The Witcher 3’s Changes For The Switch Are Mostly With The UI

The Witcher 3 is finally coming to the Switch. It’s no small effort to get such an expansive game running on the Switch’s underpowered hardware, but according to one of the developers, most of the changes aren’t on the performance side, but the UI.

The studio has already confirmed that the game would run at a maximum of 540p in handheld mode and 720p while docked, although exact resolutions per scene will different due to the dynamic resolution scaler that’s in effect. But beyond that, CD Projekt Red’s UI coordinator Alvin Liu has said in a new interview that the majority of the changes are to the UI, and not to the game’s performance.

[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2019/06/expect-some-blur-with-the-witcher-3-on-switch/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/06/witcher-3-switch-1-410×231.jpg” title=”Expect Some Blur With The Witcher 3 On Switch” excerpt=”So, Geralt’s rolling mission to play Gwent throughout the land is coming to the Switch. That’s a huge achievement in and of itself, but if you’re playing in handheld, here’s a heads up for what you’re in for.”]

“It’s still at a quality that we’re proud of, but we also understand that there were hardware trade-offs that we had to do, in terms of performance versus graphics,” Liu told the Video Games Chronicle.

“Right now there’s a bit less foliage and some of draw the distances are lower… but it still looks amazing … the biggest changes that we made involve the user interface and how you interact is a bit different on the Switch compared to other versions,” Liu said.

There’s no explanation of the exact differences with interactions, although some form of touchscreen support seems logical. The Witcher 3 used the DualShock 4’s touchpad to open the map (by flicking up or down) and inventory. CD Projekt Red has already told Kotaku that dynamic fonts and HUD has been implemented to support scaling between docked and undocked mode, but any touch controls would probably be implemented post-launch.

[Thanks, Video Games Chronicle!]


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