Witcher 3 VR v0.9.5 Alpha 1 (V1267)

Witcher 3 VR v0.9.5 Alpha 1

This release introduces the new AER + AFW render modes, preliminary Ray Tracing support, Asymmetric Projection across all supported stereo modes, a major TAAU upgrade, and the long-awaited First Person overhaul—along with new HUD, Cinema and comfort options.

Important

AER + AFW, Ray Tracing, Asymmetric Projection and First Person remain experimental.

Highlights

AER + AFW Render Modes

The launcher now includes two new rendering modes:

• AER + AFW — TAAU
• AER + AFW — DLSS

AER renders one complete eye at a time, while PureDark AFW generates the companion eye. This provides a new high-performance alternative to traditional Stereo, which renders both eyes independently.

AER + AFW is intended for users looking for the highest possible performance while retaining stereoscopic geometry and temporal anti-aliasing.

Special thanks to Puredark for AFW and the extra debug!!

Ray Tracing Unleashed

Preliminary Ray Tracing support has arrived.

The game’s ray-traced ambient occlusion, shadows and reflections can now be used in VR with:

• AER + AFW — TAAU
• AER + AFW — DLSS

Ray Tracing can considerably improve lighting, shadowing and reflections, but it also has a substantial GPU and VRAM cost.

This feature is still experimental and may produce temporary visual artifacts or flickering in some scenes.

True TAAU

Like i did for DLSS in 0.9.4 TAAU has received a major upgrade and runs faster.

In v0.9.4, TAAU relied primarily on reconstructed camera motion. It can now use the native motion vectors produced by the game, including movement from world geometry, objects, characters and animations.

This improves temporal stability, reduces ghosting and smearing around moving objects, and produces a cleaner image during both player and headset movement.

Asymmetric Projection in Every Mode

Asymmetric Projection is no longer limited to Stereo No AA. It can now be enabled with every supported AER + AFW and Stereo mode:

• No AA / FXAA
• TAAU
• DLSS

Each eye uses its real OpenXR off-axis view instead of rendering a larger symmetric area containing pixels that may never be visible in the headset.

Depending on the headset, this can:

• Reduce wasted rendering;
• Improve visible image quality at the same resolution;

Presentation Size also remains adjustable. The image can be made smaller to increase visible pixel density or enlarged to use more of the headset’s available field of view.

The benefit is headset-dependent and may be small on some devices.
For Quest 3 VD HIGH asymmetric provides more quality than VD GODLIKE symmetric, so you can basically step down by 2 with vd resolution and keep the same quality as before.

First Person Revamp

The long-awaited First Person overhaul has arrived.

Press F11 to switch between the standard camera and the experimental First Person view.

The new First Person system includes:

• Improved camera placement relative to Geralt;
• Geralt following the viewing direction while standing;
• Optional strafe and backward movement;
• Body rotation and target-lock behaviour;
• Optional automatic switch to third person during combat;
• Automatic return to First Person after combat;
• Reduced lateral and vertical head bobbing;
• Improved aiming and made stereo aware chrossair;
• Improved projectile and crossbow alignment;
• Gamepad snap turning at 30°, 45° or 60°;
• Headset-directed movement;
• Hide face/hair during first person to avoid clipping with the camera;
• Configurable Camera Follow behaviour.

Camera Follow provides three options:

• Always On
• Only Horse/Boat — default
• Always Off

This allows horse and boat gameplay to retain a following camera while on-foot First Person remains headset-directed.
Is mandatory to keep camera follow when riding with a gamepad as you have to keep pressing A to run and you need octopus fingers to move the right stick at the same time.
Camera follow interfere with strafe option so it must be off while unmounted, that's why i took control over that option.

Movable and Resizable Dialogues and Subtitles

The HUD Editor can now independently move and resize:

• Gameplay/Cutscene subtitles;
• Gameplay/Cutscene Dialogue text/choices.

Separate settings are saved for the VR and Cinema3D HUD profiles. The editor also displays preview text, allowing these elements to be adjusted without entering a dialogue or cutscene.

Important

These controls affect the actual text used during cutscenes. Users with customized HUD or Cinema settings may need to readjust subtitle and dialogue size or position after updating.

Hide Static HUD Outside Combat

A new optional Hide static HUD outside combat setting provides a cleaner view during exploration.

When enabled, it can hide:

• Minimap;
• Quest tracker;
• Buffs;
• Health and Wolf Head;
• Equipped items and item information;
• Companion status;
• Damaged-item warnings;
• Control feedback.

The required HUD elements return automatically during combat or while using Witcher Sense. Horse races also restore the Minimap and Quest tracker.

This option is disabled by default.

Launcher Auto resolution option

No more need to check for headset resolution, launcher will detect your configured resolution before opening the game and applies automatically in the ini

4:3 Cinema Mode

Cinema Mode now offers two aspect ratios:

• 5:4 — default
• 4:3

The selected ratio applies to both automatic and manual Cinema Mode.

The new 4:3 option provides a more familiar screen shape while still fitting comfortably inside the headset. A conventional 16:9 screen is generally too wide for comfortable VR viewing or must be reduced enough to waste much of the available vertical field of view.

Other Features

• Added Asymmetric Projection support to VR cutscenes.
• Added complete launcher tooltips for rendering and advanced settings.
• Added Alternate Presentation Resize for Virtual Desktop foveated-rendering compatibility.
• Improved configuration migration while preserving unrelated custom INI settings.

Special thanks to Philippe Debaty for PR #11 and the original Virtual Desktop foveated-rendering resize work.

Fixes

• Fixed HUD and Cinema presentation issues on AMD Radeon GPUs.
• Fixed render distance, texture LOD and object-culling distance not being applied correctly in some cases.
• Fixed smoke and transparent effects occasionally moving or being positioned incorrectly.
• Fixed many cases with flickering render or hud
• Fixed many cutscenes problems with both the new aer and asym projection
• Fixed DLSS/TAAU not injecting in some cutscenes

Limitations

• Ray Tracing is experimental and supported only with AER + AFW using TAAU or DLSS.
• Asymmetric Projection improvements are headset-dependent.
• SSR High remains unsupported.
• Far/Distant camera modes are not implemented.
• First Person remains experimental and may not align correctly with every animation.

Known Issues

• Ray Tracing may cause occasional flickering in the rendered image or HUD.
• Ray Tracing may produce temporary visual artifacts when transitioning into or out of cutscenes.
• Some Full VR cutscenes may show floating or unstable landscapes and terrain.
• First Person movement may behave unexpectedly when walking backward with Strafe Movement enabled.
• Sometimes the game wrongly allocate threads on cpu cores during startup init and affect performance, it's sill being investigated. game needs to be restarted.

Pimax users recommendation

There is an issue with Pimax openxr and stereo mode so that it may cap framerate at half of your headset (eg. 45 fps max on a 90hz display). AER isn't affected. Use SteamVR's OpenXR for proper stereo mode.

Witcher 3 VR v0.9.4 Alpha 1 (V1117)

This release aims to fix DLSS, improve performance, resolve long-standing bugs, and add a preliminary native asymmetric-projection renderer.

Highlights

DLSS

True DLSS is finally here in its complete form. I finally managed to use motion vectors properly, so there is no longer any need for a fake HMD-based motion-vector table.

DLSS is now fully implemented using the real parameters provided by the engine. I also fixed a ghosting issue caused by an input being shared between both eyes.

Performance

I made several improvements almost everywhere and integrated findings from the djules75 fork — thank you! CPU bottlenecks and overhead have been greatly reduced.

Asymmetric Projection — Native Stereo Rendering

I managed to implement native asymmetric-projection rendering. It is currently available only in No AA mode; support for the other modes will come later.

Asymmetric projection does not waste pixels outside the headset's visible field of view: the full rendered image is used by the headset.

For comparison, on Quest 3 the Godlike resolution with symmetric projection uses only about two-thirds of the rendered pixels. A 3072×3216 render window is cropped to approximately 2473×2696 in this game. This means that Virtual Desktop Ultra with asymmetric projection can still look better than Godlike with symmetric projection.

Other headsets may see a smaller improvement. My Pimax 5K, for example, gains only about 3% more usable pixels. The improvement varies from headset to headset.

This can provide a huge performance gain, especially on the GPU, because you can lower the preset, resolution, or supersampling while retaining excellent image quality. You no longer need such high resolution values with asymmetric projection—but if your hardware can handle them, the resulting quality can be insanely good.

This mode still has some limitations. Many effects lose their correct positioning with asymmetric projection and must be adjusted individually. I have already fixed most shaders and effects, including smoke, fire, and lights, and added an automatic detection and correction routine that should also handle shaders I have not encountered yet.

Some shaders may still require a manual fix. You can help me find them: contact me on Discord and I will explain how to report them.

Shadow rendering and culling are fully fixed. You may still notice small differences between the eyes, but these are caused by LOD selection rather than a shadow-rendering error.

This mode is experimental, so there is no guarantee that it will look correct everywhere.

Auto Recenter

The mod now automatically recenters after every loading screen.

Changes

• Restored the previous symmetric-projection routine. It still uses full-screen rendering, but displays slightly fewer pixels than v0.9.3—approximately 3% fewer on Quest 3.

Fixes

• Fixed DLSS ghosting.
• Fixed incorrect or dark colors inside the headset.
• Fixed culling for shadows, objects, and textures: shadows no longer flicker, NPC textures no longer look washed out, and items no longer disappear after only a few meters.
• Smoke no longer rotates or moves with the headset.
• Fixed incorrect convergence on some headsets.
• The launcher now warns the user when it cannot write to the game files and provides manual setup instructions.
• The launcher now correctly handles UTF-16LE and UTF-16BE dx12filelist.txt files and repairs files corrupted by older launcher versions.

Presentation Size tip

Lowering Presentation Size can increase apparent image quality further by presenting the same rendered resolution over a smaller angular area, effectively zooming the scene out. Horizontal and vertical black bands will gradually appear, so choose the lowest value where they are still invisible or acceptable for your headset and fit. This adjustment has no additional CPU cost.

For Quest 3, 0.85 is a good starting point. Unless the headset is worn extremely close to the lenses, the borders are practically invisible.

Known issues

• Far/Distante game camera modes are not yet corrected. Only close/near cameras are currently supported.
• Ray Tracing and Screen Space Reflections set to High are not supported.

Witcher 3 VR v0.9.3 Alpha 2 (HOTFIX) (V1035)

HOTFIX

This hotfix corrects the subtle fisheye distortion visible during horizontal head rotation with the fullscreen OpenXR projection.

This release aims to fix black bars on headsets, improve performance, and fix regressions introduced in 0.9.1 and 0.9.2.

Highlights

• Reworked OpenXR presentation and the rendering view to make the most of symmetric projection. OpenXR now fills the usable headset view, exposes more FOV and visible pixels, and performs on par with 0.9.0 despite the larger view.
• Added native support for canted displays. Pimax headsets no longer require Parallel Projection.
• Made the HUD fully configurable. Every supported HUD element can be moved or scaled, with two layouts that can be used for both Full VR and Cinema Mode.
• Added launcher controls for HUD/text size and convergence during Full VR and Cinema3D cutscenes.
• Made first-person body rotation while standing still optional.
• The launcher now brings The Witcher 3 to the foreground after starting it.

Fixes

• Fixed additional cases where First Person could incorrectly switch back to third person.
• Recovered around 10% performance in DLSS and No AA modes that had been lost after 0.9.1.
• Fixed stationary first-person turning causing Geralt to move at the end of walking, running, or sprinting.
• First Person now switches automatically to third person while sailing.
• Fixed occasional incorrect thread initialization on hybrid CPUs, which could reduce performance at startup.
• Fixed loading-screen rendering.
• Restored the intro CGI movie.
• Fixed HUD convergence automatically across supported headset geometries, including canted displays.
• Fixed incorrect convergence and independently moving grass or textures in Full VR cutscenes when using Stereo No AA.

Presentation Size tip

Lowering Presentation Size can increase apparent image quality further by presenting the same rendered resolution over a smaller angular area, effectively zooming the scene out. Horizontal and vertical black bands will gradually appear, so choose the lowest value where they are still invisible or acceptable for your headset and fit. This adjustment has no additional CPU cost.

For Quest 3, 0.85 is a good starting point. Unless the headset is worn extremely close to the lenses, the borders are practically invisible.

Known issues

• Far/Distante game camera modes are not yet corrected. Only close/near cameras are currently supported.
• Some rare shadows may flicker in stereo.
• Ray Tracing and Screen Space Reflections set to High are not supported.

Warning

Full VR cutscenes may still suffer from severe culling because the game does not normally render content outside the original cinematic camera. NPCs may freeze or warp when they are visible outside the intended shot.

Witcher 3 VR v0.9.3 Alpha 1 (V1027)

This release aims to fix black bars on headsets, improve performance, and fix regressions introduced in 0.9.1 and 0.9.2.

Highlights

• Reworked OpenXR presentation and the rendering view to make the most of symmetric projection. OpenXR now fills the usable headset view, exposes more FOV and visible pixels, and performs on par with 0.9.0 despite the larger view.
• Added native support for canted displays. Pimax headsets no longer require Parallel Projection.
• Made the HUD fully configurable. Every supported HUD element can be moved or scaled, with two layouts that can be used for both Full VR and Cinema Mode.
• Added launcher controls for HUD/text size and convergence during Full VR and Cinema3D cutscenes.
• Made first-person body rotation while standing still optional.
• The launcher now brings The Witcher 3 to the foreground after starting it.

Fixes

• Fixed additional cases where First Person could incorrectly switch back to third person.
• Recovered around 10% performance in DLSS and No AA modes that had been lost after 0.9.1.
• Fixed stationary first-person turning causing Geralt to move at the end of walking, running, or sprinting.
• First Person now switches automatically to third person while sailing.
• Fixed occasional incorrect thread initialization on hybrid CPUs, which could reduce performance at startup.
• Fixed loading-screen rendering.
• Restored the intro CGI movie.
• Fixed HUD convergence automatically across supported headset geometries, including canted displays.
• Fixed incorrect convergence and independently moving grass or textures in Full VR cutscenes when using Stereo No AA.

Presentation Size tip

Lowering Presentation Size can increase apparent image quality further by presenting the same rendered resolution over a smaller angular area, effectively zooming the scene out. Horizontal and vertical black bands will gradually appear, so choose the lowest value where they are still invisible or acceptable for your headset and fit. This adjustment has no additional CPU cost.

For Quest 3, 0.85 is a good starting point. Unless the headset is worn extremely close to the lenses, the borders are practically invisible.

Known issues

• Far/Distante game camera modes are not yet corrected. Only close/near cameras are currently supported.
• Some rare shadows may flicker in stereo.
• Ray Tracing and Screen Space Reflections set to High are not supported.

Warning

Full VR cutscenes may still suffer from severe culling because the game does not normally render content outside the original cinematic camera. NPCs may freeze or warp when they are visible outside the intended shot.

Witcher 3 VR v0.9.2 Alpha 1 (V939)

This alpha improves first-person movement, movement responsiveness, and launcher compatibility.

New

• Added optional faster movement transitions in both third and first person, especially useful in first person.
• Improved first-person movement: while stationary, Geralt now rotates with the view to acquire targets and move immediately in the new direction without turn animations.
• Fixed an issue where First Person could unexpectedly switch back to third person after menus or cutscenes.
• Added a launcher workaround for a REDengine bug affecting scaled DLSS at square and near-square resolutions. The launcher now warns the user and applies a compatible resolution.

Known issues

• Black borders may be visible at the sides of the image. Depending on the headset, they may also appear at the top or bottom.
• Far/Distante game camera modes are not yet corrected. Only close/near cameras are currently supported.
• Loading screens may change size, appear blank, or display duplicated images.
• Some rare shadows may flicker in stereo.
• Ray Tracing and Screen Space Reflections set to High are not supported.
• Headsets with canted displays currently require Parallel Projection.

Warning

Please note that vr cutscenes may suffer from severe culling, that's how the game has been made
Some textures or landscapes may appear floating around too, not sure if i'll be able to fix it
NPC may appear freezed or warp, that's normal as you shouldn't be able to see what happens offscreen

Witcher 3 VR v0.9.1 Alpha 1 (V887)

This alpha substantially improves Cinema Mode, cutscenes, TAAU stability, and first-person aiming.

New

• Cutscenes and Cinema Mode now support stereoscopic rendering when using a Stereo rendering mode.
• Added an experimental option to keep automatic cutscenes in Full VR.
• Added a selectable snap-turn angle: 30°, 45°, or 60°.
• Menus, inventory screens, and Cinema Mode are no longer head-locked, allowing free headset rotation.

Fixes and improvements

• TAAU now works correctly during gameplay and cutscene transitions.
• Importing VR settings no longer changes the game language.
• The launcher is now DPI-aware and remains usable with Windows display scaling.
• Aiming in First Person temporarily switches to the Standard third-person camera for correct crosshair alignment.
• Cinema Mode no longer distorts the HUD.
• Improved HUD and text depth during cutscenes.
• Increased text size during Cinema cutscenes.
• Reduced text size during Full VR cutscenes.
• Existing configuration files are automatically updated without replacing the selected rendering mode, resolution, Full VR preference, or unrelated custom settings.
• Cinema framing now uses the validated 5:4 layout by default; the launcher option has been removed.

Notes

• Cinema Mode follows the selected rendering mode: it remains mono in Mono modes and becomes stereoscopic in Stereo modes.
• The Full VR cutscene option applies only to automatic cutscenes. Manual F10 Cinema Mode remains independent.
• Snap turn defaults to 45°.
• Existing witcher3vr.ini files are migrated automatically on the first launcher start.

Known issues

• Black borders may be visible at the sides of the image. Depending on the headset, they may also appear at the top or bottom.
• Far/Distante game camera modes are not yet corrected. Only close/near cameras are currently supported.
• Loading screens may change size, appear blank, or display duplicated images.
• Some rare shadows may flicker in stereo.
• Ray Tracing and Screen Space Reflections set to High are not supported.
• Headsets with canted displays currently require Parallel Projection.

Warning

Please note that vr cutscenes may suffer from severe culling, that's how the game has been made
Some textures or landscapes may appear floating around too, not sure if i'll be able to fix it
NPC may appear freezed or warp, that's normal as you shouldn't be able to see what happens offscreen

Witcher 3 VR v0.9 Alpha 1 (V831)

This release is labeled Alpha because it has currently been validated on a limited number of headset and OpenXR configurations. On tested hardware, the core game is already fully playable.

Internal build: V831

Highlights

• Improved First-Person View.
• Improved headset-view stability across all rendering modes.
• Improved cutscene detection: scenes requiring player input now switch back to VR correctly.
• Added the optional Steady Icons mode.
• Added the experimental First-Person option Auto-Switch to Third Person During Combat.
• Mono and stereo support for No AA/FXAA, TAAU, DLSS and DLAA.

Tested configurations

• Meta Quest 3 through Virtual Desktop.
• Pimax 5K through SteamVR OpenXR with Parallel Projection enabled.

Other OpenXR headsets and runtimes may work, but have not yet been validated.

Installation

Extract the ZIP directly into the root folder of The Witcher 3, then run Witcher3VRLauncher.exe from bin/x64_dx12.

Please read the bundled README before playing. The launcher can apply the recommended VR settings and can enable Diagnostic Logging when a reproducible bug needs to be reported.

Important current limitations

• Ray Tracing is not fixed for VR and should be disabled.
• Screen Space Reflections must be set to Low or Off; SSR High is not fixed.
• Loading screens are not yet correctly presented in VR.
• First Person is experimental and intended mainly for exploration.
• Third-party mods and ASI loaders are currently unsupported; do not open issues for problems that occur only with mods installed.

The SHA-256 asset identifies the exact V831 package attached to this release.