Developers from Fool’s Theory said that the addition “Ballads of the Past” for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt might not see the light of day at all without a massive remaster of the base game. Technical limitations of the original engine did not allow the artistic vision of the Letten location, which became central to the new plot, to be realized.
In fact, the Polish studio combined the development of a remaster of the 11-year-old role-playing game and work on new content.
In an interview with TechRadar, the game director of the add-on and the head of the Fool’s Theory studio, Jakub Rokosz, admitted that the implementation of the plan became possible only due to a coincidence of circumstances.
The stars had to align, so to speak, because several things were going to happen. The expansion “Ballads of the Past” and Letten itself, the location where it takes place, had a certain vision. We had a specific vision for this territory, and it presented us with specific technological challenges that were impossible to achieve without the changes of the remaster.
The conditions had to be ripe for a remaster to appear on the horizon and give us the opportunity to make it happen – essentially two factors came together to make it a reality.
According to the developer, Letten’s dense vegetation, abundance of small bushes and dense forested areas created serious problems in the early stages of development. They were solved only thanks to the technological improvements that came with the remaster.
One of the problems we encountered when prototyping the location was that it was impossible to ride through it on horseback. So we had to make improvements to the horse control to make it feel more organic and natural.
Another feature of Letten is the huge lake in the center of the map, offering views of the horizon. As the game director explained, such a vast open space where players can watch fishermen on the water created a serious load on the game engine, as it required the simultaneous rendering of many objects at a great distance. The remaster helped solve this problem thanks to additional optimization.
The release of “Ballads of the Past” is planned for 2027, but there is no exact date. Here’s the remaster The Witcher 3 will be released on September 29.
