First Look at The Witcher 4 Tech Demo


Considering that The Witcher 4 has only been in full production for a few months, there weren't any expectations to see gameplay footage any time soon. However, CD Projekt Red has now clarified that The Witcher 4 footage that was shared at State of Unreal wasn't actually from the game itself. Instead, it was simply a tech demo set in the world of The Witcher 4.

"This is a tech demo, and a first look at the cutting-edge technology powering The Witcher 4--but not The Witcher 4 itself," explained a CD Projekt Red spokesperson to VGC. "It showcases the powerful foundation we're building in close collaboration with Epic Games to push open-world design further than ever before and the core systems and features we're developing using Unreal Engine 5. We're really proud of this early milestone and excited to give you a sneak peek at some of the cool tech like UAF, Nanite Foliage, Smart Objects, ML Deformer and FastGeo Streaming that are helping shape the future of The Witcher."

The footage is very impressive, and it includes realistic horse musculature and physics, as well as one of the most robust villages we've seen in a game alongside a wide variety of NPCs. The tech demo was also running at 60fps on a standard PlayStation 5. If The Witcher 4 can deliver that level of detail and maintain that framerate on a PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, then players should be very happy.

CD Projekt Red hasn't set a date for The Witcher 4 yet, and it's not out of the question that it could skip to the next console generation. The Witcher 3 devs recently disclosed that they planned to make Ciri the main character for the sequel all the way back in 2014.

lol it's been in full production for a few months?? This game barely even fucking exists right now. It's at least 3 years away.

It's like CDPR took nothing from the Cyberpunk disaster. Here they are again stoking the hype flames with vertical slices of a non-existent game and tech demos that look like gameplay snippets to the casual viewer on YouTube. It's like they make games in reverse order. They start with the marketing campaign and then work backwards from there.

There's a lot of things I love about their games but I can't believe they're starting up the hype train this early again.
 
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What's the point in the demo if it's not a demo of the game?

its not a demo of the game its a demo for unreal engine
 
Even if I think the model was refined rather than fully changed, the real difference is that she doesn't look angry anymore — and that changes everything.

It's a bad habit among some Western developers, especially with DEI-driven design: women constantly look angry, dull, with hostile expressions and grimaces.

Here, she looks more radiant, and that completely shifts how you perceive her. Same goes in real life — beauty with a constant scowl is a total turn-off.

She wasnt angry hear becasu it was a less serious setting thats all
 
The cape physics are unbelievable. Literally.

The way it moves when she jumps the rocks or dismounts the horse is unlike anything I've ever seen.

And all of it, 60fps on a PS5.

Are we just supposed to believe CDPR looked at Unreal Engine for a bit and magically unlocked some next technological rendering paradigm?

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Am expecting them to pull this off with some level of competence compared to Cyberpunk. Its a simpler game compared to that I believe.
Was the team the same for W3 and CP?
Is the OG team from W3 making W4?
If those answers are NO and YES, respectively, the next question is why aren't they using their own engine.
Cyberpunk's not in the same league as W3 and it feels like they must have lost key team members.
 
Was the team the same for W3 and CP?
Is the OG team from W3 making W4?
If those answers are NO and YES, respectively, the next question is why aren't they using their own engine.
Cyberpunk's not in the same league as W3 and it feels like they must have lost key team members.
Witcher 3, most of the magic comes from books. If you read lore pages for every character, you will see how well established each character it.

That also makes game writing good. Best parts are to see characters interact.

Technically, Cyberpunk is far harder game to make. Driving cars, npc schedules, AI etc it all gets much more complicated than Witcher 3, as per CDPR devs themselves.

Witcher 3 team itself made original version of Cyberpunk. That team was gutted to make way for a Director from BioWare that made Phantom Liberty and brought rest of the game upto speed.

As for the engine, I wish they were using Red Engine even if it was missing some features over UE5.
 
Yeah, claiming that that demo was 60 fps on PS5 base is crazy but if they are saying this, maybe that is how confident they are. I think they are just trying to build hype and they won't be able to cash this check on release date. I still remember laughing about videos of CP on base consoles, lol!
 
The cape physics are unbelievable. Literally.

The way it moves when she jumps the rocks or dismounts the horse is unlike anything I've ever seen.

And all of it, 60fps on a PS5.

Are we just supposed to believe CDPR looked at Unreal Engine for a bit and magically unlocked some next technological rendering paradigm?

doubt.jpg
isn't the nanite foliage thing new? that tech alone no doubt makes huge jumps in visual quality over the traditional way of rendering trees and shit, not to mention Epic are constantly upping the performance of Unreal, they even mentioned streaming is like 90% faster than when they demo'd Matrix.. its a Tech Demo afterall and we've yet to see any games release that look anything remotely like their UE5 tech demos but GFX engines do get better over time so who knows
 
I refuse to fall for this....but I will keep a stranding of belief so if it ends up looking and running this well on base ps5 I can praise cdpr for doing something no other dev has achieved.
 
It's 100% running on PS5, 60 fps, sub sub 1080p. It's info not from people from the stage or from interview but from those who actually made this. I can be vetted for that.

The thing to remember is that it is a tech demo. It can be hard-scripted, hacked a ton and staged in a way that it looks good. Think about it as interactive movie. It's not a game with proper interactions, AI, etc. And it was made only for this reason. Then you need to make a whole game. When you have a lot of characters, assets, animations, VFX to make for large game they won't be the same quality.

Also don't forget it's cooperation with Epic. It's their engine. They are helping CDPR a lot. And CDPR is helping them. Remember UE5 demo for PS5. It doesn't mean that all games on this engine look this good now.
 
it didnt look like tht on pc because we were basiclyplaying the console version on pc. that version of the trailers was long gone when the focus was put on consoles and cdred had to downgrade
If u watch that vid i posted about downgrade of witcher 3, u have the dev explaining/lieing about this stuff so many times that his lies contradict his other lies, in the very same interview, multiple times :P
 
I have seen nasty SSR reflections in that demo and the character / NPCs don't reflect. I would guess they are using RTGI only. I believe it will run at 60fps on a base PS5 because we already have others games with RT effects running at 60fps on PS5, the insomniac games, Indiana Jones or Metroid exodus (both RTGI at 60fps). The one thing that elevate that demo is nanite trees albeit in a completely empty scenery.
 
Why did this guy have to say 60fps on a base ps5... what a silly sausage.

Its like they never learn.
Hype factor, bro, im veteran gamer and i consider myself fairy resiliant to bullshot trailers(got deceived so many times in the past before, which makes us not trust those pre-release trailers/vids, even gameplay ones, and usually if something looks sus af, its sus af after all ;p) but here dev himself claimed stuff right at the begining, it had to hit us right in the feels :P
 
I'll give this tech demo the benefit of the doubt as it is much as an Unreal 5 showcase as a CD Projekt one. While the latter is know for it's bullshit promotions, every Unreal 5 update since that temple girl demo had been proven to be running on PS5 hardware for demonstration purposes. There was also something similar in regards to Hellblade 2, and I don't recall any "downgrades" from the initial demo reveal.
 
way too much negativity for something that is still probably 2-3 years away (or more), if cdpr havnt learnt from their cyberpunk disaster then bad luck to them.
 
Only if you are dumb enough to think that the model changed and that it was due to feedback.
Actually not even then since people will still be crying about the protagonist being a woman at all.
She went from botox mom to cute babe again, hard to believe it's just camera angle and light conditions, i mean it could be but no one know for sure, devs are not gonna tell us if they fine tuned her face so my guess is as good as yours buddy, maybe stop calling people stupid when you also have no idea if they changed shit or not, if there are changes they are obviously small stuff, they didn't completely remade her face.

And yes, devs\everyone change shit when people is loud enough, it would not be the first nor the last case, w4 is a huge profile game, you don't wanna start with the wrong foot after the tragedy that was cyberpunk before the fixes when it is something easily fixable because it was just your first cg trailer and not the 4th gameplay trailer when you saw her face countless of times, cdp is not drunkman, they care more about profit than agendas.
 
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One of the most notable departures was Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, the former director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. His new venture could ultimately create CDPR's biggest threat with the formation of Rebel Wolves, led by Tomaszkiewicz, along with other esteemed figures like Bartłomiej Gaweł, the art director of The Witcher 3. They've united to create what they describe as a "AAA dark fantasy RPG" saga utilizing Unreal Engine 5.

Tomaszkiewicz ended his tenure with CDPR after allegations of "bullying" sprang up. He denied those allegations and was eventually proven innocent.

When commenting on the formation of their studio, Rebel Wolves sent a very clear shot across CDPR's bow.

"We decided to create our own studio and run it on our own terms," the official Rebel Wolves site says. "Chief among them: the team comes first, always. Happy people make great games – games players want and deserve. Yes, it's as simple as that."

Imagine that. A game developer focusing on what players want instead of what the devs themselves what to see according to their own political agenda.

This decision was met with anger and pushback from longtime fans who were looking forward to another Geralt of Rivia adventure.

Even the name of the studio could be a shot at CDPR. Geralt of Rivia is known as "The White Wolf" and these devs are rebelling against CDPR. Hence, Rebel Wolves…

Herein lies the trouble gentlemen.
 
I'll give this tech demo the benefit of the doubt as it is much as an Unreal 5 showcase as a CD Projekt one. While the latter is know for it's bullshit promotions, every Unreal 5 update since that temple girl demo had been proven to be running on PS5 hardware for demonstration purposes. There was also something similar in regards to Hellblade 2, and I don't recall any "downgrades" from the initial demo reveal.
U might not "recall" but there were some, not crazy like with for example killzone2/motorstorm cgi pretending to be realtime cutscene/gameplay trailers, but if u look closely u will see cuts were made ;)
Hell even on first sight compare this, which was falsly claimed to be real time:

To actual gameplay, which we know looked amazing(especially maxed out on pc which wasnt as blurry as series x, even tho series x only had 30fps mode), but still not up to the standard to this reveal cgi trailer.
 
This isn't even landing on the PS5.
Because they will ignore the largest install base of consoles at launch?

It would have to land in 2030 for it to be next gen only. Even then I expect the high cost of hardware will give the PS5 the longest post generational legs of any console yet.
 
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I'll believe it when I see it running on everyone's systems. Buying into the hype just leads to disappointment, and CDPR is famously known for showing bullshots in their first trailers and the backtrack the graphics as it approaches release. The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 were like that.
 
I hope its really targeting 60fps on ps5. As all games should.

And if they are Im going to give this game at least a chance since I really hate the change in protagonists
 
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Because they will ignore the largest install base of consoles at launch?

It would have to land in 2030 for it to be next gen only. Even then I expect the high cost of hardware will give the PS5 the longest post generational legs of any console yet.

They'll be lucky to launch it by 2030.

Witcher 3 took 4 years with an entire year of crunch. A last gen game that started development ~4-5 years into the PS3 gen.
 
Tech demo people....

Tech demo.

Think of it as modern-day concept art.

We have Lumen in the land of nanites and the Matrix tech demos, so far running on the PS5 with Unreal, and yet a single UE game on PS5 or PC, has come close to those.

Temper expectations.

Oh... and this is CDPR. Do not believe their lies.


Sharp? How it looks isn't the issue... the models used aren't that complex... and the temporal reconstruction artefacts can be spotted a mile away (just look around the MC when in motion). It wouldn't surprise me to find out that that was running internally at 720p and reconstructed to 1080p.

The issue is maintaining that fidelity of art and atmosphere for an entire game. Thats what is giving that trailers world that lived in feel. That's also what I just don't see them pulling off.

Valley was 1440p 30fps on PS5. Hellblade 2 runs close to that resolution at 30fps and looks quite comparable and amazing I would say...

With initial 5.0 version they were fucused on 30fps gameplay, now they optimized this engine quite a bit.

The cape physics are unbelievable. Literally.

The way it moves when she jumps the rocks or dismounts the horse is unlike anything I've ever seen.

And all of it, 60fps on a PS5.

Are we just supposed to believe CDPR looked at Unreal Engine for a bit and magically unlocked some next technological rendering paradigm?

doubt.jpg

All this tech is in UE5. First time seeing cloth physics?

way too much negativity for something that is still probably 2-3 years away (or more), if cdpr havnt learnt from their cyberpunk disaster then bad luck to them.

Negativity? From the usual people that hate CDPR?

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This is what NEGATIVITY looks like:

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Never give them the benefit of the doubt.
It's not really a big deal or anything. Gameplay > graphics. Graphics are something I wow at for about an hour or 2 and then I just don't really care about it. The game isn't any better or worse for looking different.

And I'm sure PC gamers would've complained of low framerate on GTX 980 or whatever if it did release in 2015 looking like that.
 
Valley was 1440p 30fps on PS5. Hellblade 2 runs close to that resolution at 30fps and looks quite comparable and amazing I would say...

With initial 5.0 version they were fucused on 30fps gameplay, now they optimized this engine quite a bit.



All this tech is in UE5. First time seeing cloth physics?



Negativity? From the usual people that hate CDPR?

cJJxz8W.jpeg
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ZJWOTuZ.jpeg


This is what NEGATIVITY looks like:

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And what's crazy is that Naughty Dog's hate is just because of what the character model looks like. Or maybe perpetually online children are offended that they have to play as a *gasp* woman in a videogame.

The hate for Intergalactic HP has nothing to do with the game itself. People online are just stupid as per usual.
 
And what's crazy is that Naughty Dog's hate is just because of what the character model looks like. Or maybe perpetually online children are offended that they have to play as a *gasp* woman in a videogame.

The hate for Intergalactic HP has nothing to do with the game itself. People online are just stupid as per usual.

It's how character looks but also how she behaves. We also know Neil politics very well and everyone played TLoU2 at this point.

Hate for this game is based on all that. It could end up being great but at this point most people suspect that it will be filled with woke propaganda (like Last of us 2).
 
The only doubt is the 60fps for the final game. It's tech tech demo in gameplay form, running on a PS5 so it's obviously doable.

In pevious generations we would literally get 2 minute tech videos with no gameplay.
 
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