I tried it on 1.32 just for fun and It amazes me how, despite the engine changes, it can load some stuff, there were floating trees but the assets of the land itself weren't loading
I hate the fact it took them almost 9 years to release a proper SDK, Witcher 2 got one right after its release If I'm remembering correctly
The main complaints about the original red kit were that it was released too late and that it got abandoned. Witcher 2 came out in May 2011 and the red kit came out in May 2013. That aside the dev tools got abandoned rather quickly and do not include some basic features even now.
Also the engine for The Witcher 3 was never changed. For the most part CDPR just gave the long outdated engine some make up to make it appear more modern.
I played around in red kit for a few hours and I definitively see a lot of potential regarding new maps and quests. Shame it took CDPR 9 years to finally release the *promised* ~2015 modding tools because I expect the red kit 2 to end up like the Metro Exodus SDK or the Kingdom Come Deliverance modding tools especially considering the fact Witcher 3 has A LOT of performance issues. The major reasons why Skyrim became a modding powerhouse are it got the creation kit within 6 months of release, can be run on basically anything and already gained a good reputation years ago which means mods get updated after new game patches come out which often break a lot of things. Witcher 3 modding on the other hand never really took off and is basically dead as of now.
I always considered it to be due to lackluster modding support from the developer more than any other thing. W3 really can't be compared to Metro or KCD, hell, even W2. It's in a very different league. Truly, the timing for proper official tools is overdue by literal years and we might never really get to Bethesda levels of community engagement, but better late than never. We've come a long way from having just a GUI-less cooking tool, to expertly reverse-engineered, feature-rich sets such as Wolven Kit and Radish Tools, made by skilled, devoted fans. I'm optimistic for the future, even if we realistically won't soar to the legendary Skyrim levels of fan-made content.
Yeah if the game got proper modding tools back in 2015 or even 2017 after Blood and Wine things would look much better now. Wolvenkit served me well but that software was notoriously buggy mostly because it got semi-abandoned. However as you said we went from the mod kit command line to programs that allow the players to create bootleg quests to proper dev tools. Red kit 2 as of now also has plenty of issues but I still managed to tinker with a bunch of stuff without major issues
Either way the dev tools need more documentation to become more accessible. I know how the game handles certain files because I used more primitive tools to edit them a few years ago yet a new modder will most likely have issues working with such a old engine. Metro and Kingdom Come are decent examples because both of them got dev kits far too late hence basically no one used them
I really hope that very talented modders like scoutBro and others will lead the way with new great mods to attract new players and modders, and that a new dynamic will take hold of The Witcher 3.
bigbanglsy2003 Used several mods. But everything didn’t work as I would have liked and I had to make serious changes. Basis mod - https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/5256
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Thank you!
I hate the fact it took them almost 9 years to release a proper SDK, Witcher 2 got one right after its release If I'm remembering correctly
Anyways, thanks for making this mate!
Also the engine for The Witcher 3 was never changed. For the most part CDPR just gave the long outdated engine some make up to make it appear more modern.
Either way the dev tools need more documentation to become more accessible. I know how the game handles certain files because I used more primitive tools to edit them a few years ago yet a new modder will most likely have issues working with such a old engine. Metro and Kingdom Come are decent examples because both of them got dev kits far too late hence basically no one used them