It's not 2015 anymore and if you're like me, you're relatively unimpressed with the unoptimized low grade visuals that this game has on it's basic settings, meanwhile eating up resources like crazy. I put off playing the game again for a long time, because I couldn't make it run or look like it deserved.

On the surface of it, it seemed like the "Next Gen Experience" was reserved only for high resolutions with RT and the rest of us have to endure a blurry low FPS mess of a game. So I went down the rabbit hole compiling performance improvements, important settings for the best quality / performance tradeoff and mods for a visual face lift, to make it look so much better without any performance penalty.

I'm actually blown away now by how much I was able to tweak not only the performance, but even more so the picture quality. In the beginning I couldn't even run the game on 1440p with a playable framerate. The basic presets were so bad and it was so blurry. Now I run 1800p, almost a locked 60fps (no frame gen) with all best settings maxed out and a clarity I couldn't even have imagined. To most of you with relatively recent gear this might not seem all that impressive, but for me with my 2017 Radeon GPU, this is a big deal. I detailed everything I'm using so that you can also have a greater experience, without having to go out and blowing up your wallet for an RTX 4080.

So this is partly performance advice, but also highlighting lots of quality mods to expand way beyond what the base game can offer.

Please don't forget to LIKE if this guide was helpful for you. If you're happy with the results and feel generous leave a Steam points award. Commenting your experience will also be appreciated. Thank you and I really hope you find success with it.

If you're annoyed with always clicking multiple times to launch the game and the waiting time associated with it, add this to your steam launch options. Rightclick on the game in the library, go to properties and paste this in the starting options command line:
This will run the game in dx12 by default.

---

If you want to have the launcher skip and run the game in dx11 you need to do this:

---

I would make sure that before you disable the launcher to click the cogwheel in the launcher and check that you have mods on enabled.

It is a known thing that people do, more commonly known in multiplayer games where everybody's desperate for every fps they can get. Here another article explaining the same thing, so you don't have to take some random Youtuber's opinion at face value:
https://www.toolify.ai/hardware/unlock-the-full-potential-of-dx12-games-improve-performance-and-stability-2856272

I got around 8% of performance gain out of this. It will depend on your system though how much this does for you. It's said to improve FPS and resolve stutters some systems might experience with DX12. You can do this for all games you know that run on DX12.

Watch BenchmarKing's to actually see the differences and what each setting does.

Those videos are from 4.00 and 4.02, we're now on 4.04, so it might not be 100% accurate anymore, it's mostly useful for you to see what each setting does, if you didn't know already.

With the "Tweaks" Mod you can get a better performance and picture with controlling more precisely what you use the resources on. Some settings I name down there are exclusive to the Tweaks mod. It's up to you if you wanna use it, but this was a giant difference maker for me.

Tweaks Graphics Mod:
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2658

RTXGI Setting Unlocker (also needed for Tweaks on DX12)
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7426

Most important settings for me are: Resolution, general draw distance, foliage visibility range and textures. The rest is more or less not that all that important if we're talking about overall immersion and best mix of quality vs performance. The rest can mostly be left at HIGH. You can start with the High Preset and increase the other options I just mentioned further, until you hit your hardware limit.


I can't really give you tested recommendations for Raytracing, since I don't have the card for it. But as far as I understand it, it's not recommended unless you have very powerful gear. And if you do have a 40xx series card, I'm doubting that you need the advice from this section of the guide.

As far as I'm aware the DX11 version has around ~15fps on average more for the exact same settings.
It's up to you if you prefer that, but you'll be missing out on things like DLSS and certain mods or features. For that reason I think DX12 is the way to go.

Of course it's all personal preference, you might prefer it differently, but this is what I play:

EDIT: Every now and then I still switch a setting around, so this is not the end all be all of settings. You should experiment for yourself, based on what your hardware can take. Just start with one of the presets at the top and go from there, reducing or lowering certain parameters based upon your own taste.
My PC Setup:
• CPU: Intel i9-9900K 8-Core - OC to 4.9 GHz all cores
• GPU: Sapphire Radeon RX Vega 64 Nitro+ 8GB (comparable to a GTX 1080)
• RAM: HyperX Predator 64 GB DDR4 3600 MHz
• Mainboard: Gigabyte Z390 Desginare

https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/757
This is the absolute game changer you wished for. Download the latest BETA version.

"This all-in-one package allows the users of any DX12 compatible GPUs (from NVIDIA / AMD / Intel) to enable DLSS upscaler and DLSSG Frame Generation in most of the games implementing NVIDIA DLSS 2 / DLSS 3 features."

This requires the game to be run in dx12. You can check that in the launcher or apply it as a steam starting option, in case you have the launcher disabled.
It should be noted that the Steam Overlay doesn't work anymore once you've applied this mod, but I included a workaround for you to continue taking screenshots down below.

Installation:
Make sure you locate the right folder for the installation
The path should look something like this:

Have those things checked during the Installation if you have an NVIDIA GPU:


Have those things checked during the Installation if you have an AMD GPU:


If you have an AMD: After installation find the "DisableNvidiaSignatureChecks.reg" file in that folder and run it. This might be required for some Nvidia cards too, I'm not sure.

That's it. You're done. Now it should work. You can modify it with the instructions from the readme file if you wish to. Usually it's not needed and works by default though.

Have NVIDIA Reflex Low Latency enabled ingame. On should be selected if you're CPU bound, On+ Boost if you're GPU bound. The fps differences can be very big. You can also just test both and keep the one on that gives you generally more FPS and feels more responsive.

PLEASE NOTE:


If you run into more complicated problems, I suggest combing through the forum posts on the nexusmods page to find out how people are combating certain abnormalities in mod behavior. I didn't have to do that yet though, it runs pretty well for me.

If you wanna uninstall it, run the "unins000.exe" in the folder.

"DLSS Swapper is a tool that allows you to conveniently download, manage, and swap DLSS, FSR and XeSS dlls allowing you to upgrade or downgrade DLSS, FSR and XeSS version in a game without the game needing an update."

https://github.com/beeradmoore/dlss-swapper?tab=readme-ov-file



This is an insanely great tool, I am so impressed with it. It could not be easier and reverting the changes is also an inbuilt function.

---

People have been saying if they swapped out the DLSS files for newer ones, or older ones, that it had done the trick for their frame generation stuttering.
For me unforunately none of that worked and the ingame menu frame generation remains broken, but I'm on an a 2017 AMD GPU, so it might very well work for you on different hardware.

The DLSS Swapper is like the automatic way, but you can also do it manually.

I highly recommend making a backup folder with the original files before you do this, in case it doesn't work

Latest DLSS files to replace the dated ones for better performance
https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-dlss-dll/
https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-dlss-3-frame-generation-dll/
https://www.techpowerup.com/download/nvidia-dlss-3-ray-reconstruction-dll/

---

If your Frame Generation remains broken after updating to the latest DLSS, don't bother switching around, hoping to find a version that magically fixes it. It's highly unlikely and more related to your hardware. You better just turn to the Optiscaler Frame Generation right away, because anybody that can run the DX12 version can use this and it probably runs even better than the inbuilt FG.

Swapping the DLSS frame generation for FSR frame gen, still providing the same picture as DLSS, but more frames are generated from it. So the best of both worlds. Only works for NVIDIA.

https://www.nexusmods.com/site/mods/738?tab=description

NOTE: I recommend you make a backup folder to copy the original files into, in case it doesn't work for you and you can just copy and overwrite them back.

The latest DLSS Enabler Beta version includes Optiscaler with an interactive overlay, so in case you don't get the ingame frame generation option working for you, you can use the overlay instead to customize it to your needs. This now even allows frame generation in games that didn't even support it yet.

NOTE: Using this together with the MSI Afterburner/Rivatuner Frame Cap can lead to problems or latency issues. I am not sure. Test it for yourself with it on and off.


How well this works is entirely dependent on your system, but also if you've updated your DLSS to the latest version. The Witcher 3 v.4.04 comes with DLSS 3.1.1 and the Optiscaler FG doesn't work well with that, there's a lot of glitches, input lag is long and it easily crashes. After updating to the latest version with DLSS Swapper, it runs super smooth and actually becomes a viable alternative to use.

You can't use the Steam Overlay anymore with the DLSS Enabler. At least on AMD that's been my experience.
It's a bit tragic, because I like to take screenshots and the best workaround I've found for now is to just take them through your GPU driver and later upload them manually to Steam.

For AMD Adrenaline:


Here you can set your save folder for the screenshots.

Then you press the cogwheel in the upper right, go to "Hotkeys" and here you can set your keybind for a screenshot. I put mine to ALT + F1.



For Nvidia:
This was the next best video I've found for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-w7novAS_4

https://www.msi.com/Landing/afterburner/graphics-cards

If you cap to your refresh rate and given that your average fps never dips below that, you will have the lowest input latency with no screen tearing and no need for any additional features like V-Sync, Radeon Enhanced Sync / NVIDIA Fast Sync, Radeon Anti Lag / NVIDIA Low Latency (NULL).
A lot of those will in fact make it worse, if combined unfavorably and cause more stutters and have higher input latency, than just capping your Framerate with RTSS. It is hard to believe, since they all sound so good and you'd think everything's cross compatible, but no. There's no one size fits all answer, but I'd say turn everything else off to start off with, cap your FPS with RTSS and then go from there.

There is of course a million different reasons for why you could be experiencing stutters. It is literally impossible to narrow that down to a simple list here, we all know that. I've noticed however that this game is incredibly sensitive to a few additional features a lot of people have enabled by default these days...

These are the most obvious reasons for stuttering that I've found in my own testing:

• Running Borderless Fullscreen, instead of Exclusive Fullscreen (and beware that this can reset itself from time to time when the game crashes or you switch scaling options)
  
• V-Sync
  
• Radeon Enhanced Sync / NVIDIA Fast Sync
  
• FreeSync / G-Sync
  
• Radeon Anti Lag / NVIDIA Low Latency (NULL)
  
• NVIDIA Reflex (if not configured right)
  
• According to Nixxes Community Support MalwareBytes Antivirus running in the background can cause problems
  
• Running settings that are too high for your hardware (I know it can be hard to accept)
  
• People say it all the time, but still people don't do it: Update all of your drivers and do all Windows Updates.
  
• cluttered Shader Cache. Try clearing it

My frametime graph looked perfectly flat the whole time, but I was still experiencing really annoying microstutters when running and moving the camera a lot, I was losing my mind. After tedious testing back and forth, the highest smoothness and most lag free experience I could achieve was disabling basically every special feature mentioned up there.
I now just run RTSS for frame cap at -3 of my monitor's refresh rate. Mine is 60hz, so it's 57. That's it. Lowest latency and no more screen tearing, even though I usually need V-Sync.

There's no one single answer for these kinds of problems and you might even need one of those features mentioned, I'm just trying to make you aware that they could also be working against you. At the end of the day you won't get around testing stuff for yourself.

depending on what version you play, go into user.settings or dx12user.settings in your documents folder, press ctrl + F and type in cloth and hit enter.

Then you edit "AllowClothSimulationOnGpu" to true

so it looks like this:
press ctrl+ S to save and exit out.

There have been many forum posts over the years with various edits to the config files for improved visuals, performance, loading time and so on.
Keep in mind the date these posts were made and cautious about how much of that is still relevant for the 4.04 version of the game now. Also note for graphical value changes, that the Tweaks mod adds most of the relevant parameters to the game menu already and touching settings in game after having edited the .ini files will change and reset specific values.

I haven't tried a whole lot with these edits yet and upon some changes with the gc file in particular, I actually experienced crashes. You're free to use and change whatever, but I will only present what I've applied myself so far without any negative impact and noticable improvement. If you do this I highly recommend you do a backup of the files you change, so in case you get completely lost later on after something malfunctions, that you can quickly revert it without having to verify game files and possibly blow apart many other mods and things you've set up this far.

This is the only thing I'm currently running out of those:
File path: D:\WINDOWS\Programme\Steam\steamapps\common\The Witcher 3\bin\config\base\resources.ini
Open it with a text editor like Notepad and change the following values to this

I'll be adding more once I've thoroughly tested it.

How blurry the game is really depends on your Anti Aliasing settings, depth of field, vignetting, motion blur, blur settings. I highly recommend using DLSS as Anti-Aliasing, because the TAAU is not great. Sharpening set to High. You will notice that with Depth of Field set to off, the game might look a lot clearer, but probably too sharp now. That's personal preference and might be beneficial if you play on lower resolutions to have it as clear as you can get it to counteract the additional downscaling with DLSS. The game seems to be designed with Depth of Field in mind though.

So if you're playing low resolution and got an old PC, for example even confined to something below 1080p medium settings, you might still struggle with blurriness. So what you can do on top of everything is enable your GPU driver's sharpening function. It definitely works. So much so that it can quickly become overkill and look crazily oversharpened and comic like.
You'll have to play around with it and decide what looks best to your own eyes. This is highly dependant on your taste. I actually felt like the game looked sharp enough with just the Sharpening setting ingame on High, DLSS Quality and Texture MIP Bias on Low (-2), without any additional GPU driver sharpening. And that was on 1080p with DLSS on Quality already.

You will have to balance this with the ingame graphics sharpening setting, so you don't end up oversharpening. Maybe you like the driver sharpening better than the ingame one, or go Low Sharpening ingame and 50% on the driver. Idk if that could yield interesting results.
1080p with upscalers enabled is really blurry, so you might feel like you want this, but I think that resolution looks so swampy that you can probably oversharpen and still feel like it's too blurry at the same time. I'm just giving you some tools, do with it what you want. In this game I didn't feel the need to use it, but I have successfully done so for other games before.

---

Turn it to "On", don't use global setting. Then adjust to your taste.

A good marker to make out if you have oversharpened or not is the grass. So that there's a lot of aliasing and visual noise happening in open grass fields, when the wind is moving the grass around and you see sharpening attached all over it. I think you'll know it when you see it. At the end of the day it's a TAA Anti Aliasing game... and those are always blurry as hell, what can ye do... only helps going higher in resolution.

https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/9963

Incredible Quality upgrade without notable performance hit. It's crazy, just look at it.
Unmodded:

With HDRP:


I think this is the next generation quality upgrade people had in mind when CDPR came up with that title...

Copy and replace the files in your game directory (D:\WINDOWS\Programs\Steam\steamapps\common\The Witcher 3)

https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/8956?tab=description

This is what really increases the immersion for me, when you don't have to see muddy low res textures in the distance, but actual detail.

Mods to make the game look like the gameplay version presented in 2014, before they did the downgrade.


Links are in his video description

Incredible lighting mod, giving the game a much more sinister look. Looks like the color grading for a movie.


https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/10070

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13dCXx0fnaI7xeo2bZBwCOALqIKOJSF-CJea-0-ZBHy4/edit?pli=1&tab=t.0

https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/9384

https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7460

I'm not an expert by any means, I actually have no idea about anything modding related at all really. I'm just good at figuring out how to use things.
I broke a bunch of these rules mentioned and I'm running it without problems regardless, but don't be like me and don't @ me if you got mod related problems. I really can't help you with that. Mod problems should be directed at the specific posts sections or a modder's discord like Brothers in Arms. They are really nice and eager to help, if you're not unreasonable and oblivious to some common sense.

But for starters, don't be like me and use Vortex as a mod manager, instead use the Witcher Mod Manager. Vortex is not as good and I was just lazy, because I was used to it and quickly went too far down the road and couldn't be bothered to reinstall everything.
Vortex can ♥♥♥♥ up installing certain mods. It creates a priority list for every single mod, which is not really necessary and it does it regardless of alphabetic or numeric ordering unfortunately. So you will have to manually sort everything afterwards. And on top of everything it uses a very outdated Script Merger version. So I used an external one.
The lesson is, don't be like me and do it right from the getgo.

https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/9384

List created by ElementaryLewis. Definitely worth checking out. Install what you like, they all mostly have really good compatibility. I advise you to take a look at each of the posts sections on each mod before installing though, because you sometimes need an additional file to make particular mods work together or something. So go slow, calm and collected about this or you're in for a headache.

If you found anything helpful in here, I'd appreciate a thumbs up and/or favorite, it all helps out. Steam Points Awards are also very much appreciated.



The mods mentioned are made by very talented people, so don't forget to endorse and thumbs up their stuff on Nexus too.

If you're thinking about a full mod setup and not sure what you might need:

• Utility Mods
  
• Bug Fixes like Brothers In Arms
  
• a Lighting Mod
  
• a Weather or Cloud Mod
  
• Texture Replacements like HDPR
  
• Characters, Animals and Monsters Reworked Mods & small cosmetic gear changes
  
• Quality of life gameplay mechanic changes that aren't too invasive, like Balanced Damage And Scaling or Improved Horse Controls.

Except for the lighting mod and some gameplay mechanic changes, the other mods don't take away from the original vision and just expand on what the base game is in a visually much more pronounced way. You may find that the original lighting doesn't look expressive enough and too neutral. You could also just start playing and decide later on. In case you're unsure you could just replay the intro with a mod on to see if you prefer it or not.

These are all the ones I've chosen from the Essential Mods List from ElementaryLewis:

Community Patch - Bootstrap and Utillities
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2109

Community Patch - Menu Strings
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3650

Community Patch - Shared Imports
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2110

RTXGI Setting Unlocker (needed for Tweaks on DX12)
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7426

Tweaks
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2658

Grammar of the Path - Next Gen Enabled
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7185

Brothers In Arms - TW3 Bug Fix and Restored Content Collection
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7329
Brothers In Arms - HD Reworked Project Compatible Patch
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/9987

Fix Boat Speed
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/10280

Fix Camera Shake
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/10456

Fix Ciri Invul
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7919

Next Gen Shadows Flickering Fix
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/9717

Balanced Damage and Scaling
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7464

Better Torches
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7186

Cheaper Lore Friendlier Shop Prices
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3097

Enhanced Herbalism - Next-Gen
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7269

Friendly Focus Next-Gen (Witcher Sense Tweaks)
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7167

Improved Fist Fights
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3703

Improved Horse Controls - Next Gen
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7229
the latest version has some bugs with fast travel and auto jump, so I use the version before that. 4.1 (Full Version). Click on the file archive at the bottom to find it.

DLC - Fast Travel Pack - Next-Gen
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7202

Stack Your Items - Next-Gen
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7175

Weight
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7576

Well Stocked Craftsmen
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3002

E3 2013 Skellige Boats
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/4766

DLC Names from the Path
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7187

Lamp on Player's boat
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2770

Road Lights - DLC
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/4733

Cat Hood Fix
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/8732

Witcher Lore Collection - Next-Gen
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7236

All Quest Objectives On Map
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/943

Better Icons - Definitive Edition
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/10256

Mutagen Tab Alchemy
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/8780

Rational Crafting
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/10389

Serif of Rivia (Fonts)
{LINK REMOVED}https://www.mediafire.com/file/tucexip3brk6ish/modSerifOfRiviaNG.zip/file

Sort Everything
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/1710

Unread Schematics and Recipes
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/10419

E3 Boat and Sail
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/5552

The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project NextGen Edition
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/9963
don't install the bin folder, conflicts with Tweaks.

Filterless Toussaint
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/6205

Larger White Orchard
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/9022

New Clouds
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3315

New Signs FX
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/8565

New Torch FX
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7918

New Toussaint Clouds (Bob Clouds included)
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/8072

Vegetation Billboards Remastered
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/8956

VGX Burning Village Cutscene
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3537

Geralt Hair and Beard NonHW Redone:(Light Preset)
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/8363

Neutral Face Mimic
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/10311

Top Notch Swords Fix
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7897

True E3 Armour – Next Gen Remaster
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/9755

Concept Witchers Redux
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7759

Realistic Eyes Fixed (Book-Friendly)
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/4341

Triss (G)Lorified (1.32 and Next-Gen compatible)
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3223

Unique Witcher Eyes (except Geralt) NEXT - GEN
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3056

Bathsebah's Keira Metz Edit - Face
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/5505

Faction Appearance Project
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/5669
BiA + FAP Compatibility Patch
{LINK REMOVED}https://www.mediafire.com/file/i9o54s19q4dhhlt/mod0BiA_FAP_Patch.zip/file
Improved Nilfgaard Faction
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/10174
Improved Temeria Faction
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/10161

Radovid V the Stern
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/10277

The Elihalette
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/9043

zzjay Blood and Wine NPCs
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7072

zzjay NPCs
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7051

E3 HD Birds Reworked Project NEXT GEN
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3204

HDAR - HD Animals Reworked
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/5405

HDMR - HD Monsters Reworked mod
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/3580

VGX Eredin Appearance
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/6358

---

Additional Mods I have installed:

Combat & Gameplay↓
E3ARP (E3 ANIMATIONS REVIVAL PROJECT):
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/6775

Combo Blood
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/5830?tab=description

The Witcher 2 Geralt:
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/9223

Witcher 2 Eyes:
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/9223?tab=files&file_id=55578

Witcher 2 Mix HeadMesh by Reeves:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ci1G9esk39ZyHMW8dnBZyOS6x8Ujn9zw/view?usp=sharing

Glowing Witcher Eyes (Yellow):
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2234

Geralt Hair and Beard NonHW Redone:(Light Preset)
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/8363

Disable Hairworks On Geralt:
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7217

New Hairstyles and Beards For Geralt:
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/4400

New Lightning Effect:
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2985

Fog and DOF tweaker NEXT-GEN UPDATE:
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/8585

No Time For Gwent
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/2060

4KRW - 4K Reworked Women mod
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/4018

2013 Concept Lighting
https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/10070

[Controversial] True Fires:
It's an overhaul of certain fire and light sources, but only interesting because the draw distance on some light sources are near infinite. So it provides a very immersive and realistic experience.

No Mod


True Fires Enabled. Notice the lights on the lighthouse in the distance.

It says it probably comes with a peformance cost, but I couldn't really perceive a noticable one between the two. And if there is one, I would still regard that as very much worth it. Certainly not a big one.

It should be noted that this is a NOT RECOMMENDED mod, because it can cause problems. I've first hand experienced extreme and intense glitches, when the priority list was not perfect. It's very delicate. I basically opted to overruling True Fires on priorities whenever possible on all conflicts I saw in Script Merger, so the other mods don't malfunction because of it. Then it works and provides the necessary immersion. You don't need the TrueFiresTorchFix, the way I prioritized my mod list, it should work perfectly regardless.

If anything causes problems for you, this mod would be the first contender to deactivate to see if it's the root cause.

I'm just gonna leave this here in case some people need some insight about how some of them should be prioritized in relation to each other. This is by no means an ideal priority list you should follow for every single mod listed. It's a rather messy priority list, because Vortex Mod Manager just assigned everthing a priority even if not needed, thus making perfect compatibility more complicated when the mods don't apply themselves based on name like default, but now all on the numbers assigned in the text file.

If I was you I would only use this to tell the priorization between mods like Brothers in Arms, HD Reworked Project, Faction Appearance Project, Lighting Mods, True Fires, etc. But don't quote me on that. The rest is rather random and I'm still adding some here and there, so it's a work in progress. As I've said, I'm not a modding expert by any means. All I can say is that this setup runs for me.

mod priority list found in C:\Users\YourName\Documents\The Witcher 3\mods.settings

Contents:
[mod0000_MergedFiles]
Enabled=1
Priority=1
VK=mod0000_MergedFiles

[mod0BiA_FAP_Patch]
Enabled=1
Priority=2
VK=mod0BiA_FAP_Patch

[mod000000aHDRP_BiA]
Enabled=1
Priority=3
VK=mod000000aHDRP_BiA

[mod00000HDReworkedProject]
Enabled=1
Priority=4
VK=mod00000HDReworkedProject

[mod0BrothersInArms_TrueFires]
Enabled=1
Priority=5
VK=mod0BrothersInArms_TrueFires

[mod_ShadowFlickersFix]
Enabled=1
Priority=6
VK=mod_ShadowFlickersFix

[mod_FilterlessToussaint]
Enabled=1
Priority=7
VK=mod_FilterlessToussaint

[mod2013_ConceptLightingMod]
Enabled=1
Priority=8
VK=mod2013_ConceptLightingMod

[modVGXVillageCutsceneBright]
Enabled=1
Priority=9
VK=modVGXVillageCutsceneBright

[modNewLightningEffect]
Enabled=1
Priority=10
VK=modNewLightningEffect

[modNewClouds3_0]
Enabled=1
Priority=11
VK=modNewClouds3_0

[modNewToussaintClouds1_3]
Enabled=1
Priority=12
VK=modNewToussaintClouds1_3

[modVegetationBillboardsRemastered]
Enabled=1
Priority=13
VK=modVegetationBillboardsRemastered

[modE3Boat_Multiple]
Enabled=1
Priority=14
VK=modE3Boat_Multiple

[modSharedImports]
Enabled=1
Priority=15
VK=modSharedImports

[modMenuStrings]
Enabled=1
Priority=16
VK=modMenuStrings

[mod_GlowingEyes]
Enabled=1
Priority=17
VK=mod_GlowingEyes

[modW2EyesYellow]
Enabled=1
Priority=18
VK=modW2EyesYellow

[modNeutralFaceMimic1]
Enabled=1
Priority=19
VK=modNeutralFaceMimic1

[modHaB_Light]
Enabled=1
Priority=20
VK=modHaB_Light

[mod2013StyledHeadMesh]
Enabled=1
Priority=21
VK=mod2013StyledHeadMesh

[modPalerW2StyledGerry]
Enabled=1
Priority=22
VK=modPalerW2StyledGerry

[modDisableHairworksOnGeralt]
Enabled=1
Priority=23
VK=modDisableHairworksOnGeralt

[mod_RealisticEyesFix2K]
Enabled=1
Priority=24
VK=mod_RealisticEyesFix2K

[modVGXEredinAppearance]
Enabled=1
Priority=25
VK=modVGXEredinAppearance

[moddandelion_red]
Enabled=1
Priority=26
VK=moddandelion_red

[modradovid]
Enabled=1
Priority=27
VK=modradovid

[mod4KRWShaniV4]
Enabled=1
Priority=28
VK=mod4KRWShaniV4

[modPracticalPhilippa]
Enabled=1
Priority=29
VK=modPracticalPhilippa

[mod4KRWYenneferCurvyNG]
Enabled=1
Priority=30
VK=mod4KRWYenneferCurvyNG

[mod4KRWTrissBlueEyesNG]
Enabled=1
Priority=31
VK=mod4KRWTrissBlueEyesNG

[modbsbahkeira_face_GLAMMEDUP]
Enabled=1
Priority=32
VK=modbsbahkeira_face_GLAMMEDUP

[modbsbah_elihalthebestgirl]
Enabled=1
Priority=33
VK=modbsbah_elihalthebestgirl

[mod4KRWCirillaNG]
Enabled=1
Priority=34
VK=mod4KRWCirillaNG

[mod020zzjayNPCs]
Enabled=1
Priority=35
VK=mod020zzjayNPCs

[mod023zzjayBW_NPCs_Bloodshot_Regis]
Enabled=1
Priority=36
VK=mod023zzjayBW_NPCs_Bloodshot_Regis

[modFactionAppearanceProject]
Enabled=1
Priority=37
VK=modFactionAppearanceProject

[modfactionimprovementstemeria]
Enabled=1
Priority=38
VK=modfactionimprovementstemeria

[modfactionimprovementsnilfgaard]
Enabled=1
Priority=39
VK=modfactionimprovementsnilfgaard

[modaHDBirds_v11]
Enabled=1
Priority=40
VK=modaHDBirds_v11

[modHDAnimalsReworked]
Enabled=1
Priority=41
VK=modHDAnimalsReworked

[modHDMonstersReworked5]
Enabled=1
Priority=42
VK=modHDMonstersReworked5

[modHDMonstersReworked5_Exp]
Enabled=1
Priority=43
VK=modHDMonstersReworked5_Exp

[modDLC2ImprovedBIAPatch]
Enabled=1
Priority=44
VK=Main File-8873-1-0-0-1708721864

[modBrothersInArms]
Enabled=1
Priority=45
VK=modBrothersInArms

[modNewTorchFX]
Enabled=1
Priority=46
VK=modNewTorchFX

[modHDReworkedProjectCompatibilityForTrueFires]
Enabled=1
Priority=47
VK=modHDReworkedProjectCompatibilityForTrueFires

[modHDReworkedProject]
Enabled=1
Priority=48
VK=modHDReworkedProject

[modHDReworkedProject2]
Enabled=1
Priority=49
VK=modHDReworkedProject2

[modHDReworkedProject3]
Enabled=1
Priority=50
VK=modHDReworkedProject3

[modHDReworkedProject4]
Enabled=1
Priority=51
VK=modHDReworkedProject4

[modTrueFires]
Enabled=1
Priority=52
VK=modTrueFires

[modPJ001_BalancedDMGScaling]
Enabled=1
Priority=53
VK=modPJ001_BalancedDMGScaling

[modBetterIcons2025_NextGen]
Enabled=1
Priority=54
VK=modBetterIcons2025_NextGen

[modBetterTorchesNextGen]
Enabled=1
Priority=55
VK=modBetterTorchesNextGen

[modCatHoodFix]
Enabled=1
Priority=56
VK=modCatHoodFix

[modlegolorefriendliershopprices]
Enabled=1
Priority=57
VK=modlegolorefriendliershopprices

[modComboBlood]
Enabled=1
Priority=58
VK=modComboBlood

[mod__CWRFinal]
Enabled=1
Priority=59
VK=mod__CWRFinal

[mod_00TrueE3ArmourV3Remaster]
Enabled=1
Priority=60
VK=mod_00TrueE3ArmourV3Remaster

[modEnableJumpInWater]
Enabled=1
Priority=61
VK=modEnableJumpInWater

[modEnhancedHerbalism]
Enabled=1
Priority=62
VK=modEnhancedHerbalism

[modFixBoatSensesSound]
Enabled=1
Priority=63
VK=modFixBoatSensesSound

[modFixBoatSpeed]
Enabled=1
Priority=64
VK=modFixBoatSpeed

[modFixCameraShake]
Enabled=1
Priority=65
VK=modFixCameraShake

[modFixCiriInvul]
Enabled=1
Priority=66
VK=modFixCiriInvul

[modLampOnPlayersBoat_NG_CityLight]
Enabled=1
Priority=67
VK=modLampOnPlayersBoat_NG_CityLight

[modLargerWhiteOrchard]
Enabled=1
Priority=68
VK=modLargerWhiteOrchard

[modNewHairstylesAndBeards]
Enabled=1
Priority=69
VK=modNewHairstylesAndBeards

[modNewSignsFXYrden]
Enabled=1
Priority=70
VK=modNewSignsFXYrden

[modRationalCrafting]
Enabled=1
Priority=71
VK=modRationalCrafting

[modRationalInventoryIcons]
Enabled=1
Priority=72
VK=modRationalInventoryIcons

[modStackYourItems]
Enabled=1
Priority=73
VK=modStackYourItems

VK=Top Notch SIlver Rune colors-7897-4-02-1679378575
[mod00TNSilverOrange]
Enabled=1
Priority=76
VK=mod00TNSilverOrange

[modTopNotchSwordsFix]
Enabled=1
Priority=78
VK=modTopNotchSwordsFix

[modUnreadSchematicsAndRecipes]
Enabled=1
Priority=79
VK=modUnreadSchematicsAndRecipes

[mod_vgxdrakkars]
Enabled=1
Priority=80
VK=mod_vgxdrakkars

[modVVSSDiagramRestoredVerANextGen]
Enabled=1
Priority=81
VK=modVVSSDiagramRestoredVerANextGen

[modWeight]
Enabled=1
Priority=82
VK=modWeight

[modlegoWellStockedCraftsmen]
Enabled=1
Priority=83
VK=modlegoWellStockedCraftsmen

[modDecoSwords]
Enabled=1
Priority=84
VK=modDecoSwords

[modImprovedFistFightNGE]
Enabled=1
Priority=85
VK=modImprovedFistFightNGE

[modMapQuestObjectivesFull]
Enabled=1
Priority=86
VK=modMapQuestObjectivesFull

[modZBrothersInArms_LOD]
Enabled=1
Priority=87
VK=modZBrothersInArms_LOD

[modWitcherLoreCollection]
Enabled=1
Priority=88
VK=modWitcherLoreCollection

[modZ_GrammarOfThePath]
Enabled=1
Priority=89
VK=modZ_GrammarOfThePath