Not a requirement but I highly recommend using this instead of My Reshade MXAO version it's much more performance friendly while having similar visuals.
Permissions and credits
Credits and distribution permission
Other user's assetsAll the assets in this file belong to the author, or are from free-to-use modder's resources
Upload permissionYou are not allowed to upload this file to other sites under any circumstances
Modification permissionYou must get permission from me before you are allowed to modify my files to improve it
Conversion permissionYou are not allowed to convert this file to work on other games under any circumstances
Asset use permissionYou must get permission from me before you are allowed to use any of the assets in this file
Asset use permission in mods/files that are being soldYou are not allowed to use assets from this file in any mods/files that are being sold, for money, on Steam Workshop or other platforms
Asset use permission in mods/files that earn donation pointsYou are not allowed to earn Donation Points for your mods if they use my assets
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This was built and tested on the Steam release. The DirectX 12 version of Witcher 3 is NOT supported. Please post any issues in the comments.
Installation
1. Extract the .zip contents to your game root folder. dbghelp.dll should be in the same location as witcher3.exe, which are both inside the /bin/x64/ folder.
2. Launch the game and make sure Ambient Occlusion is enabled in your graphics settings.
3. Play.
Uninstallation
1. Delete dbghelp.dll inside the /bin/x64/ folder.
F.A.Q.
Q. I still can't find the game folder to install this DLL. Where is it? A. Probably under "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Witcher 3\bin\x64".
Q. How does this patch work? A. HBAO+ is still implemented in the game code. I patched a jump to forcefully enable it. There's no user-facing option to enable HBAO+ and it's likely an oversight on CDPR's part, rather than something out of malice.
Q. Do you plan to implement anything else in the future? A. If time permits I'll try to add XeGTAO (Intel's Ground Truth Ambient Occlusion) support. Supposedly this is the state-of-the-art non-RT AO algorithm. I don't have a timeframe.