I am not exactly the most active modder in the world, though I do try to keep up on modding news. Recently it was announced that DICE, in all their usual glory and kindness to the modding community, deemed the Battlefield 3 engine "too complex" for the modding scene to really take hold of. Never mind the fact that some of these people have modded Neverwinter Nights and Crysis, but who is DICE to judge what people can and cannot accomplish? They've seen the result of modding for both gaming longevity and creative output on all of their previous games in the franchise. I would not be surprised if these people cave if there's a push for this, but it worries me a bit about TW2 SDK.

Now, let me say that I am not demanding it to be a top priority of the company. I can understand both the hesitation due to the Witcher 1's limited scene and the actual technical issues they need to fix. Believe me, I'm right there with you and I could wait a while so long as it does eventually come. Will this though fall into the same mentality that DICE is going about it? The system may not have complex DX11 capabilities, but... Just look at the game! It's probably one of the most graphically intensive DX9 games around, and the variety/choices within makes the development process utterly insane! Will this too be deemed to difficult for us to work with?

I only talk about the SDK because I remember, in a preview, that there was a video that showed it off in terms of how it made characters look different. Why would they show the actual internal devices controlling the process if they didn't mean to make it available to the public? Again, it is a bit ludicrous to expect this stuff on launch, but there hasn't been a mention of it since that point I do believe. Do we still hold on hope that we will get to tinker and make campaigns with this fantastic tech, or do you think CD Projekt should keep within their own devices?

We fully endorse The Witcher 2 modding and we plan to release modding tools. Nothing has changed since our last statement on that matter. Unfortunately we don't have any timeline of the release.

Andrzej Kwiatkowski
CD Projekt RED

Well as long as it comes out, then it's good. Although it would help a lot if there were more to work with, as it would be possible for modders to circumvent certain issues that a lot of players are facing.

I may be wrong, but I think they said no modding tool release until next year in one of the videos. Which makes sense since they're busy fixing PC/making Xbox version :)

I honestly wasn't expecting an official response on the matter, so that just shows how kick ass you guys are! Thanks so much for putting my fears to rest, and I will await it anxiously.

Well, now that that's settled,are there any modders here who are going to tamper with the SDK? What will you make? I, personally, will keep my idea under wraps for the moment, but it involves Scotland.

This has to be, for me, the best PC gaming news I've heard this summer. :)

Recently I've been playing around with the CryEngine3 SDK. It's a great tech piece, indeed. But there are 2 major problems to it:

- the consolisation that Crysis 2 has suffered is written all over the editor also (anyone can make comparisons with the CryEngine 2 Sandbox Editor and see what I mean);
- except creating a map/mod intended for a FPS style gameplay, one can't do much in it (perhaps only try to achieve some great visuals - CryEngine3 is still quite a nice looking engine).

On the other side, TW2, having such a complex type of gameplay (questing, dialogue branching and, ofc combat), the possibilities are nearly endless with a huge replay value. IF the editor comes with the possibility to CREATE and NOT only to edit (see TW1's D'jinni editor - /knocks-on-wood), we might look at the future of a great modding community.

I love you guys, you know. I really do. :)

That's quite a shame considering that people were able to create Crash Bandicoot in CE2, which completely changes everything about the code and design. It's a shame Crytek has gone down that route merely in the lieu of the company's development. I highly doubt that CDP Red will go this way, merely because their related to a site called Good Old Games. If you try and betray that origin, you'll be reminded every single day! :P

I modded extensively for Morrowind, and I did a little with Oblivion. I've done some small personal modding for other games.

I'd love to see a tool set similar to Bethesda's construction set, however I don't think this type of predestined/linear game lends itself to much in the way of quest type modding, or creating new worlds to play in. It's much easier to have that type of modding in a sandbox type game. I don't really care for modded textures, and graphical enhancements. That's not what makes a game live on for years. It's new worlds, areas, and quests that keep a game alive.

Sadly, voice acting and cutscenes are killing that type of modding all together. I stepped way back in Oblivion, compared to what I did with Morrowind. I just couldn't summon the desire to do a full quest mod, due to the voice acting limitations, so I mostly did some convenience type fixes and additions, and I did scripting and dialog stuff for other modders.

I look forward to seeing what they give us to work with.

When an SDK is put forward with care and joy, then people will go around to mod it. Demanding it outright when they still have a whole nother console to develop the game for is not exactly the smartest option. Your statement seems almost threatening in that ideology, but you forget that the Xbox sales will probably be quite enough to keep the company afloat. Modding is something they're dedicated to, but they want people to be continually dedicated to it as well, and there does need to be certain tweaks to assure that SDK work is properly available to the public. More Source and less iD Tech 1.

It's a shame so many modders find voice acting as a limitation, when people like myself would actually rather VA for a product with a proven grounding rather than a half-baked animation project. There is plenty of adequate voice work available, only if one searches in proper places like the Voice Acting Alliance forums. I, personally, try to get with whatever mod I can.

Of course I will :)

Andrzej 'Flash' Kwiatkowski
CD Projekt RED

YAY! :D
I might just put TW2 on the shelf for now, then. ;)

Perhaps the best example of a modding community is the one revolving around TES III, TES IV, Fallout 3 and Fallout NV games. That community is up and STILL running. Take a look at what these games have become thanks to the modding.

Nehrim and other adventures are also a fine example of how a toolkit can make such a huge difference.

Voice acting is not a problem, IMHO. 99% of the mods do not need/contain VO and they are still magnificent.

I also consider that TW2, in it's now attained high professional standard, will feature a similar SDK, thus I can only see it as extensive and complete as the Construction Kit for Oblivion. I really don't think there is another choice for CDP than this, honestly. And this is a good thing. :)

A big reason for the success and longevity of Bethesda's moddding community besides the construction set, is their assets can be easily manipulated with open source tools, unlike Witcher's assets. The textures alone, Witcher's textures come in some malformed xbitmap format (and I call them malformed because I can't open them in Xwindows or anything X ), which have to be converted to dds, and the dds files can only be edited using the nVidia plug in for Adobe Photoshop, otherwise they don't work in-game.

Same goes for the meshes. I know someone wrote an import filter for Blender, but there is no export filter yet. There isn't anything like nifSkope either, where you can see in real time changes to textures, and you can even do mesh modifications, rigging, etc...