The Witcher 3 Remaster's Next Update Targets Bloom as Nvidia HairWorks Hurts Performance Again 11 Years Later

The Witcher 3 remaster has more fixes on the way, and CD Projekt Red is already looking into the game's broken bloom effect across all platforms, with the team hoping to have those changes ready for the next update. Meanwhile, 11 years after the original game released, Nvidia HairWorks is somehow once again one of the biggest conversations surrounding The Witcher 3, and honestly, it is bringing me so much nostalgia.

The studio has confirmed that more fixes are actively being worked on and that it is monitoring player reports across social media, Reddit and Twitter. There is no release date for the next patch yet, but we already have some details about what it is likely to address.

CD Projekt Red is looking at The Witcher 3 remaster's bloom across all platforms

CD Projekt Red has already released multiple fixes since the remaster launched, but it has made it very clear that it is not done yet. One of the biggest upcoming fixes came directly from the studio's global community director. There have been issues with the bloom effect in the remaster. I played the game early and had issues with it myself, to the point that I turned bloom off before launch, because it was essentially broken.

The community director confirmed that the team is currently looking into addressing bloom across all platforms. More importantly, he said the team is hoping to have those changes ready for the next update.

I know the obvious question is when that update will release. The studio has not announced the patch, so I do not want to oversell this. What we have is confirmation of changes being made, not confirmation that a sizable update is right around the corner, because we simply do not know yet. But at least we know another update is being worked on, and that bloom is one of the things it is specifically targeting.

Bloom left the remaster looking washed out, and the October 1 hotfix already started changing Velen

Bloom has been one of the more noticeable complaints since the remaster launched. People saw before and after comparisons and asked why the original game looked better than the remaster. Part of that was because people had all of their settings maxed out with bloom enabled, and it took some of the beauty away from the game we know and love. In certain areas the image can look really bright and washed out, and in other situations the lighting can feel pretty inconsistent.

If you spent an hour tweaking your settings like I did, to make the game look exactly as I imagined it with just better textures, you did not have that issue. But if you kept everything on max without adjusting anything, you probably thought it did not look the greatest.

Interestingly, CD Projekt Red has already started tweaking it. The hotfix released on October 1st included visual adjustments throughout Velen, which I guess is kind of good, since that is early game. The studio said it adjusted bloom, vegetation, lighting, saturation and path tracing lighting. The fact that the community director says the team is still looking at bloom across every platform tells me this is only the beginning.

More hotfixes are in the works as the studio monitors player reports

That seems to be the overall story with the remaster right now. It is not a game that is completely broken. It is still very much The Witcher that you know and love. There are just some smaller technical and visual issues popping up across different platforms, and CD Projekt Red is basically going through them one by one to make sure everything is how it should be.

Another member of the CD Projekt Red team also commented on the situation, saying that two hotfixes have already shipped and that more are in the works, including the bloom changes. He added that the teams are monitoring player reports and that work is ongoing. So the studio is clearly following the feedback closely, and we feel noticed, which is great.

I think that is really important, because the remaster touched so many systems at once that there was always going to be a period where the team had to see what broke on real hardware. The studio can test as much as possible on its own hardware at its offices, but it is anyone's guess what else will go wrong once the entire player base starts playing. As I put it: "Listen, if there's a way to break this game, we're going to find it."

Nvidia HairWorks is destroying The Witcher 3's performance again in 2026

Then there is probably my favourite part of this whole situation. Somehow, in 2026, we are once again talking about Nvidia HairWorks absolutely destroying performance in The Witcher 3. If you played the original back in 2015, you already know why this is funny. HairWorks was a niche PC setting, almost gimmicky, where you would turn it on, Geralt's hair would have monstrous fur that would look incredible, and then your GTX 980 would start to implode.

I remember it. My 980 was really struggling, but "Those locks look luscious, and I kept it enabled for as long as possible." Eventually I disabled it. It is very much gimmicky. It looks good, but I feel like later games, such as the current Resident Evil games, have hair physics that are just perfect. Hopefully CD Projekt Red sees that, or already has a solution for how hair strands will be rendered in The Witcher 4, which, judging from the teaser trailers, I am sure has already happened.

Jokes aside, CD Projekt Red's support page confirmed that it had identified an issue with Nvidia HairWorks on PC that would significantly affect performance, and its recommendation was simply to turn it off until it is addressed in a patch. We have modern GPUs that are unbelievably powerful, cards the size and weight of a brick with DLSS frame generation, and all that power still struggles with HairWorks in 2026. In the 5.00 hotfix, the studio said it made a significant improvement by reverting a change that had caused significant performance issues.

For AMD GPU owners, there is a recommendation from CD Projekt Red itself to install a new driver if you have been experiencing visual issues with The Witcher 3. I do not really know the context behind it, but if you have issues and have not updated your driver yet, the studio recommends doing so, and keeping things up to date will probably fix some of your problems.

Switch 2 blur and PlayStation UI issues are on other platforms' lists

PC is not the only platform with issues. Switch 2 players seem to have their own set of problems. I tested the game early on Switch 2, and one of my bigger complaints was how blurry it could look in handheld mode. There are updates for Switch 2 in the works that are going to happen soon.

That said, I would keep your expectations in check with Switch 2 updates, because a patch there has to go through Nintendo's approval process. Even if CD Projekt Red has a fix ready, that does not necessarily mean it will go live on Switch 2 immediately.

On PlayStation, I have had issues where some of the on screen text and UI elements are not as crisp as they should be. I am on a 120 inch projector, so I understand the UI is not going to look perfect, but it feels like there is some pixelation in the UI elements. I do not know why, and it might be an issue that is specific to me.

Fixing the remaster now matters for next year's Witcher 3 expansion

There are a lot of things that are going to be added to the game, and I am honestly glad we got the remaster this year. It means the issues can get sorted out now, so that when the expansion releases next year, most of those performance issues, graphical glitches and bugs can be fixed before it goes live.

Once that expansion launches, it has to be pretty polished. As an expansion, it has game of the year potential, so it cannot launch with a pile of performance problems and technical issues, because reviewers are not going to be kind about that. I want it to be a game of the year contender, and the only way that happens is if the studio makes it as polished as possible.

So are we beta testing the remaster for next year's launch? Perhaps. But I, for one, am perfectly fine with that, because it is another reason to replay The Witcher 3.

REDengine 3's age explains the problems, and blaming Virtuos is unfair

I want to give some perspective, because I think it is really important. I have seen people asking how a remaster of a game that is 11 years old can launch with these problems, but I think the game's age is probably part of the reason. The Witcher 3 runs on REDengine 3, and CD Projekt Red has spent years modifying and expanding that engine. Now modern technology is being added on top of it, including path tracing and ray traced HairWorks, which I checked and was not possible before.

The studio is also updating models, textures and lighting systems while supporting Switch 2 and all of the current generation platforms, essentially hacking an engine that has been around for far too long. The studio is moving to Unreal Engine 5, and that may or may not be for this reason.

Some people have seen that Virtuos is involved in development and are immediately putting the blame on them. I do not think it is fair to point the finger at one single studio. The reality is that this is an enormous older game being modernised substantially, with massive open areas, two massive expansions, thousands of quests and NPC interactions, different environments and weather conditions all running at once. You can change something small in one area and suddenly Geralt's hair is consuming half of your Nvidia RTX 5080. That is the nature of game development.

A free upgrade with real improvements, and fixes still coming

I am totally fine with the studio updating the game and getting it back to the polish we know from CD Projekt Red, because underneath the bugs there are some legitimately impressive upgrades in my opinion. The remaster is not just higher resolution textures; significant improvements were made to a lot of systems, and with that, there were bound to be issues. Overall, I think the situation is encouraging.

It is a shame for people who took time off for it, but at the end of the day this is a free update. You have probably already played the game, and if you have not, The Witcher 3 will always be there waiting for you. I look at it glass half full. This is not a studio dropping an update and disappearing for another decade; it is one saying it knows there are issues and is solving them as quickly as possible.

Still, I have to have a laugh about one thing. Eleven years later, with new graphics cards, path tracing, the latest DLSS, FSR, ray reconstruction and frame generation, Witcher players are talking about Nvidia HairWorks destroying their frame rate. "Some things truly never change."

If you are playing the remaster on PlayStation with a larger screen, does your UI look crisp, or are you seeing the same pixelation I am?