Is there any reason why HBAO+ got removed in the next gen patch? Those of us that can´t use ray tracing now have to stick with the inferior looking ambient occlusion (SSAO). Is this a bug or intentional?

I would also like to know this.

HBAO+ can't be enabled by any command or mods (i tried everything, even modded game settings in xml and user.settings adding HBAO options from Vanilla W3 and nothing). CDP removed HBAO+ options from game .exe on purpose, just to fool people how much RT "improve" graphics...

look at these attached screenshots


Old Uber with HBAO+ on looks so much better then New Uber+ SSAO even without any mods installed.... it's is terrible, like mess up DX12 wasn't enought...

Yeah, the game looks much better with HBAO+. Hopefully they bring it back. I know we can rollback to the old game version but then we miss the new improvements and extra content.

I agree it looks better with with HBAO without RT, but have to admin that RT itself does look better (at least using the screenshot you've supplied)... Shadows are much better of course.

I like the old uber better than the others. The colours are much warmer. Why is that? Did they change the colours for the new textures, or is just from the HBAO+? Or is something related to the time of the day? I haven't played, nor installed any of the games, so I really have no idea what settings are available.

The screenshots seem to be from Toussaint - an area introduced with the last expansion which is supposed to be very warm and dreamy. I guess the devs decided to push the "warm" atmosphere a bit more in the recent nextgen update. You can see that it is not just the color if you look at the vegetation which totally changed as well.

you have right. I'm so disappointed that i cannot play W3 NG with HBAO+ to get nice graphic without broken RT ! Now we have broken DX11 and DX12 mode... Yeah... T_T...

It's possible to get better SSAO with using Reshade Marty McFly's Ambient Obscurance (MXAO)​, still it will be substitute of HBAO+, but better this then nothing.

More info about it you find here:
https://forums.cdprojektred.com/index.php?threads/hbao-removed-from-game.11111359/#post-13545931

MXAO could be improved with installed ReShade Helper and soon will be even better!
https://forums.cdprojektred.com/index.php?threads/pc-next-gen-missing-hbao-setting-cant-turn-off-sharpening-generally-worse-performance-than-before.11110825/#post-13552594
Thanks to modders we may not need HBAO+ anymore.

If CDPR truly borked the DX11 version--removing HBAO+--just to tout the new ray tracing stuff, then that is terribly disappointing.

Ray tracing is overrated and not at all worth the hardware expense.

A mod that enables HBAO+ was released recently. In case anyone wants to try it, this is the link:

https://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/7675

It works great, but only in DX11.

I`d like HBAO_ back CDPR, please. No one cares about RT in Witcher, but the gameplay. Why make Next Gen update with Old Gen graphic settings?

Just use the mod I linked above. Works great and easy install.

Edit: Apparently the mod doesn´t work after the most recent game update, according to some users. Looks like we need to wait for an update if that´s the case.