CD Projekt Red took the stage during today’s State of Unreal showcase to unveil a new look at The Witcher IV. In it, CDPR takes viewers through a technical showcase highlighting new Unreal Engine 5 Nanite technology, NPC animations, and, of course, Ciri, the protagonist monster slayer of this fourth installment in the series. The Witcher IV looks gorgeous, and CDPR says today’s demo is running on a standard PlayStation 5 at 60 FPS.
The demo begins with a cinematic showing a stagecoach in peril before we get a new look at Ciri. After the cinematic, CDPR took the stage to go hands-on-sticks for the technical showcase, which shows our first look at Ciri in representativ gameplay, her new horse companion Kelpie, and the gorgeous Kovir region the duo will explore. The demo takes viewers through some foliage for a look at new Nanite technology before bringing Ciri and Kelpi to the city of Valdrest.
Check out the technical showcase for yourself below (thanks for the capture, GamesPrey):
Jumping into some of the more technical details of this look at The Witcher IV, CDPR says Unreal Engine 5 features “Multi-Character Motion Matching” that keeps Ciri and Kelpie perfectly synchronized when mounting from any angle or speed, and claims “controlling Kelpie feels realistic and grounded” as a result. The new “Unreal Chaos Flesh Solver” allows realistic muscles to move and stretch under Kelpie’s skin without compromising the game’s performance.
After Ciri and Kelpie ride into a wild forest of the Kovir region of this world, CDPR explains that “Nanite Foliage,” a new feature of Unreal Engine 5, allows artists to model every single leaf and pine needle. Each one can be represented as an “adaptive, volumetric, fully 3D voxel representation” that turns them into cubes the size of a pixel. According to Unreal, this technology makes designing foliage that reacts realistically to the world and light around it easier.
The final piece of technology highlighted during The Witcher IV showcase is an “entirely new Unreal animation framework,” that CDPR says has allowed it to put over 300 animated NPCs “going about their business” without compromising a 60 FPS gameplay vision.
Valdrest
The entire technical showcase looks beautiful and is quite ambitious. Of course, The Witcher IV is likely years away, and this showcase represents technology and not necessarily what the final game will look like. Still, it’s an exciting look at the possibilities of CDPR’s next open-world RPG.
What did you think of the technical showcase? Let us know in the comments below!