Developer CD Projekt RED (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Cyberpunk 2077) took part in the State of Unreal 2025 to show off The Witcher 4 tech demo. The studio is working together with Epic Games to power the world of The Witcher 4 on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox, and bring large open-world support to Unreal Engine.
The demo shows off in-engine open-world development capabilities, including the new Unreal Animation Framework, Nanite Foliage rendering, MetaHuman technology with Mass AI crowd scaling, and more.
“The Unreal Animation Framework powers realistic character movements in busy scenes. FastGeo Streaming, developed in collaboration with Epic Games, allows environments to load quickly and smoothly. Nanite Foliage fills forests and fields with dense detail without sacrificing performance. The Mass system handles large, dynamic crowds with ease, while ML Deformer adds subtle, realistic touches to character animation — right down to muscle movement.”
The tech demo takes place in the region of never-before-seen region of Kovir. The presentation follows Ciri, the new protagonist of the game, and her horse Kelpie as the two journey across the rugged mountains and dense forests before making it to the bustling town of Valdrest. The sequel to The Witcher III: Wild Hunt aims to be the most immersive and ambitious Witcher game to date. The developers describe it as a single-player open-world RPG, focusing on Ciri’s journey as a professional monster slayer through a brutal dark fantasy world.
Check out the official site to find out more.
