What is Nvidia HairWorks and how to use it to enhance immersion in The Witcher 3 next-gen

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is easily one of the most beloved western role-playing games of the last decade, going neck-to-neck with the likes of Bethesda Softworks' Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The game is the pinnacle of storytelling and world-building, something that is rarely done right in most modern open-world games.

From the main storyline to the various side quests, the game is filled with some of the most intriguing and memorable stories in gaming. Apart from the narrative, Polish developer CD Projekt Red's magnum opus also excels in delivering breathtaking visuals that hold up really well for a game released in 2015.

With the recently released free next-gen update for the game on current-generation consoles and PC, The Witcher 3's already stellar graphics have received a massive overhaul. One of the key elements of the game's PC version is Nvidia's proprietary HairWorks feature, which allows for the simulation of life-like hair and fur strands.

While the option comes at a massive performance cost (especially on low to mid-tier PC specifications), it can massively improve the game's overall image quality and immersion. Here's how players can use the Nvidia HairWorks feature in The Witcher 3 next-gen.

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What is Nvidia HairWorks?

Nvidia's HairWorks technology is basically an advanced version of DirectX 11 tesselation, where assets like fur and hair strands are simulated as individual objects instead of a group of polygons. Nvidia HairWorks technology enables the rendering of realistic hair and fur on characters, resulting in a much more dynamic and immersive gameplay experience.

The feature was first introduced as an extension of the standard tesselation technique with DirectX 11 supported titles. However, over time, Nvidia has made significant changes in their HairWorks technology to take advantage of DirectX 12, which is used by most modern titles (including CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3 next-gen).

While the technology does significantly improve the quality of in-game character models, simulating life-like fur and hair strands, it comes at a massive cost to performance.

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How to use Nvidia HairWorks in The Witcher 3 next-gen to improve immersion

Players can enable Nvidia HairWorks in the game's graphics settings, with options to adjust HairWorks and anti-aliasing quality. Since it is a proprietary technology from Nvidia, HairWorks is only available to players with an Nvidia graphics card.

Nvidia HairWorks option in The Witcher 3 (Image via CD Projekt Red)

The feature can be enabled by users with GPUs meeting the official minimum requirements of the game, but the gameplay experience will be less than ideal since the HairWorks feature is quite heavy on both CPU and GPU resources. The setting should be turned off if the GPU is below the recommended system specifications stated by CD Projekt Red for The Witcher 3 next-gen.

Although the HairWorks setting is not heavy on VRAM, it does require a good CPU for the real-time simulation and advanced tesselation techniques used for hair and fur rendering. A six-core, twelve-thread CPU is the minimum requirement to use the HairWorks feature at its lowest preset. For the ideal use of Nvidia HairWorks, players should be equipped with a modern eight-core CPU and an Nvidia RTX 2080 and above.