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Unreal Fest 2025 kicked off with a spectacular State of Unreal showcasing a demonstration of UE 5.6 technology based on assets from The Witcher 4. Highly impressive stuff, all running on a standard PlayStation 5 - and yes, we fully believe those claims. Rich and Alex share some initial thoughts on the presentation.

00:00 Introduction
01:12 First impressions
02:04 Is this really running on PS5?
08:48 Hardware Lumen updates: 60fps on consoles
12:52 Nanite foliage updates: voxel vegetation
19:39 Massive NPC counts
21:56 Streaming optimization
25:54 Final thoughts

 

[viveks86]

Excited to know they are attending a CDPR presentation later!

 

[Lokaum D+]

man, if the game has 50% of this tech on it, it ll be great

 

[adamsapple]

Not doing a full writeup causae it's fuckin 30 min.

But the relevant keypoint is that they believe it's running on PS5 but are skeptical that it's not representative of an actual game, just a tech demo, as it doesn't have typical things all UE5 games have, like minor hitches on camera cuts whenever the RT and DRS need to be recalcultated.

They also think the demo is up-scaling from a lower resolution to a 1440p final output. Very likely using Unreal's TSR.

 

[vpance]

According to a UE5 programmer in the know it was running at 900p average with dips to mid 800's.

 

[Kuranghi]

I'd say its close to 1080p starting point for res, its blurry af. Everything going on and the level of detail of things is great I'm sure but it doesn't impress me much because its so muddy.

It was first when the horse cutaway happened and then later when she hit into the apple basket lady i realised its definitely not the game, so became even more disinterested.

Usually I can be into things I won't even play if they are visually impressive but the IQ is just so poor here and the radial/vignette blur + smeary upscaling artifacts on top of that really adds up to something quite disappointing imo.

They should've shown it running at 30fps.

 

[Physiognomonics]

No RT reflection as I thought. Its probably just lumen (RTGI).

According to a UE5 programmer in the know it was running at 900p average with dips to mid 800's.

This is about what I thought it would run at. TSR will help a lot with the final image.

 

[Bitstream]

Definitely an impressive showing, and while they could have shown it running 4k on a 5090, the deliberate choice of showing it off on a PS5 is promising in that we likely won't see significant downgrades this time around.
That said, CDPR set expectations to 2027 at the earliest, meaning 2028 or 2029 title... not entirely sure how relevant the current console gen will be at that point.

 

[DanielG165]

not entirely sure how relevant the current console gen will be at that point.

It'll likely be a cross gen situation in that case, if CDPR keep continued development on current gen consoles.

 

[DeepEnigma]

From the tech Epic/CDPR were showing off.

But the relevant keypoint is that they believe it's running on PS5 but are skeptical that it's not representative of an actual game, just a tech demo,

Are they being purposely obtuse? Epic/CDPR said that as much during it and with the disclaimers.

 

[adamsapple]

Are they being purposely obtuse? Epic/CDPR said that as much during it and with the disclaimers.

They meant as in the final game would likely not be as smooth on camera cuts as the demo was. Giving other recent game examples with RT etc where it needs extra miliseconds during camera cuts to recalculate stuff.

Which kinda makes sense. If Epic are able to overcome all those things for retail releases, that's gonna be ... epic ..

 

[Bitstream]

It'll likely be a cross gen situation in that case, if CDPR keep continued development on current gen consoles.

CDPR learning the rockstar strategy of triple dipping console generations + PC

 

[DeepEnigma]

They meant as in the final game would likely not be as smooth on camera cuts as the demo was. Giving other recent game examples with RT etc where it needs extra miliseconds during camera cuts to recalculate stuff.

Which kinda makes sense. If Epic are able to overcome all those things for retail releases, that's gonna be ... epic ..

As far as RT, UE does a very good job with it. Krafton showed as much with the Pro update for Callisto Protocol. And that was UE4, so I would imagine speedier solutions since the UE5.4+ updates and optimizations.

 

[SILKYSMOOTH30FPS]

Haven't watched it yet, but have they noticed the cape never clipping, or was i the only one being anal about it?

 

[Bitstream]

Haven't watched it yet, but have they noticed the cape never clipping, or was i the only one being anal about it?

its 2025 and we have path tracing, clipping capes isn't super cutting edge tech anymore bro, move on.

 

[viveks86]

Haven't watched it yet, but have they noticed the cape never clipping, or was i the only one being anal about it?

Just you

 

[MagiusNecros]

If it walks like a Tech Demo and quacks like a Tech Demo....it's probably a Tech demo.

 

[viveks86]

From the tech Epic/CDPR were showing off.

With the boosts to RT acceleration and the general performance uplift, I hope the Pro can pull this off at 1296 to 1440p primary for the actual game (assuming the game can match the tech demo). The IQ is definitely too damn soft.

But this will likely not be out till the PS6 anyway...

 

[Killer8]

DF says they have the original 23gb video file. They need to encode that and release it for their subscribers because Youtube makes it hard to judge how much of the blur is due to the res versus the video compression.

 

[viveks86]

I'm surprised that even after all these advancements, they are not able to procedurally randomize NPC looks in-game (body type, clothing, facial features etc). A lot of identical repeating models in the demo.

Rockstar seems to be the only one that has overcome it so far (at least in the trailers).

 

[SILKYSMOOTH30FPS]

its 2025 and we have path tracing, clipping capes isn't super cutting edge tech anymore bro, move on.

That is so false. That's like saying just because we have path tracing, something like AI in games has reached such an advanced level that we aren't even paying attention to it anymore.

Things such as clipping, ai, physics, etc is simply never paid attention to by the dev, so these things advance at such slow fking pace that i am expecting no progress 10+ years from now. On the other hand, graphics is the thing that progresses fastest, because beautiful graphics are easy to sell.

 

[Physiognomonics]

DF confirmed very few UE5 games bar Matrix Demo and Fortnite are actually using hardware RT on consoles. All using fake software RT with very low quality.

 

[DeepEnigma]

DF says they have the original 23gb video file. They need to encode that and release it for their subscribers because Youtube makes it hard to judge how much of the blur is due to the res versus the video compression.

Waiting on Gamersyde.

 

[sncvsrtoip]

If its ~900p internal on base ps5 it will be probably around 1080p (1.44x more pixels) on ps5pro, it will be still rather blurry Or even lower internal res on pro but with pssr.

 

[Bojji]

If its ~900p internal on base ps5 it will be probably around 1080p (1.44x more pixels) on ps5pro, it will be still rather blurry Or even lower internal res on pro but with pssr.

PSSR could fix the blurriness. AC shadows has lower res with pssr but produces more stable image.
But this was vs. Taau, TSR is better than that.

1080p -> 4k reconstruction using ML can look really good and with resolution like that people shouldn't really complain.

 

[ProtoByte]

Really annoyed that they tried passing this off as the actual Witcher 4. Yes, geeks who watched the livestream and or read the articles will know they admitted it's just a tech demo, but when you title a video "Gameplay" most people think it's representative of gameplay.

Tired of the bullshots and no longer impressed. Get back in the studio and get to coding.

 

[yamaci17]

If its ~900p internal on base ps5 it will be probably around 1080p (1.44x more pixels) on ps5pro, it will be still rather blurry Or even lower internal res on pro but with pssr.

things don't work that way

example

Assassin's Creed Shadows Performance Benchmark Review - 30 GPUs Compared

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is finally here, transporting players to feudal Japan in an open-world adventure filled with stealth, combat, and exploration. Shadows finally brings RT support to the series and delivers stunning visuals but also demands powerful hardware. In our performance review, we...

www.techpowerup.com

4070 super pushes 1080p ultra 60 fps
5070ti pushes 1440p ultra 58 fps

5070ti is on average 37% faster than 4070 super

40% performance boost easily gets you from 1080p to 1440p

doom dark ages mostly proves this theory anyways. that game hovers around 1000-1080p on ps5 and 1400-1500p on ps5 pro

 

[Physiognomonics]

If its ~900p internal on base ps5 it will be probably around 1080p (1.44x more pixels) on ps5pro, it will be still rather blurry Or even lower internal res on pro but with pssr.

Higher if it uses custom RT hardware on Pro. The way Fortnite (UE 5.5?) has been transformed on Pro (60% higher resolution + More RT effects). Most games likely do not use custom RT hardware on Pro and almost all UE5 games use software to fake RT. The good news is that it will use TSR on base PS5 which is much much better than shitty FSR.

 

[Infested Goblin]

From my understanding cdpr has created some of this tech from the demo and epic will implement this in official engine version for all creators. That's pretty nice cuz it proves CD projekt knows what what they are doing

 

[sncvsrtoip]

things don't work that way

example

Assassin's Creed Shadows Performance Benchmark Review - 30 GPUs Compared

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is finally here, transporting players to feudal Japan in an open-world adventure filled with stealth, combat, and exploration. Shadows finally brings RT support to the series and delivers stunning visuals but also demands powerful hardware. In our performance review, we...

www.techpowerup.com

4070 super pushes 1080p ultra 60 fps
5070ti pushes 1440p ultra 58 fps

5070ti is on average 37% faster than 4070 super

40% performance boost easily gets you from 1080p to 1440p

doom dark ages mostly proves this theory anyways. that game hovers around 1000-1080p on ps5 and 1400-1500p on ps5 pro

It can be a case but we usualy see rather modest bump in resolution (1.4-1.6x), not sure we have example of over 2x pixels on pro

 

[TheRedRiders]

Alex is a little upset that this was showcased on the console, and that the standard approach in the past was to showcase the best version on a PC and then scale down to all the other platforms.

That's exactly the problem that CDPR have been having in the past though, and it's worked out terribly for them, both Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk were bug infested messes on launch, on console and low to mid-range PC hardware.

This is one of the best visual showcases we've seen ever in gaming and it's running on base level hardware, which is a testemony to the technology and CDPR's new approach.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

lol Alex is salty. Good job

 

[yamaci17]

It can be a case but we usualy see rather modest bump in resolution (1.4-1.6x), not sure we have example of over 2x pixels on pro

i'd expect at least 1.6x or better yet 1.8x for this game

1.4x is probably with PSSR on PS5 pro and TAAU on base PS5

whereas TSR is actually quite heavy to run (TAAU is incredibly light on base ps5 hardware)

then again ps5 will upscale from 800p to 1440p. however ps5 pro will most likely target an actual 4K buffer. then things change, as 4K upscaling is insanely demanding compared to 1440p upscaling. but then again, ps5 pro would look insanely better than ps5 in such a case. so all in all it would still be worth it

if they keep targeting 1440p on the pro for 60 fps however, i could easily see it push around 1200p honestly when ps5 hits 900p. when ps5 hits 800p however then ps5 pro could be at 1080p. this is all assuming ps5 pro will also target a 1440p buffer

 

[Karim]

No RT reflection as I thought. Its probably just lumen (RTGI).


This is about what I thought it would run at. TSR will help a lot with the final image.

TSR doesn't work particularly well below 1080p I suspect it's already upscaled with it that's why is so blurried.

 

[Karim]

Alex is a little upset that this was showcased on the console, and that the standard approach in the past was to showcase the best version on a PC and then scale down to all the other platforms.

That's exactly the problem that CDPR have been having in the past though, and it's worked out terribly for them, both Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk were bug infested messes on launch, on console and low to mid-range PC hardware.

This is one of the best visual showcases we've seen ever in gaming and it's running on base level hardware, which is a testemony to the technology and CDPR's new approach.

 

[FireFly]

Really annoyed that they tried passing this off as the actual Witcher 4. Yes, geeks who watched the livestream and or read the articles will know they admitted it's just a tech demo, but when you title a video "Gameplay" most people think it's representative of gameplay.

Tired of the bullshots and no longer impressed. Get back in the studio and get to coding.

It's displayed at the bottom of the video.

 

[Zathalus]

Alex is a little upset that this was showcased on the console, and that the standard approach in the past was to showcase the best version on a PC and then scale down to all the other platforms.

That's exactly the problem that CDPR have been having in the past though, and it's worked out terribly for them, both Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk were bug infested messes on launch, on console and low to mid-range PC hardware.

This is one of the best visual showcases we've seen ever in gaming and it's running on base level hardware, which is a testemony to the technology and CDPR's new approach.

He is upset? He said it wasn't his expectation to have a demo on console as previous showings CDPR did kept the console version hidden as long as possible, but them showing it off this early likely shows they are very confident this time around when it comes to console performance.

 

[DanielG165]

He is upset? He said it wasn't his expectation to have a demo on console as previous showings CDPR did kept the console version hidden as long as possible, but them showing it off this early likely shows they are very confident this time around when it comes to console performance.

Anything to clown on Alex on Gaf, it seems, even at the expense of ingenuousness.

 

[TheRedRiders]

He is upset? He said it wasn't his expectation to have a demo on console as previous showings CDPR did kept the console version hidden as long as possible, but them showing it off this early likely shows they are very confident this time around when it comes to console performance.

Yes I did say he was a little upset, which seemed fairly evident to me from the video but my contention was more with how he would have wanted CDPR to approach the development of the game which hasn't worked out for them in the past and that's putting it mildly.

This was not another let's bash on alex post from the regular warriors that you guys are probably used to seeing, that being said I'm not the biggest fan of his either because of some his historically bad takes (much like this one I guess.)

 

[Verso]

I respect that they went firstly on consoles, then PC, to try and show the most 'possible' result they can do as far as visual demonstrations go. Due to how disastrous Cyberpunk 2077 was at launch, I do not blame them for being smart and cautious with it all.

 

[kruis]

I'd say its close to 1080p starting point for res, its blurry af. Everything going on and the level of detail of things is great I'm sure but it doesn't impress me much because its so muddy.

It was first when the horse cutaway happened and then later when she hit into the apple basket lady i realised its definitely not the game, so became even more disinterested.

Usually I can be into things I won't even play if they are visually impressive but the IQ is just so poor here and the radial/vignette blur + smeary upscaling artifacts on top of that really adds up to something quite disappointing imo.

They should've shown it running at 30fps.

They should have shown it running on a PC with all bells and whistles ... But the good news is that Witcher 4 on the PS5 will run smooth and look great. A 30fps and 40fps are all but guaranteed and the PS5 Pro version will look even better. And a 2027 release date means this will be a cross gen title for next gen consoles.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

Oh no not the 1080p! The resolution the self proclaimed master race games at... The horror.