The Witcher 3 Remastered includes work from a top modder, as CD Projekt Red follow the path they walked with the RPG's next-gen update

As a result, HalkHogan's HD Rework mod "will no longer be needed" once you've updated to the remastered version

As revealed earlier this week alongside a look at next year's Songs of the Past expansion, The Witcher 3 is getting a free remastered update next month. As with 2022's next-gen update, some of its tweaks and additions are the work of modders, with the creator of The Witcher 3's HD Reworked Project having revealed that they got the call to collaborate with CD Projekt Red again.

"It's been a while since the last news and I would like to clarify any questions and confirm that I am cooperating with CDPR on the Witcher 3 Remaster," modder HalkHogan, creator of The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project, wrote in a post stuck to the mod's page last night. "My work will be officially available in the game on September 29th (on PC and consoles), HDRP will no longer be needed. Almost all in-game characters, monsters, animals, vegetation, armors and equipment for Geralt & Roach and a large part of the environment have been reworked and I've put a lot of effort into ensuring the highest quality."

HalkHogan previously worked with the studio on the next-gen update, with their efforts to spruce up the game's textures, models, and more fitting perfectly with the aims of these sorts of official revamps. Back then, they weren't the only modder who got the call from CDPR, with four others who'd put out HD revamps or key bug fixes also being drafted in.

I've had a quick scan through the pages of those works to see if their creators - Denroth, Teiji25, Chuckcash, and Terg500 - to see if they'd also posted anything about being roped back in for the remaster, but can't see anything to that end as of writing. Though, it appears in the case of the bug fixes, there'd be no need to include them in the remaster since they were integrated into the next-gen update and, unlike the visual revamps, haven't evolved since that point.

While it's a time saver for us PC folks, cutting out the need to grab a mod if you want to enjoy the HD Rework's swankier visuals, the rolling of HalkHogan's work into the remaster is arguably bigger news for console players who only get a taste of it when official updates like this drop. It's also worth noting that with that 2022 next-gen update, CD Projekt Red said they'd "reimbursed" modders whose work was featured and added them to the game's credits. Presumably something similar is happening this time around, in which case it's great to see modders being compensated and recognised for their efforts.

If that next-gen update's anything to go by, the remaster's launch could be rough out of the gates from a wider modding perspective. As with updates to the likes of Fallout 4 and Skyrim, mods that rely on scripting or bits of the game which have been edited will almost certainly need their own updates to work as intended with the new version of the game. Thankfully, unless you're rocking any mods whose creators have abandoned them, such updates tend not to take too long to arrive.