New Witcher 3 Next-Gen Patch improves console performance among other fixes

CD Projekt Red is rolling out the 4.02 update patch for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, bringing sweeping quality of life changes to the PC, PlayStation and Xbox versions.

That 4.02 patch notes, which the Polish game studio published on Monday, detailed various bug fixes in the game depending on the platform you’re playing it on. However, the most important part is that the update has improved the overall stability and performance of the game.

In the PC version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the patch has improved CPU core utilization in the DX 12 version and restored horizon-based ambient occlusion. It also includes fixes for other bugs, including the “My Rewards” section not being localized in REDlauncher; the landscape of Toussaint flickers when Nvidia HairWorks is disabled; and the game crashes temporarily due to particle optimization.

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The 4.02 patch also placed some nifty optical improvements across all platforms, including added refraction for SSR and ray-traced reflections on water for improved immersion, and a Motion Blur slider.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt ported to PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on December 14, 2022, bringing new outfits and a quest inspired by the Netflix series. Five new games in The Witcher series are currently in the works.

Cristina Alexander is a freelance writer at IGN.