At Unreal Fest Orlando, the highly anticipated State of Unreal keynote kicked off with an exciting live presentation that unveiled the latest features of Unreal Engine 5. This showcase offered an exclusive look at how these advancements are bringing the expansive world of The Witcher 4 to life. The tech demo highlighted the collaboration between CD PROJEKT RED and Epic Games to enhance large open-world support in Unreal Engine.
The tech demo introduced viewers to Kovir, a previously unseen region that will debut in the video game series with The Witcher 4. As Unreal Fest 2025 commenced, CD PROJEKT RED took the stage alongside Epic Games to present this captivating demo. Following the main protagonist, Ciri, the tech demo showcased her journey through Kovir's rugged mountains and dense forests, ultimately leading her to the vibrant port town of Valdrest.
During the presentation, both CD PROJEKT RED and Epic Games delved into how the innovative features of Unreal Engine 5 are enhancing performance and visual fidelity, shaping the immersive open world that The Witcher 4 promises to deliver.
Since the announcement of their strategic partnership in 2022, CD PROJEKT RED has been collaborating with Epic Games to develop advanced tools and improve existing features within Unreal Engine 5. This partnership aims to expand the engine’s capabilities for open-world development, aligning with CD PROJEKT RED’s renowned design philosophies.
The tech demo, which ran on a PlayStation 5 at a stunning 60 frames per second, highlighted several in-engine capabilities set within the world of The Witcher 4. Featured technologies included the new Unreal Animation Framework, Nanite Foliage rendering, and MetaHuman technology with Mass AI crowd scaling. These tools are set to be developed and released to all Unreal Engine developers, starting with the latest Unreal Engine 5.6 release.
The tools showcased in the demo are designed to assist other studios in creating realistic open-world environments that maintain high performance at 60 FPS without sacrificing quality. While the presentation was conducted on a PlayStation console, these features will be available across all platforms on which The Witcher 4 will launch.
Key features highlighted during the demo included:
Unreal Animation Framework: Enhancing realistic character movements in dynamic scenes. FastGeo Streaming: Ensuring environments load quickly and seamlessly. Nanite Foliage: Enabling dense detail in forests and fields without performance loss. Mass System: Efficiently managing large, dynamic crowds. ML Deformer: Adding subtle, lifelike touches to character animations, including muscle movement.Discussing the significance of the Unreal Engine 5 tech demo, Michał Nowakowski, Joint-CEO of CD PROJEKT RED, stated, “We started our partnership with Epic Games to push open-world game technology forward. Showcasing our work with Unreal Engine running at 60 FPS on PlayStation 5 is a significant milestone and a testament to the great cooperation between our teams. However, we are just getting started, and I look forward to further advancements as the development of The Witcher 4 continues.”
Tim Sweeney, Founder and CEO of Epic Games, expressed his appreciation for the collaboration, saying, “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.”
The excitement surrounding this collaboration between CD PROJEKT RED and Epic Games signifies a new era for open-world game development, promising to deliver an unparalleled gaming experience with The Witcher 4.
