Introduction to State of Unreal Event

Epic Games hosted its annual State of Unreal event, providing an sneak peek at the innovative features coming to Unreal Engine 5. This was achieved through a tech demo set in the world of The Witcher IV.

Demo Details and Collaboration

The Epic Games team, in collaboration with CD Projekt Red, the developers of the Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077, unveiled a roughly ten-minute gameplay and cinematic demo. The demo follows Ciri through a snowy mountain pass in Kovir and into the bustling port of Valdrest. Although the visuals in the demo are not actual final scenes from The Witcher IV, they serve as a proof of concept designed to showcase the cutting-edge graphics and technology behind the new Witcher installment.

Gameplay Demo

Technical Specifications and New Features

The demo was run on a PlayStation 5 at 60 frames per second with ray tracing enabled, made possible by several new open-world building features coming to Unreal Engine 5.6. One notable feature is the new "Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin." According to Epic, this plugin should significantly improve open-world loading times, although the exact improvement is not specified. A marketplace scene set in Valdrest, filled with life, also highlighted the ability to create scenes with high-fidelity characters and visual effects.

Nanite Foliage and Future Releases

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the demo was the vast, detailed foliage in the forests of Kovir, thanks to Nanite Foliage. This new system renders every leaf and branch as real 3D geometry instead of flat textures, allowing for dense, high-fidelity foliage without a significant performance hit. Nanite Foliage is slated for release with Unreal Engine 5.7. Unreal Engine 5.6 is now available, although many of the tools announced, including the Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin and new Control Rig Physics, are marked as experimental. There is no specific release date for Unreal Engine 5.7 yet, and The Witcher IV is not expected to be released before 2027.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/the-witcher-ivs-lush-world-is-on-display-in-unreal-engine-56-demo-174048532.html?src=rss