The Witcher 3: Remastered is finally here, and the free upgrade (for existing owners) has a bunch of exciting visual and mechanical overhauls that might make the experience feel brand-new for 2026 and beyond, despite the 11-year gap between the original release and the remaster. Below, we'll share the most important changes in The Witcher 3: Remastered from CDPR themselves.
Most Important Changes in The Witcher 3 Remastered
TRANSMOG: You can now Reforge your equipment to change its appearance without affecting its stats. Only master craftsmen (Yoana and Hattori) offer this service. Unlock appearances by adding new equipment and crafting diagrams to your inventory. Dyes from Blood and Wine applied to equipment will carry over to the reforged item.
IMPROVED ANIMATIONS: Improved Geralt's ledge climbing, ladder climbing, and vaulting animations, as well as his speed for more responsive, fluid movement.
Improved Roach's and Geralt's movement, player control, and animations: Refined Geralt's jumping animation so that it feels more natural and polished. Note: This doesn't affect jump distance and height. Added new finisher animations for Geralt. Added new idle animations for Geralt. Improved Geralt's gap-closing animations in combat for smoother gameplay.
Polished the combat behavior of many non-boss monsters, including their attack patterns, counterattacks, movement, reactions, flight, and the application of effects.
Added an option to quickly disengage from combat. Hold the dodge button (Alt/〇/B) to unlock from your target, then press the sprint button (L Shift/X/A) to run away.
NEW SKILL TREE SYSTEM: Improved the skill system. Skills are now organized into a skill tree, and each skill has three ranks. Unlocking new skills now requires having the necessary prerequisite skills rather than spending a set number of skill points. IMPORTANT: As a result of these changes, your skill points have been reset.
Rebalanced the skill tree by refining skill bonus values, effects, and synergies.
Renamed some skills to better reflect their effects.
Added a new exploration camera with increased FOV.
Added a new dynamic combat camera to increase visibility when fighting enemies.
Improved target-lock switching when moving the camera in combat.
NEW ROACH/HORSE CONTROLS: Updated collision avoidance when riding Roach. Polished animations for mounting and dismounting Roach, as well as cantering and galloping. Added a new "Horse control input sensitivity" slider in Settings → Controls. You can now collect loot without dismounting Roach.
NEW VISUALS: Updated multiple textures and models based on assets from The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project. Updated the visual effects of Signs, including their upgraded versions.
Below, we'll share a full list of the changes CDPR has made to The Witcher 3: Remastered, as the above section only shows what we consider the most important and noticeable.
Visual and Rendering
Implemented an improved shading model.
Updated multiple textures and models based on assets from The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project.
Improved lighting and shading for grass and foliage.
Updated the visual effects of Signs, including their upgrade versions.
Added new visual effects for skills.
The game now features native DirectX 12 rendering with multithreading for better performance and visuals.
Updated tone mapping for improved colors, lighting, contrast, and detail.
Added GTAO (Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion) as a new Screen Space Ambient Occlusion option.
Added Ray-Traced Local Shadows.
Updated Screen Space Reflections.
Updated Screen Space Shadows.
Updated the HDR calibration panel by adding new options and other improvements.
Improved Motion Blur with a higher-quality, more cinematic look.
Updated Subsurface Scattering for more natural skin rendering.
Improved terrain and material rendering for more natural lighting, shadows, reflections, and highlights.
Implemented new Image-Based Lighting (IBL) for improved ambient lighting and reflections across different environments.
Reworked Bloom for improved lighting effects across different environments.
Added Ray-Traced HairWorks for improved lighting and shading on hair.
Gameplay
Improved the skill system. Skills are now organized into a skill tree, and each skill has three ranks. Unlocking new skills now requires having the necessary prerequisite skills rather than spending a set number of skill points. IMPORTANT: As a result of these changes, your skill points have been reset.
You can now Reforge your equipment to change its appearance without affecting its stats. Only master craftsmen (Yoana and Hattori) offer this service. Unlock appearances by adding new equipment and crafting diagrams to your inventory. Dyes from Blood and Wine applied to equipment will carry over to the reforged item.
Added a new "Horse control input sensitivity" slider in Settings → Controls.
Improved Roach's and Geralt's movement, player control, and animations:
Refined Geralt's jumping animation so that it feels more natural and polished. Note: This doesn't affect jump distance and height.
Added new finisher animations for Geralt.
Added new idle animations for Geralt.
Improved Geralt's ledge climbing, ladder climbing, and vaulting animations, as well as his speed for more responsive, fluid movement.
Improved Geralt's gap-closing animations in combat for smoother gameplay.
Updated collision avoidance when riding Roach.
Polished animations for mounting and dismounting Roach, as well as cantering and galloping.
Added Cross-Platform Mod Support.
Added support for DualSense controller haptic feedback.
UI/UX
Meditation now features a timelapse instead of a UI screen for a more immersive feel.
The skill screen is now reorganized into a more intuitive skill tree layout.
Updated the map screen to make switching between tracked quests easier. Untracked quests now have a distinct marker and can be tracked by selecting it.
Increased the maximum number of markers on the map.
You can now hide herbs, boats, and corpses on the minimap in Settings → Video → Interface for a cleaner, less distracting view.
Improved quest notifications by combining quest updates into a single HUD notification.
Nearby loot can now be grouped into a single window, so you no longer need to browse through multiple loot windows. You can enable this feature in Settings → Gameplay.
Added a loot feed that displays recently collected items on the left side of the screen. You can disable it in Settings → Gameplay.
Added item tooltips to the loot window, allowing you to preview an item's details before picking it up.
Renamed the "HUD Configuration" section in Settings to "Interface".
Updated the CD PROJEKT RED Account connection, My Rewards, and telemetry consent menus.
Photo Mode
Updated the Photo Mode UI and vastly expanded its features and options:
You can now choose from multiple different characters to place in your shot.
Added a selection of poses and expressions for Geralt and placeable characters.
Added a confirmation prompt before exiting Photo Mode to help prevent accidental exits.
You can now lock the camera position in Photo Mode to make sure you capture the perfect shot.
Added the option to apply different environment presets to your scene.
Added the option to save camera presets, allowing you to save and reuse camera positions and angles.
You can now change the aspect ratio of your screenshot.
Added the option to toggle a first-person camera mode so you can see the world through Geralt's eyes.
You can now enable or disable camera collisions with objects and walls.
Set the perfect scene by changing the weather and time of day.
Adjust the intensity of weather effects like rain or storms.
Added an option to toggle Rule of Thirds lines in various aspect ratios, with optional cinematic black bars.
Camera coordinates will now be visible in the UI.
Added an option to hide surrounding NPCs.
Added placeable props, giving you even more ways to create the perfect scene. Just don't ask where they all came from.
The cursor is now visible in Photo Mode on PC when using a mouse.
Accessibility
Added a new Accessibility section to the Settings menu. Moved existing accessibility-related options there.
Added the Bard's Ballad preset. You can enable it when starting a new game on the Just the Story difficulty or during the game in the Accessibility section. It is designed to reduce cognitive load for players who experience mental fatigue or have difficulty concentrating. It streamlines gameplay by simplifying certain mechanics and disabling select features for a smoother, more focused adventure. You can enable the preset in the Accessibility tab and customize it by enabling or disabling the following options:
Vitality Regeneration Boost – Gives the possibility to adjust its activation threshold ("Activates below (%) Vitality") and the rate at which Vitality increases ("Regeneration Intensity").
Infinite Breath – Geralt can't run out of oxygen while swimming and diving.
Unlimited Item Durability – Your gear will never wear down, so there's no need to visit craftsmen for repairs.
Unlimited Boat Durability – Boats are indestructible, making jagged rocks and sirens no longer a concern.
Ignore Item Weight – Travel the Path carrying as much as you want.
Faster Boats – Sail faster across the seas. The seas around Skellige just got a little bit smaller.
Toggle Witcher Sense – Toggle on and off without having to hold the button.
Quality of Life
Streamlined tutorials to keep them concise and focused on teaching core game mechanics.
You can now collect loot without dismounting Roach.
There are also miscellaneous fixes and platform-specific patch notes that you can find here from CDPR.