The Witcher 4: This impressive technical demo is not gameplay
As part of the State of Unreal Conference, this Tuesday, June 3, CD Projekt Red and Epic Games unveiled several things around The Witcher 4. In addition to a new cutscene, it was mainly a question of a video of almost 10 minutes, showing what could look like the first gameplay of the expected RPG. Even if it gets closer, it is not.
The Witcher 4 : A technical demo is not gameplay
Indeed, it is explicitly a technical presentation, and a watermark on the video even specifies that it is not gameplay. Although we are shown a controller developer in hand, this is a showcase created only to show the technical capacities of the Unreal Engine 5 engine. It is a “Deep immersed in the technological foundations of the new Witcher saga.»
The demo remains specially impressive, especially when you know that it turns on a classic PlayStation 5, at 60 fps with Ray Tracing. This is a concrete way to show what it will be possible to do with more development, optimization and power time. The final game can therefore be different, especially since adding different layers (gameplay, interface, etc.), technical constraints will not be exactly the same.
For the moment, this demo of The Witcher 4 above all, allows to show some of the new tools developed by CDPR and Epic Games since the announcement of their strategic partnership in 2022. It is notably a question of more realistic muscle management, nanite foliage for better rendering of trees or the display of many NPCs with their clean routine, and all with a limited impact on performance. These tools will be available to all users of the Unreal Engine this Thursday with version 5.6.
