However, these upgrades are not without their drawbacks.

The performance of The Witcher 3 utilizing the high-quality “Ray Tracing” setting is not always dependable. Framerate hitches and pauses are frequent, and it appears that it struggles to remain at a steady 30 FPS. In certain cases, the game’s performance is not even as good as the original PS4 version. Offering 4K visuals with ray-traced global illumination and ambient occlusion is a tough task, even with FSR 2.1, making it unsurprising that The Witcher 3 has difficulties with its graphic demands, considering how intensive the original version is. This is where performance mode steps in.

The Performance mode of The Witcher 3 offers many noteworthy upgrades such as improved foliage, upgraded textures and better environmental meshes, all while maintaining a steady 60 FPS. However, the ray tracing enhancements have been sacrificed in order to achieve this. Nevertheless, there is the possibility of switching back to the higher quality setting and the game can adjust between 60 FPS and ray tracing in a jiffy, so users can get the desired experience out of it quickly when they need it.

Visually, The Witcher 3 Complete Edition has made some impressive improvements. The world map is less cluttered, and the UI is customisable, letting players show the minimap and quest objectives only when necessary. One of the most beneficial additions is the instant herb looting feature, which eliminates the loot window when collecting plants and herbs. This is especially helpful in higher difficulty levels where potion making is an integral part of the game’s combat system.

This edition of The Witcher 3 comes complete with an optional over-the-shoulder camera which is available for combat, roaming, and horseback riding. Players can choose to switch this view on or off, allowing them to experience the game in a more modern way or stick with the classic camera. Additionally, a unique approach to casting signs has been implemented, where players must hold down the left trigger and press a face button that corresponds to the desired sign. Although it takes some time to get used to, this new sign system keeps the action going without having to go into a menu. Ultimately, the option to activate or deactivate these new features is a major highlight of the next-gen version of The Witcher 3.

CD Projekt Red has put an emphasis on customizability, accessibility, and player choice in their next-gen update of The Witcher 3. All of these features are entirely optional, and the gameplay settings menu has a multitude of options that can be used to tailor the game to your own personal preferences. The graphical updates and gameplay features make the game compatible with the current gaming landscape, and CD Projekt Red is providing gamers with a game as customizable as possible. The Complete Edition of The Witcher 3 is the most comprehensive version of the game to date.

It would be hard to claim that the original version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was great in terms of visuals and gameplay. Nevertheless, it’s still one of the most acclaimed titles in both areas. By including ray tracing, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition has become even better, as well as all the other improvements CD Projekt Red included in-house or in collaboration with the community. Thus, this updated version of the game is definitely worth playing, either for those who are already familiar with the series or for those who want to experience it in its best possible form.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is currently out on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. The PS5 and Xbox Series X|S adaptations will be ready to play on December 14. Game Rant was presented with a PS5 code to assess for this review.