The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has received another patch on PC, numbered 1.04, and among the patch notes there's an interesting point that indicates the improvement of the texture rendering quality on High and Ultra settings.

Texture rendering quality for the high and ultra presets has been improved.

Like we did with the changes from version 1.02 to version 1.03, we tested the improvements with a screenshot comparison (actually using exactly the same scenes).

The screenshots below have been taken on ultra settings (texture detail on ultra and high is the same, what changes is the amount of video memory dedicated to textures to avoid pop-in). Version 1.03 is on top of each pairing, and version 1.04 is at the bottom. We also took a third screenshot for each scene with the sharpening post-production filter set to "low" on the 1.04 version.

Of course you should click on each picture to open a full resolution version. To compare them directly, you can flip between tabs in your browser.

1.03

Witcher3_01_1_03

1.04 High Sharpening 

Witcher3_01_1_04

1.04 Low Sharpening 

Witcher3_01_1_04_lowsharp

1.03

Witcher3_02_1_03

1.04 High Sharpening 

Witcher3_02_1_04

1.04 Low Sharpening 

Witcher3_02_1_04_lowsharp

1.03

Witcher3_03_1_03

1.04 High Sharpening 

Witcher3_03_1_04

1.04 Low Sharpening 

Witcher3_03_1_04_lowsharp

1.03

Witcher3_04_1_03

1.04 High Sharpening 

Witcher3_04_1_04

1.04 Low Sharpening 

Witcher3_04_1_04_lowsharp

1.03

Witcher3_05_1_03

1.04 High Sharpening 

Witcher3_05_1_04

1.04 Low Sharpening 

Witcher3_05_1_04_lowsharp

The improvement in texture detail is very visible. The reason why we included the screenshots with low sharpening is because now texture detail on that setting is very similar to what we had on version 1.03 with high sharpening.

This means that by keeping the sharpening low in 1.04, you can enjoy most of the improvement in detail brought by the high sharpening option in 1.03, without the full sharpening effect of the filter, which could prove excessive for some. Personally, this is now my setting of choice.