At the 2025 State of Unreal keynote, CD PROJEKT RED and Epic Games unveiled an early development tech demo for The Witcher 4, offering a glimpse into the technological advancements powering the next chapter of the Witcher saga.
While not actual gameplay footage (watch below), the demo showcases the capabilities of Unreal Engine 5.6 in crafting immersive open-world experiences.
A New Era Begins: Ciri Takes the Lead
The demo introduces players to the never-before-seen region of Kovir, marking its debut in the video game series. Set after the events of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the narrative follows Ciri, Geralt’s adoptive daughter, as the main protagonist. In the showcased sequence, Ciri navigates through rugged mountains and dense forests, eventually arriving at the bustling port town of Valdrest. Accompanied by her horse, Kelpie, the journey highlights the game’s commitment to detailed world-building and character development.
Via Epic:
As Ciri explores the bustling market of Valdrest, we see how 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.
Via CD Projekt:
The tech demo takes place in the region of Kovir — which will make its very first appearance in the video game series in The Witcher 4. The presentation followed main protagonist Ciri — along with her horse Kelpie — as she made her way through the rugged mountains and dense forests of Kovir to the bustling port town of Valdrest.
Unreal Engine 5.6: Advancing Open-World Design
The tech demo emphasizes several cutting-edge features of Unreal Engine 5.6:
- Nanite Foliage Rendering: Delivers highly detailed natural environments with extensive draw distances, enhancing realism in forests and landscapes.
- Unreal Animation Framework: Enables lifelike character movements, evident in Ciri’s interactions and Kelpie’s realistic horse mechanics.
- MetaHuman Technology with Mass AI Crowd Scaling: Populates scenes with dynamic, responsive NPCs, enriching the game’s immersive atmosphere.
- FastGeo Streaming: Facilitates seamless loading of expansive environments, ensuring smooth transitions without compromising performance.
Notably, the demo runs at 60 frames per second with ray tracing enabled on a standard PlayStation 5, demonstrating the engine’s optimization for current-gen consoles.
Looking Ahead
While the tech demo offers an exciting preview, The Witcher 4 is still in development, and no official release date has been announced.
Watch the video:
