At the State of Unreal conference led by Epic Games, the developers of CD Projekt Red took the stage to unveil the very first gameplay images of The Witcher 4. Needless to say, everyone was blown away.
As we eagerly await the kickoff of the Summer Game Fest, but also the conferences Sony and Xbox to come, Epic Games has chosen to open the ball.
Indeed, the fathers of Fortnite and the Unreal Engine held their new edition of State of Unreal today. Every year, this conference presents the new features added to the famous graphics engine. As you may know, Unreal Engine 5 has been available since April 2022 and players have already been able to see it in action on several titles such as Split Fiction, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Marvel Rivals.
For this 2025 edition, the American company has unveiled the new features integrated into version 5.6 of the Unreal Engine. And rather than overwhelming the audience with all kinds of graphics, Epic Games invited some partner studios to present their upcoming games under EU 5.
The Witcher 4 dropped everyone's jaw
Among them, there were some big-name guests, including a certain CD Projekt RED. For the occasion, the fathers of Cyberpunk 2077 did not come empty-handed: an incredible technical demo in the universe of The Witcher 4!
And what images! The graphical slap inflicted was simply gigantic. In this very first excerpt of commented gameplay, we see our scarred Ciri wandering through the snowy passes of the kingdom of Kovir. An opportunity for players to appreciate the finesse of the settings, the quality of the animations, the work on the play of light and shadow, and the astonishing density of the vegetation.
Also read:The Witcher 4 has a release window and it's putting players' patience to the test
A showcase for Unreal Engine 5
While players were still busy putting their jaws back in place, the developers then presented some innovations made possible by UE 5.6 such as:
- the Unreal Animation Framework which offers realistic movements to the characters and creatures of the game
- Fast Geo Streaming, which ensures fast and smooth loading of environments
- Nanite Foliage, a voxel-based technology that allows for the generation of dense and detailed vegetation without impacting overall performance
- Mass System, which handles large crowds dynamically
- ML Deformer, which adds subtle and realistic touches to character and creature animation (down to muscle movements)
The demo, impressive in more ways than one, suggests that the game is running on a NASA PC. But it turns out that it isn't. According to CD Projekt, this sequence was captured on a standard PS5 at 60 FPS, all with Ray-Tracing enabled! Well, before we get too excited, let's remember that this is a tech showcase, not a preview of the final gameplay.
CD Projekt RED confirmed this to our colleagues at VGC: “This is a tech demo and a first look at the cutting-edge technology that powers The Witcher 4, but not The Witcher 4 itself.”That's worth making clear.
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