CD Projekt has released an official side-by-side comparison clip of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and its upcoming remaster, and the footage has ignited a heated debate among the fanbase over whether the visual overhaul genuinely improves on the original or, in some respects, falls short. The clip, which surfaced recently, pits a single swamp encounter against each other, showing Geralt casting Igni at a group of drowners in the original game and the remastered version simultaneously. While the new build boasts noticeably greater detail on Geralt’s armor and more defined water, several viewers have argued that the remaster’s handling of reflections and fog actually regresses the experience.
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The crux of the disagreement centers on how light and atmosphere behave in each version. In the original game, the fire from Geralt’s Igni casts a visible reflection across the brackish water beneath the drowners, even if the result reads as an orange-tinted blur. That effect, however low a bar it might seem, is entirely absent from the remaster, which the clip shows without any reflection of the flames at all. The fog treatment is equally divergent: the original renders defined clouds of fog hovering just above the ground, whereas the remaster opts for a more atmospheric, distant haze that dissolves the scene into a softer backdrop.
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A Ray Tracing Divide
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Most of the visual differences between the two sides of the clip ultimately trace back to one technological upgrade: the remaster introduces ray tracing, a feature the original never possessed. Ray tracing simulates the physical behavior of light, enabling realistic reflections, refractions, and shadows. In theory, this should elevate the game’s fidelity considerably. In practice, though, the transition has not been universally embraced by the community, with many players feeling that the new lighting model trades the original’s charming imperfections for a cleaner but less expressive look.
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Despite literally adding RT to the game you managed to post a pic with worse water reflections, worse fog effects, worse armor textures in some cases (the glove he keeps back towards the camera for example), the new drowner just look wetter, the old ones actually look scaly/mucky.
\nLeafusMaximus\n
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The reaction to the clip has been decidedly mixed. X / Twitter user LeafusMaximus took to the platform to express frustration, noting that the addition of ray tracing had not delivered on its promise, citing worse reflections, fog, and armor textures, while also observing that the remastered drowners simply look wetter rather than the scaly, mucky appearance of their original counterparts. Another user, desugar_64, went even further, questioning the clip’s integrity with a simple but pointed query: “Are you sure you didn’t swap the footage around?” Such skepticism is common in the gaming community, where comparison footage can sometimes be edited or mislabeled, and it adds a layer of uncertainty to the broader conversation.
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Looking Ahead
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For players who prefer the original visual representation, there is some relief on the PC front. Those running the game on Windows should be able to roll back to an earlier build of the remaster, provided they are comfortable with that option. If automatic updates are the concern, players can disable them to prevent the unwanted change from being applied to their current install. The availability of a similar rollback mechanism on consoles remains unclear, and it is worth keeping an eye on whether CD Projekt offers comparable flexibility for those platforms.
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For those willing to embrace the remaster, the transition is designed to be seamless. Players upgrading to the remastered version will be able to carry over their save data when the game launches on September 29, meaning there is no need to start a fresh campaign. The release date has been widely anticipated, and the comparison clip serves as both a preview of the graphical ambitions and a reminder that even beloved classics can spark spirited debate when they are reimagined. As the launch approaches, the conversation around the remaster’s visual direction is likely to continue, with the community weighing the trade-offs between cutting-edge ray tracing and the timeless charm of the original.
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