Charles Esther
The State of Unreal 2025 event kicked off with an exciting keynote from CD Projekt Red, showcasing a technical demo for their highly anticipated game, The Witcher 4.
Though The Witcher 4 was only revealed a few months ago and is not expected until at least 2027, this nearly 10-minute demo offered fans a tantalizing glimpse into the game’s world and technology.
Here are the top five highlights that stood out from the demo.
Meet Kelpie, Ciri’s New Companion
Just like Geralt had his horse Roach in The Witcher 3, Ciri will have her own horse named Kelpie.
Kelpie, originating from The Witcher novels, was first owned by a character named Hotspurn before Ciri took her in.
In the demo, Ciri can call Kelpie by whistling, similar to how Geralt calls Roach.
CD Projekt Red introduced “multi-character motion matching” in Unreal Engine 5 to make Ciri and Kelpie move perfectly in sync, providing a smooth and natural riding experience.
This technology allows seamless mounting from any angle or speed, enhancing immersion.
Hopefully, Kelpie will avoid the fate of Roach, who often got stuck in odd places like rooftops.
Exploration of a New Region Kovir
The demo gave the first look at Kovir, a mountainous region with dense forests and snowy cliffs, expanding the Continent’s map while keeping it roughly the same size as in The Witcher 3.
We also saw Valdrest, a bustling port town full of NPCs, highlighting detailed open-world environments.
Kovir is known in Witcher lore for its glass industries and was once part of Redania before becoming part of the kingdom of Kovir and Poviss.
This new setting promises rich exploration opportunities for players.
Stunning Graphics Captured on a Base PS5
The impressive tech demo ran at 60 FPS on a base PlayStation 5 with ray tracing enabled.
Many assumed the visuals were from a high-end PC or a PS5 Pro, underscoring the power of Unreal Engine 5 and CD Projekt Red’s optimization.
However, the developers clarified this was a tech demo, not actual gameplay footage, meant to showcase the cutting-edge tech behind The Witcher 4.
The demo featured advanced systems like UAF, Nanite Foliage, Smart Objects, ML Deformer, and FastGeo Streaming to enhance realism and performance.
A Glimpse of Monster Hunting
The keynote began with a cinematic showing a monster attack on salt shipments in Korviso, with a creature called a Manticore.
Ciri is then seen investigating the disappearance and presumably tasked with hunting the monster.
Though it’s unclear if this quest will appear in the final game, the sequence hints at classic Witcher-style monster hunting gameplay elements.
Cutting-Edge Technical Innovations
The demo revealed many Unreal Engine 5.6 features powering the game’s world and characters.
These include the Unreal Animation Framework for lifelike character movements in crowded scenes, Nanite Foliage rendering for dense, realistic forests without performance drops, and MetaHuman tech with Mass AI crowd scaling.
FastGeo Streaming allows fast and smooth environment loading, while the ML Deformer adds subtle muscle movements for more realistic animations, showcased on Kelpie.
These innovations promise to deliver a deeply immersive open-world experience at 60 FPS without sacrificing quality.
Conclusion
While The Witcher 4 remains years away, the State of Unreal 2025 demo provides exciting evidence that CD Projekt Red is pushing the boundaries of open-world gaming with Unreal Engine 5 technology.
Fans can look forward to seamless exploration, a rich new region, and enhanced monster hunting in a beautifully detailed world.
Until 2027, this demo offers a fascinating sneak peek at what’s to come in the next chapter of The Witcher saga.
