The team making The Witcher 4 is taking big steps with new tech and engines since The Witcher 3 came out. They aim to make a true next-gen game, as shown by the tech demo at this year's Unreal Fest.
Pushing Boundaries Insights on The Witcher 4 Development
Jan Hermanowicz, the boss of engineering at CD Projekt Red, said the team is getting ready for new tech shifts. They showed this with a tech demo of Valdrest, a place in The Witcher 4.
- Lots of NPCs The Valdrest demo had more than 300 characters, the same count as Novigrad, the big city in The Witcher 3. This shows they want to top their past work.
- Learning from the Past Hermanowicz said they looked back at Novigrad to learn what worked and what didn't, to make better decisions for Valdrest.
- Play on Consoles The demo ran well on a basic PlayStation 4 at 60 FPS with fancy lighting, hinting at a good gaming time on consoles. Yet, getting 60 FPS on Xbox Series S will be really hard.
This early demo, although not the final game, shows CDPR wants to make the game series bigger and deeper.
Unreal Engine 5.6 For Future Games
The Witcher 4's tech demo also showed off Unreal Engine 5.6, the newest version of Epic Games' engine, full of upgrades.
Main Boosts in Unreal Engine 5.6
- Better Performance Videos comparing engines show clear CPU and GPU boosts with UE5.6.
- GPU Boost Up to 25% better, using resources better.
- CPU Boost Up to 35% better, with more stable times.
- Better Visuals UE5.6 gives more real lighting and reflections.
- Enhanced Ray Tracing Better lighting performance.
- Quicker Geometry Streaming Makes loading big game areas smoother.
- New Motion Trails A smart upgrade.
Unreal Engine 5.6 was released earlier this month, following its introduction at Unreal Fest. You can find more info on the official Unreal Engine website.
