Latest news with #UnrealEngine5.6
Time of India
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
7 takeaways from the Witcher 4 UE 5.6 Tech Demo
Image via: CD Projekt RED During Epic Games' State of Unreal 2025 keynote, CD Projekt Red unveiled a jaw-dropping technical demo of The Witcher 4-not a chunk of the game itself but rather an imposing series of visuals and technical showcases for Unreal Engine 5.6. It may take years before the fully operational game sets foot on U.S. soil, but what we have witnessed are glimpses at the future of open-world RPGs. Here are seven takeaways from the presentation that may change the fantasy worlds that players are accustomed to. 1. Ciri Takes Center Stage For the first time, Ciri is featured as the main protagonist. Set years after the events of The Witcher 3, she is a witcher now seasoned in riding the snowy peaks of Kovir, a fresh region added to the franchise. This shift means taking a new narrative perspective towards this trilogy focusing on her unusual powers and unexplored past. The Witcher 4 - UE 5.6 Tech Demo | State of Unreal 2025 2. Transitions Are Smooth Between Cinematic and Gameplay One feature stood out: no smooth handoff between pre-rendered cinematic and real-time gameplay. The lingering creature ambush morphed into a controlled exploration by the player without a single cut. That dynamic interaction goes down as more than mere technical exposure-it gives away on the standards for immersion in The Witcher 4, blurring the difference between storyline and action. 3. Muscles, Motion, and the Horse That Stole the Show Kelpi is beyond just a mode of transport. It is an engineering marvel. The demo displayed musculature detail in motion through advanced skeletal simulation offered by UE 5.6. Such realism was not merely skin-deep; 4. Valdrest: A World Alive With Its Own Philosophy When Ciri reaches the bustling town of Valdrest, the world had better respond to such things on a much larger scale. The NPCs react dynamically, not just to Ciri, but to one another too-a villager dropping food caused a cascade of reactions among the townsfolk. Epic has indicated this was a scene with over 300 skeletal mesh agents being simulated at once, without any performance drop on a standard PlayStation 5. The Witcher 4 — Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo 5. Real-Time Streaming of the World, No Compromises Unreal Engine's Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin facilitated seamless exploration with Ciri freely moving between open mountain roads, narrow alleys, and lively markets, without any loading screens or pop-in. Hence, we have large uninterrupted worlds not as some next-gen promise but something present in the reality. 6. Ray-Traced Beauty at 60 FPS on Console A very worthy technical feat for the demo to be running at 60 frames per second with ray tracing on a base PS5. This means that Witcher 4 will not be reserved for future consoles. It will instead become a cross-generational premium experience much like Cyberpunk 2077. Did the Witcher 4 Devs just fix UE5? The Witcher 4 "Gameplay" Tech Demo Unreal Engine 5.6 Analysis 7. A Glimpse into CDPR and Epic's Long-Term Vision This demo was as much about Epic's engine as it was about The Witcher. Both companies emphasized this was a testbed for new tools co-developed to support sprawling, reactive open worlds. The implications go far beyond one game—the technologies on display are building blocks for the next decade of RPG development. While The Witcher 4 remains on the horizon, the UE 5.6 tech demo offers a compelling preview of what's to come. Everyone is waiting for the saga to get released soon.
Engadget
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Engadget
The Witcher IV's lush world is on display in Unreal Engine 5.6 demo
Epic Games held its annual State of Unreal event today, offering a first look at some exciting new features coming to Unreal Engine 5 through a tech demo set in the world of The Witcher IV . The team at Epic Games, together with CD Projekt Red — developers of the Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077 — premiered a roughly ten-minute gameplay and cinematic demo that follows Ciri through a snowy mountain pass in Kovir and into the bustling port of Valdrest. The visuals in the demo are not truly final scenes from The Witcher IV but serve as a proof of concept intended to highlight the cutting-edge graphics and tech behind the new Witcher installment. The demo ran on a PlayStation 5 at 60 frames per second with ray tracing enabled. This was made possible by a slew of new open-world building features coming to Unreal Engine 5.6, including a new 'Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin.' Epic says the new plugin should help open-worlds load faster, though exactly how much faster is unclear. A marketplace scene set in Valdrest brimming with life also underscored the ability to create scenes full of high-fidelity characters and visual effects. Perhaps the most exciting part of the demo was the vast foliage that made up the forests of Kovir. This is thanks to Nanite Foliage, a new system that renders every leaf and branch as real 3D geometry instead of flat textures. This new feature, slated for release with Unreal Engine 5.7, allows for dense high-fidelity foliage without a huge hit to performance. Unreal Engine 5.6 is now available though many of the tools announced today are marked as experimental, including the Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin, new Control Rig Physics, improved motion capture tools and more. There is no specific release date for Unreal Engine 5.7 yet. As for The Witcher IV , we know not to expect it before 2027.
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
The Witcher IV cinematic trailer, gameplay revealed at State of Unreal. Watch
The Witcher IV has a stunning new trailer! Epic Games showcased a tech demo featuring 'some of the cutting-edge tech powering the new Witcher saga' during its annual State of Unreal event on Tuesday. Although the breathtaking visuals were not from the game itself, the presentation gave fans a glimpse into the impressive open-world gameplay, which runs on Unreal Engine 5.6.
The Verge
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Epic showed off Unreal Engine 5 with an impressive Witcher 4 tech demo
An ongoing tradition at Epic's big keynotes is a gorgeous tech demo that shows off what its game engine is capable of. For this year's State of Unreal, the company turned to The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red. This new demo a beautiful glimpse at its fantasy world, filled with blood, fire, and monsters — and more importantly, a new horse. The demo was built using Unreal Engine 5.6, and shows new protagonist Ciri exploring some forested lands and a marketplace known as Valdrest. Epic says the demo is designed in part to show off how the latest iteration can handle both bustling scenes and foliage in an open-world setting. It also shows how much horse technology has improved since The Witcher 3. Epic says that the demo is running on a base model PS5 at 60 frames per second, with raytracing enabled, and the presentation included a live demonstration, with the developers playing the game on stage. And a handful of images from the demo: We've known that CDPR had switched to UE5 for its next Witcher game as far back as 2022, when it announced a partnership with Epic, likely as a result of the technical issues that plagued Cyberpunk 2077 's launch. Last year the developer officially revealed The Witcher 4 — with Ciri replacing Geralt in the lead — with a cinematic trailer. There's no word yet on when the game will be launching.
