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Geek Culture
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
'The Witcher 4' PS5 Tech Demo Is Stunning But CD Projekt Says 'It Doesn't Fully Represent The Final Game'
CD Projekt and Epic Games have unveiled a stunning tech demo of the long-awaited RPG sequel The Witcher 4 running on Unreal Engine 5, showcasing a gorgeous open world with ray tracing running on a base PS5 at 60fps. The catch? It's not actually gameplay footage. Revealed during Epic's State of Unreal 2025 event, the tech demo follows the game's protagonist Ciri as she explores the brand new region of Kovir while in the process of a monster contract. The demo showcases the latest open-world features of Unreal Engine 5.6, including the Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin to enhance load times, and its character rendering innovations, able to generate 300 individually animated NPCs shown off towards the tail end of the segment. 'As Ciri explores the bustling market of Valdrest, we see how [Unreal Engine] 5.6 handles busy scenes full of high-fidelity characters and visual effects like ML Deformer. The tech demo also showcases Nanite Foliage — which provides a fast and memory-efficient way to achieve gorgeous foliage density and fidelity, slated for release in UE 5.7,' read the official blurb from Epic. As breathtaking as the tech demo might have been, CD Projekt was quick to issue a statement insisting that it was not an official gameplay showcase, and was rather a 'standalone' tech demo built to showcase Unreal Engine 5's features. '[The tech demo] reflects the direction we're taking with The Witcher 4 — but it doesn't fully represent the final game.' CD Projekt explained, 'Production is still underway, and we have a great deal of work ahead. That said, our goal is ambitious: to create one of the most visually advanced role-playing games to date.' CD Projekt also explained why it chose to feature the tech demo on a base PS5 over a high-end gaming PC, saying that 'optimising for consoles early helps [to] future-proof performance across all platforms', and that 'consoles come with tighter constraints, and meeting them pushes [the studio] to make smarter, more efficient tech choices — the kind that benefit every version of the game'. With the tech demo not showcasing actual gameplay footage, it further emphasises how far The Witcher 4 is from launch. And with CD Project previously indicating that the game won't be out until 2027 at the earliest, the suggestion is that the game will probably run on next-generation PlayStation and Xbox consoles alongside the PS5 and Xbox Series X, although its ability to run on the weaker Xbox Series S still remains a mystery. Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. CD Projekt Epic Games state of unreal The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5
Top Gear
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Top Gear
Stop what you're doing: new The Witcher IV gameplay just dropped, and… wow
Gaming Without question, the best fish market the medium of gaming has ever seen Skip 1 photos in the image carousel and continue reading CD Projekt Red has just shown off new gameplay footage of its blockbuster RPG The Witcher IV at the 'State of Unreal' livestream, and you'll probably want to sit down for this one. Ready? Sure? OK, go ahead and watch the livestream footage (jump to 30mins in). Advertisement - Page continues below Epic's Unreal Engine 5.6 is capable of some outlandish fidelity levels in real-time rendering, but the strikingly, almost aggressively beautiful open world of Kovir built by CD Projekt Red and Epic in collaboration really does look like a step forwards from anything we've seen running on console hardware before. That's right, console hardware. Difficult as it is to believe, the team specified onstage the demo is running on PlayStation 5 hardware at 60FPS, with ray tracing. You might like Since Geralt's role of protagonist concluded after number three and he hung up his swords to become a professional Gwent hustler (we imagine), The Witcher IV sees Ciri in the lead role as she explores the region of Kovir. It's a chilly and mountainous northern land, rich in mineral deposits according to Witcher lore, and even richer in very convincing pixels. The demo shows off the port town of Vargrest, where an impressive number of NPCs apparently gather daily to watch jugglers, angry bears and fish sellers. We're not afraid to go on record about this one: there's never been a more graphically advanced medieval-fantasy fish market in the history of gaming. If all you do in The Witcher IV is buy and sell fish, we still won't be disappointed. Advertisement - Page continues below Ciri's horse, Kelpie, makes a starring appearance too, and it's a vehicle for more than just the protagonist. Numerous impressive tech feats were demonstrated through the medium of equine depiction, including what looks to our eye like multi-character motion matching and root motion movement. And by 'what looks like' we mean 'that's the baffling terminology the devs mentioned and which we subsequently wrote down'. In any event, it makes the horse-mounting animations look fluid, and horse riding itself much more convincing than The Witcher 3 's. Don't worry Roach, we still love you. If you're not sated by that horse-related tech speak, how about the machine-learned deformations happening on Kelpie's skin and musculature while in motion? It takes a lot to make Cyberpunk 2077 's modes of transport look dated, but the fidelity of Kelpie's movements is movie CG-grade. Although the developer was keen to stress all the efficiencies in Unreal Engine 5.6 that make it possible for a console game to look like this and run at 60FPS, game development is an exercise in constantly moving goalposts and this footage should be taken with a few grains of the savoury stuff. It's probably best to think of it as a reference – this is what CDP wants the game to look and run like when it launches. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox. There's no release date yet for The Witcher IV . CDP indicated that they'd have more to share very soon, though.
