The Witcher 4 gets a new look via a special Tech showcase
Normally an event like Unreal Fest would not be a big deal to most gamers, it is after all focused on a game engine, but thanks to the partnership between Epic Games and CD Projekt Red, we got something special.
This is not some sort of marketing deal, but rather a project that the two groups embarked on back in 2022, in order to help develop new tech and ideas for how games should be made going forward and the video below is the first time the world is seeing these new advancements in action.
Just to be clear, the below video is that of a tech demo and not indicative of actual gameplay. It does still look promising and should give you an indication of where The Witcher 4 is going to go.
The demo above is not running on some random PC custom built for the event but rather it was running on a PlayStation 5 at 60 frames per second. Yes, that means that everything you are seeing was real-time and in-engine. So, the includes the new Unreal Animation Framework, Nanite Foliage rendering, MetaHuman technology with Mass AI crowd scaling, and more.
The tools showcased are being developed, tested, and eventually released to all UE developers, starting with today’s Unreal Engine 5.6 release. This will help other studios create believable and immersive open-world environments that deliver performance at 60 FPS without compromising on quality — even at vast scales. While the presentation was running on a PlayStation console, the features and technology will be supported across all platforms the game will launch on.
“We started our partnership with Epic Games to push open-world game technology forward. To show this early look at the work we’ve been doing using Unreal Engine running at 60 FPS on PlayStation 5, is a significant milestone — and a testament of the great cooperation between our teams. But we’re far from finished. I look forward to seeing more advancements and inspiring technology from this partnership as development of The Witcher 4 on Unreal Engine 5 continues.”
“CD PROJEKT RED is one of the industry’s best open-world game studios, and we’re grateful that they’re working with us to push Unreal Engine forward with The Witcher 4. They are the perfect partner to help us develop new world-building features that we can share with all Unreal Engine developers.”
As for the game, there is no release date set for it, so we could see it this year or in four years, there is no way of knowing. What I can say is that given the issues with Cyberpunk 2077’s launch, I would imagine these guys are going to release the game when it is perfect.
