The Witcher 3 Patch 4.02 Changes Overview

CD Projekt Red released The Witcher 3 Patch 4.02. It improves CPU utilization for PC players and improves Performance Mode on Consoles! Various bugs and quest fixes also found their way into this small patch.

PC Performance Fixes and Improvements

This patch is another small step on the path to improving and fine-tuning the performance of the next-gen version of the game. The size of this update is around 2.1 GB on GOG.

At this point, it is already clear, I think, that there is no miracle switch the developers are trying to find so that everyone can enjoy perfectly smooth gameplay on a relatively modern PC and even Console.

The game is nearly eight years old. It was not designed with Ray Tracing in mind and clearly trying to squeeze it in, was not an easy process.

It has been and continues to be a slow (and often painful) progress that includes small steps and little fixes and changes here and there. Through various smaller tweaks, the developers are improving performance in (almost) every patch.

I can’t say how exactly these patches are being QA tested, but there are some issues that slip through the cracks and are caught by players.

I have heard a number of complaints from players of this patch literally breaking their game and causing crashes where no crashes were experienced in 4.01 previously.

For me personally, this patch improves the FPS a tiny bit, but since it fluctuates so much between an empty house, a dense forest, and a bustling city, I can’t say for sure how much the improvement has been exactly.

According to my personal measurements, about 3 to 5 FPS. And I play the game on a relatively new machine with 32 GB RAM, a 4090 and an i7 9700k. I play the game with absolutely everything maxed out. And that’s how I take my own measurements for each patch. I don’t do extensive testing for each setting usually, only sometimes when I spot weird or vastly different behavior.

The biggest issue I have when it comes to visuals and performance is the shadows popping in Ray Traced mode. This has not been fixed and I am starting to doubt that it can be fixed. It’s been present since 4.0 launched. Through quite a few patches now.

If you don’t play with Ray Tracing, you may not have noticed this. When you approach an object, it shows more detailed shadows and other details. When you go further away, the detailed shadows disappear suddenly, creating the “popping effect”.

Ley me demonstrate this with a few images below. Notice the type and amount of shadows around the windows on the pink building.

Short Distance: Displaying Detailed Shadows around the windows.

One possible and popular recommendation in an attempt to fix this, at least for consoles, is to clear your cache. CDPR has tutorials on how to do it on PS5 and Xbox.

The utilization of my CPU seems higher than before, as per the patch notes’ statement. It looks like the devs have found a way to better utilize modern multicore processors.

An important change from 4.02 is the restored HBAO+. The Horizon-Based Ambient Occlusion can increase your performance a lot.

Console Performance Fixes and Improvements

For PS5 and Xbox Series S|X Consoles, this patch improves the Performance Mode. As per many reports from reputable testers and tech reviewers, we knew that the Performance Mode did not manage to keep consistent 60 FPS all the time.

Maybe after this update, it will finally be showing the dreamed value of 60 consistently. Even in the overcrowded Novigrad.

One of the main quests from the Hearts of Stone expansion, “Whatsoever a Man Soeth” used to crash the game if Geralt runs too far away from Shani after starting the conversation on modern consoles. This has been fixed, CDPR claims.

Quest Fixes

The main quest Batle Preparations was causing players to get stuck and unable to progress as the option to start a dialogue with Avallac’h was not available for some reason. This has been corrected and now you can proceed and complete this major quest that splits into several smaller main quests near the end of the storyline of the game.

There was a bug where the Scavenger Hunt quest for the Enhanced Feline witcher gear would remain active even after you have completed all objectives and have found the diagrams. It’s been fixed.

Misc Changes

The My Rewards section in the main menu of the game

The Witcher 3 Patch 4.02 Official Patch Notes

Below you can read the official patch notes as posted by CD Projekt Red on March 13th, 2023. There have been other fixes not mentioned in the patch notes. I will add some of the more interesting ones as I find them myself.

PC-SPECIFIC

Improved CPU core utilization in the DX 12 version.
Restored horizon-based ambient occlusion. Players who had previously turned Ambient Occlusion off will need to do so again. You can find it in Options → Video → Graphics.
Fixed an issue where the “My Rewards” section was not localized in REDlauncher.
Fixed an issue with a flickering landscape in Toussaint that occurred when NVIDIA HairWorks was disabled.
Fixed an issue related to particle optimization which could result in temporary stuttering.

CONSOLE-SPECIFIC

Improved Performance Mode on next-gen consoles.
Fixed an issue where characters could become slightly blurry during dialogues and cutscenes on PlayStation 5.
Fixed an issue related to memory usage in Ray Tracing Mode which could result in crashes on Xbox Series X.
Whatsoever a Man Soweth… – The game will no longer crash if Geralt runs away from Shani after starting the conversation on next-gen consoles.
Fixed an issue where quicksaves couldn’t be loaded when using cross progression on Xbox One.
Added two missing “Top notch swords!” on previous-gen consoles.
Fixed an issue with overwriting manual saves where in some circumstances the oldest gamesave was deleted on PlayStation 5.
Addressed performance issues in Beauclair and Novigrad that occurred after loading a gamesave.

VISUAL – PC and Next-Gen Exclusive

Improved immersion of water appearance by adding refraction to SSR and ray-traced reflections.
Fixed a visual issue with brick textures where black artifacts covered stone arches.
Added a Motion Blur slider. It can be found in Options → Video → Graphics.

QUESTS & GAMEPLAY – Available on all platforms

Battle Preparations – Fixed the lack of a dialogue option that would progress the quest during the objective “Let Avallac’h know everything’s ready.”
Reason of State – Fixed an issue where the door to the warehouse could become permanently locked if the player knocked, entered and then immediately left the building.
Scavenger Hunt: Cat School Gear Upgrade Diagrams Part 1 – Fixed an issue where the quest could stay active even after the diagrams were looted.
Fixed an issue where trying to start a New Game+ on an incompatible save would block the player from starting the expansions in standalone mode until the game was restarted.

LOCALIZATION – Available on all platforms

Fixed an issue with the Korean localization of Ciri’s and Geralt’s Gwent card descriptions.
Fixed punctuation issues in Arabic localization.
Updated Traditional Chinese font.

Those of you who use an ultrawide screen to play the game, you should once again reapply The Witcher 3 Ultrawide fix to remove the black bars. It is something you have to do every time there is an update to the game.

At the end of the 4.01 patch notes overview article, I showed you proudly the partially finished collection of Catalogs for consumables. The collection is now complete and includes all locations, recipes and ingredients you will need to craft every type and tier of Bombs, Oils, Decoctions and Potions in the game.