A strange glitch with The Witcher 3’s new ray-tracing system seems to be giving protagonist Geralt’s hair some shiny new highlights. While The Witcher 3 offered players a variety of ways to play the game, Geralt’s hair remained the same — until now.
While Geralt has been a mainstay of The Witcher series since the original books, the character gained mainstream popularity thanks to Henry Cavill’s stellar performance in the Netflix adaptation. With word that The Witcher will recast Henry Cavill’s Geralt in Season 4, replacement Liam Hemsworth has a lot of work to do to win over skeptics down the road. The show’s widespread success should give it a chance to win back fans lost to the controversial decision, but only time will tell how the decision ultimately plays out.
Redditor SourceScope pointed out the glitch, which shows Geralt’s hair with some extremely strong blonde highlights. It’s not clear what the exact problem is, but it’s speculated to be how light interacts with individual hairs. It was an interesting sight, to say the least. Oddly enough, there have been a lot of Geralt’s hair issues in the past, and one of the Witcher 3 issues shows Geralt having a buzz.
The glitch appears to be the result of The Witcher 3’s next-gen update, which caused quite a stir when it was initially released. While the included visuals are undoubtedly an upgrade, it comes at a huge performance cost, making the 2015-release game difficult for many players on modern hardware. The developer has since released a series of updates that have helped overall performance, but it’s still not perfect for the many gamers out there. As this picture shows, there are definitely some unintended side effects.
Fans of The Witcher are eagerly anticipating CD Projekt Red’s next move in the franchise. With The Witcher 4 already confirmed to be in development, it’s exciting to see a sequel that many thought would never come, especially given the financial success of Cyberpunk 2077. The success of Netflix’s adaptation means the franchise has become accessible to a whole new audience, and it makes sense for the developer to want to capitalize on the IP’s popularity. The game may still be years away from release, but that won’t stop players from guessing what the next big adventure will bring.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.