The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic

Along with the launch of Unreal Engine 5.6, today's State of Unreal 2025 Livestream included a Tech Demo Cinematic from The Witcher 4 to build excitement for the next installment in the fantasy RPG series. In case it's not obvious, VGC got a confirmation that this is not actual gameplay, but rather a tech demo running on a PlayStation 5. "This is a tech demo, and a first look at the cutting-edge technology powering The Witcher 4," a spokesperson tells them. "But not The Witcher 4 itself." There are more details in an announcement from CD PROJEKT RED:

As Unreal Fest 2025 kicked off, CD PROJEKT RED joined Epic Games on stage to present a tech demo of The Witcher 4 in Unreal Engine 5 (UE5). Presented in typical CDPR style, the tech demo follows the main protagonist Ciri in the midst of a monster contract and shows off some of the innovative UE5 technology and features that will power the game’s open world.

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. Along the way, CD PROJEKT RED and Epic Games dove deep into how each feature is helping drive performance, visual fidelity, and shape The Witcher 4’s immersive open world.
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23.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic
Jun 4, 2025, 11:14
23.
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic Jun 4, 2025, 11:14
Jun 4, 2025, 11:14
 
Well, add me to the list of apprehensive people that dislike every company using the same engine. Unreal is very nice tech, but now Epic is the gatekeeper for yet another game.

It's getting almost as bad as the browser situation... no one should want or allow monopolies to form, even for 'minor ' things like video games.

That said, the video looks nice, I am looking forward to playing this in 2030.
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22.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic
Jun 4, 2025, 05:53
22.
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic Jun 4, 2025, 05:53
Jun 4, 2025, 05:53
 
This looks really nice, but after playing any game with lots of eye candy for a bit the gameplay becomes more important. You can make it look nice all you want but if it ain't fun without the fancy visuals it's not a good game.
21.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 23:37
21.
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 23:37
Jun 3, 2025, 23:37
 
Yeah... It all sounds great, but that video quality is garbage. Maybe some of it is the game's use of motion blur and DoF, but even the still shots and views of the presenters on stage are not nearly as crisp as they should be, despite the supposed 4K resolution.
20.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 20:18
20.
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 20:18
Jun 3, 2025, 20:18
 
Some really cool tech in the engine like Nanite and Metahuman.
RIP RedEye9. We miss you.
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19.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 19:48
19.
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 19:48
Jun 3, 2025, 19:48
 
Xero wrote on Jun 3, 2025, 17:51:
Looking forward to catching it after work at home.

If I recall, the original trailer to Witcher 3 had some controversy because the gameplay graphics were very different than what actually was when it came out. I can't quite recall which was better as I haven't see the trailer in quite some time, however I remember quite the noise when people said the graphics didn't match that trailer. I'd assume they looked better (for vanilla Witcher 3) though Witcher 3 NextGen would obviously be better nowadays. Not to mention all the mods you could add that really overhaul everything into a more modern type game.

Yo, I just got home and watched the technology demo. Consider my mind blown. Witcher 3 is probably my favorite game of all time, so this has me hardcore. I can only pray they don't "f" it up in some way. My biggest concern would be the writing. I think that is what set Witcher 3 apart from like 99% of other games I've played. If they continue the writing similar and some how this plays in every way better than Witcher 3, it could bump W3 down to 2nd favorite of all time. Though yeah, I hate to overhype myself for this because I haven't been hyped for a game in decades.
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18.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 19:06
18.
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 19:06
Jun 3, 2025, 19:06
 
Xero wrote on Jun 3, 2025, 17:51:
If I recall, the original trailer to Witcher 3 had some controversy because the gameplay graphics were very different than what actually was when it came out. I can't quite recall which was better as I haven't see the trailer in quite some time, however I remember quite the noise when people said the graphics didn't match that trailer. I'd assume they looked better (for vanilla Witcher 3) though Witcher 3 NextGen would obviously be better nowadays. Not to mention all the mods you could add that really overhaul everything into a more modern type game.

The 'The Witcher 3' downgrade-gate was real. The trailer(s) showed an almost totally different game visually. I would say that even the so called 'Next Gen' version does not match what was shown in the pre-release ads. CD Projekt massively faked that trailer footage.

That said, there is no real risk of any of that happening here (yet). Some of the vistas in the TW4 tech demo are really nice like that bear strolling across the log over the river but it all looks very current gen. Which isn't too surprising since the footage was supposedly captured on a standard PS5 (i.e. non-Pro) at 60fps with ray-tracing enabled. If that is true then I'm guessing that they are using dynamic resolution scaling or something like that because the image is still pretty blurry even at 4K video resolution.
It's all looking pretty nice, no doubt about it, but definitely not next level or anything that looks like it would require downgrading. The scenes in that harbor town visually reminded me a bit of Plague Tale Requiem.
-=Threadcrappeur Extraordinaire=-
17.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 18:43
17.
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 18:43
Jun 3, 2025, 18:43
 
CDPR hyping anything is an instant knee-jerk, "I call BS" reaction from anyone who followed CP2077 development. This isn't quite in the same vein since it's more tech focused but this is how it starts...
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16.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 17:54
16.
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 17:54
Jun 3, 2025, 17:54
 
Nice try Epic, but sorry to point out that Star Engine > Unreal Engine 5.6.

Checkmate St Christ Roberts, pledge now, pledge hard. May an Idris be with you.*

Stay frosty.




*For just $1500 (maybe)
15.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 17:51
15.
Re: The Witcher 4 UE5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 17:51
Jun 3, 2025, 17:51
 
Looking forward to catching it after work at home.

If I recall, the original trailer to Witcher 3 had some controversy because the gameplay graphics were very different than what actually was when it came out. I can't quite recall which was better as I haven't see the trailer in quite some time, however I remember quite the noise when people said the graphics didn't match that trailer. I'd assume they looked better (for vanilla Witcher 3) though Witcher 3 NextGen would obviously be better nowadays. Not to mention all the mods you could add that really overhaul everything into a more modern type game.

This comment was edited on Jun 3, 2025, 19:47.
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14.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 16:44
14.
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 16:44
Jun 3, 2025, 16:44
 
Simon Says wrote on Jun 3, 2025, 15:39:

Found the link to the 4K video, enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0QPm6E2ZJw

EDIT: LOL, the 4K video looks blurry even on a 1440p monitor. What is this shite?

Why not just use the link that was posted in these comments less than an hour before your previous post about resolutions? (That's why I didn't relink it lol)
Avatar 17249
13.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 15:39
13.
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 15:39
Jun 3, 2025, 15:39
 

Found the link to the 4K video, enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0QPm6E2ZJw

EDIT: LOL, the 4K video looks blurry even on a 1440p monitor. What is this shite?
12.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 15:34
12.
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 15:34
Jun 3, 2025, 15:34
 
Simon Says wrote on Jun 3, 2025, 15:23:

1080P on Youtube of all places in 2025 for a tech demo featuring cutting edge graphics tech should be criminal.

The compression is horrendous and the rest is a blurry mess.

Who thought that was a good idea? ...

IGN and Unreal evidently... you can see the 4K on CD Projekt's Witcher channel.
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11.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 15:24
11.
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 15:24
Jun 3, 2025, 15:24
 
UE 5/.1/.2 has some known issues, stuttering, loading times, framerate issues, crashing. UE5.4 & 5 fixed some of those, so we'll see games coming out within the next few years, so the situation will improve. Hopefully UE5.6 fixes the rest of them lol.
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10.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 15:23
10.
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 15:23
Jun 3, 2025, 15:23
 

1080P on Youtube of all places in 2025 for a tech demo featuring cutting edge graphics tech should be criminal.

The compression is horrendous and the rest is a blurry mess.

Who thought that was a good idea? ...
9.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 15:14
9.
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 15:14
Jun 3, 2025, 15:14
 
That voxel tree tech they show off in the video is pretty sweet.
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8.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 14:57
8.
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 14:57
Jun 3, 2025, 14:57
 
BTW, they have now posted the 4K quality version to the official 'The Witcher' YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nthv4xF_zHU
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7.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 14:29
7.
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 14:29
Jun 3, 2025, 14:29
 
Bodolza wrote on Jun 3, 2025, 14:16:
I've been playing Horizon: Forbidden West lately, which is a non-Unreal Engine game, and I'm astounded at the load times. I've gotten so used to Unreal games taking minutes to load that it surprises me every time that I can be through the main menu and into the game in under 10 seconds.

Which UE5 games are giving you excessive load times?

It might depend on the individual game and how the devs have set up their stuff but I just fired up COE33 (only UE5 game I have installed atm) and it literally took FOUR seconds from the menu to in-game (I timed this real old skewl with my analogue Citizen eco-drive aviator watch! ).
-=Threadcrappeur Extraordinaire=-
6.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 14:16
6.
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 14:16
Jun 3, 2025, 14:16
 
I've been playing Horizon: Forbidden West lately, which is a non-Unreal Engine game, and I'm astounded at the load times. I've gotten so used to Unreal games taking minutes to load that it surprises me every time that I can be through the main menu and into the game in under 10 seconds.
5.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 14:03
5.
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 14:03
Jun 3, 2025, 14:03
 
_Cory wrote on Jun 3, 2025, 12:50:
So disappointing that CDPR ditched REDEngine.

So glad they ditched their POS engine. Maybe with UE5 we can at least reduce the number of bugs on release to four digits in the thousands like < 9,999 bugs instead of their usual 10,000+ . Maybe even the performance could be reasonably good on the release version and not after 20+ patches. That would be a welcome change... well, at least for you impatient types who buy every game at release. I will wait for TW4 complete edition as usual (all DLCs, fully patched... not playing a CDPR bugfest any minute sooner than that).

Overon wrote on Jun 3, 2025, 13:40:
Also haven't we gamers learned after decades that tech demos don't represent the product's final fidelity? It's all misleading.

Yep. The game is literally years away from release. This is CDPR's typical BS marketing/overhyping.
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4.
 
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic
Jun 3, 2025, 13:40
4.
Re: The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Cinematic Jun 3, 2025, 13:40
Jun 3, 2025, 13:40
 
Can't wait for the shader compilation stutter and the traversal stutter of every Unreal Engine game. Also haven't we gamers learned after decades that tech demos don't represent the product's final fidelity? It's all misleading.

This comment was edited on Jun 3, 2025, 14:09.
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