At Epic Games’ 2025 State of Unreal keynote—an annual tradition that feels a bit like a summertime fireworks show for game developers—the company turned the spotlight on CD Projekt Red. In a dazzling presentation, The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 studios joined forces with Epic to unveil an early tech demo for The Witcher 4, built entirely in Unreal Engine 5.6. The result was a breathtaking glimpse at a brand-new fantasy realm, complete with blood, fire, monsters—and, crucially, a state-of-the-art horse—running at a rock-steady 60 frames per second on a base-model PlayStation 5 with ray tracing enabled.

Every year, when Epic’s developers flip the lights down low and cue up the big screen, attendees know they’re in for two things: a rundown of the latest Unreal Engine features, and at least one jaw-dropping demo that pushes the envelope of real-time graphics. In 2025, Epic tapped CD Projekt Red to show off a slice of The Witcher 4’s world—an interesting choice, given that CD PR historically used its in-house Red Engine. But since officially announcing their switch to Unreal Engine 5 back in 2022, CD PR and Epic have been collaborating to redefine what “open world” means in modern RPGs.

Instead of revisiting familiar locations from previous Witcher games, the demo takes place in Kovir—a rugged, coastal region that veterans will recognize from the books but have never seen rendered in playable form before. As the demo begins, players see protagonist Ciri saddled up on her horse, Kelpie, traversing dense forests and winding mountain paths before arriving at the thriving port town of Valdrest. The live-on-stage demonstration seamlessly cuts from cinematic to fully interactive camera control, giving viewers a taste of how fluid transitioning between cutscenes and gameplay can be in UE 5.6.

• Kovir’s first appearance: Until now, Kovir had been mentioned in passing within Witcher lore. The demo marks its first in-engine appearance, showcasing towering cliffs, tangled underbrush, and rustic wooden docks that nod to the region’s trading heritage.
• Valdrest’s marketplace: Once Ciri arrives at Valdrest’s market district, the camera pans over crowded stalls, merchants hawking exotic wares, and townsfolk reacting dynamically to Ciri’s presence. This bustling environment isn’t just eye candy—it’s a deliberate showcase of how UE 5.6 can handle high NPC counts and physics-driven interactions without dropping frames.

What Unreal Engine 5.6 brings to the table

While fans tuned in for the Witcher lore, developers in the audience zeroed in on the myriad behind-the-scenes innovations powering the demo. Epic and CD PR outlined several key features that make UE 5.6 ideally suited for large-scale, high-fidelity open worlds:

1. Nanite Foliage rendering

Unreal Engine 5 first introduced Nanite for dense geometry, but version 5.6 takes that a step further with Nanite Foliage. In the forested paths surrounding Kovir, individual leaves, ferns, and undergrowth leverage Nanite’s virtualized geometry to maintain crisp detail—even when you zoom in close. Because the engine dynamically streams only the triangles you need at any given moment, the result is lush, photorealistic foliage with minimal memory overhead.

2. Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin

Open worlds need to feel seamless. In UE 5.6, the Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin dramatically reduces load times when crossing from one region to another. During the demo, Ciri’s ride from forest to coast feels instantaneous; there’s no noticeable “pop” of distant geometry or abrupt texture streaming. Epic claims this plugin underpins much of the demo’s fluid traversal, ensuring all players—whether on high-end PCs or consoles—experience a continuous environment.

3. ML Deformer and engine-first animation

Gone are the days of round-tripping character rigs back to external DCC tools. UE 5.6’s ML Deformer, combined with the new Unreal Animation Framework, lets animators craft, tweak, and preview complex character movements directly in-engine. The demo’s standout moment is Ciri interacting with Kelpie: subtle muscle contractions, slight head turns, and weight shifts are all calculated in real time. As CD PR Game Director Sebastian Kalemba explained, this engine-first workflow slashes iteration times and frees animators to tweak performances on the fly—benefits that will ripple across every team using UE 5.6.

4. Mass AI crowd scaling and MetaHumans

Valdrest’s market scene isn’t just a postcard; it’s populated by dozens of NPCs, each powered by UE’s Mass AI system. Crowd density, pathfinding, and reactive behaviors are all managed in real time so that when Ciri walks by, merchants call out, children scatter, and guards eye her warily. Meanwhile, select key characters—such as a fishmonger leaning in to whisper a rumor—use photorealistic MetaHuman faces. Because both Mass AI and MetaHumans are natively supported, the engine handles them without a hitch, even on a base PS5.

The horse tech: Kelpie debuts in HD

Every Witcher game lives or dies by its horse, and Witcher 4’s Kelpie is no exception. Compared to The Witcher 3’s Roach, Kelpie demonstrates:

• Improved skeletal rigging: Thanks to UE 5.6’s new animation tools, Kelpie’s gait transitions—walking to a trot to a full-gallop—look smooth and natural, with realistic muscle flexing and weight shifts. Previously, such transitions required pre-baked animations; now, they’re calculated on the fly.
• Dynamic fur and stride-based animation: Using a combination of Nanite for the mane’s high triangle count and ML Deformer for muscle bulges, Kelpie’s mane flows in the wind, and each hoof strike kicks up dirt dynamically. CD PR engineers said they spent weeks fine-tuning the stride cycle to ensure hoof prints and dust pylons felt authentic.
• Interactive rider integration: When Ciri mounts or dismounts, the physics-based interactions—notably the creak of leather saddles and the subtle buckle-clicks—are computed in real time, showcasing how UE 5.6 handles linked skeletal meshes performing different animations simultaneously.

All these improvements aren’t just for show. According to CD PR’s team, the next-gen horse feels like a companion, not just a vehicle, laying the groundwork for deeper player-mount interactions down the line.

Performance: 60 FPS with ray tracing on base PS5

Even with forests teeming with Nanite foliage, marketplaces bustling with Mass AI crowds, MetaHuman faces aplenty, and real-time ray tracing on, the demo maintained a solid 60 frames per second on a stock PlayStation 5. Achieving this required several under-the-hood upgrades:

1. Optimized Lumen settings: UE 5.6 introduces adaptive Lumen, which dynamically adjusts global illumination quality based on camera distance and scene complexity. In dark forest glades, dynamic shadows from flickering torchlight retain high fidelity; in sunlit town squares, lighting scales back just enough to preserve frame rates.
2. Ray tracing efficiency: By integrating tighter GPU hardware support on PS5, Epic claims ray-traced reflections on muddy puddles and candlelit brass lanterns only incur a ~10% performance hit—far lower than in previous engine iterations.
3. Fast IO integration: The PlayStation 5’s SSD bandwidth is exploited via Epic’s custom streaming solution. As Ciri darts through Valdrest’s alleyways, texture pop-ins are virtually nonexistent thanks to compressed streaming and predictive culling.

This performance showcase wasn’t just a flex; it’s a promise that The Witcher 4 can be a “next-gen” title in every sense—graphics, scale, and responsiveness—without forcing players to invest in prohibitively expensive hardware.

From Red Engine to Unreal: CD PR’s Journey

The decision to transition The Witcher franchise to Unreal Engine was set in motion after Cyberpunk 2077’s rocky launch. CD PR realized that maintaining an in-house engine could no longer keep pace with the demands of photorealistic open worlds. In mid-2022, they officially announced a strategic partnership with Epic, outlining a multi-year roadmap for porting The Witcher 4 to UE5.

• Early development: For roughly two years, CD PR engineers and Epic programmers worked side by side—sharing source code, co-developing plugins, and testing performance in real settings. This collaboration led to custom tools in UE 5.6 that specifically address CD PR’s design philosophy: deep exploration, emergent storytelling, and dense population centers.
• Public reveal: In late 2024, CD PR officially revealed The Witcher 4, naming Ciri as the new playable protagonist and confirming Kovir as a playable region. Fans were ecstatic, but the absence of a release date prompted speculation. The June 2025 tech demo was the first substantial look at in-engine footage since that initial reveal, making it a pivotal moment for the franchise.

Beyond The Witcher 4

The Witcher 4 is just one piece of CD PR’s larger Witcher IP puzzle. According to multiple sources, the studio is working on:

• A remake of The Witcher (2007): Rebuilt from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5, aiming to introduce modern visuals and gameplay mechanics to the original narrative.
• A new multiplayer title (codename Sirius): Developed by The Molasses Flood, focusing on cooperative monster slaying in a side project, separate from the single-player Witcher narrative.
• The Witcher 4: The first entry in a planned new trilogy, continuing Geralt’s legacy indirectly by passing the torch to Ciri.

The near-term payoff of these projects is unclear, but—with The Witcher 4’s tech demo suggesting a 2027 release at the earliest—fans have plenty to anticipate.

Unreal Engine 5.6 is live—and it’s yours to try

While the spotlight shined brightest on The Witcher 4, Epic also used the State of Unreal stage to announce that UE 5.6 is now available for developers, as of May 3, 2025. With this release, Blueprint and C++ programmers alike can:

• Download the Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin
• Access early versions of Nanite Foliage (with Nanite Foliage slated to go fully live in UE 5.7)
• Experiment with the new ML Deformer and Engine-First Animation workflows
• Build Mass AI crowd systems without third-party middleware
• Author and modify MetaHumans entirely in the engine

In essence, everything seen in the tech demo—minus the Witcher-specific assets—can be used by any Unreal developer today. Epic’s message is clear: they’re democratizing these tools so that the bar for “next-gen open world” keeps rising, across every genre.

What does this mean for fans and developers

For fans of The Witcher

Those who have spent hundreds of hours in The Witcher 3’s Velen or skulked through Novigrad’s back alleys are in for a treat. The Witcher 4’s early footage suggests:

• A rich, new narrative: Shifting focus to Ciri opens fresh storytelling avenues. Her half-elf lineage, masterful swordplay, and unique powers promise a distinct gameplay experience.
• Consistent visual fidelity: If the demo’s graphics remain representative of the final product—even after two more years of development—Witcher 4 stands to be one of the most beautiful RPGs ever released.
• Open-world depth: Jet-black nights lit by torchlight, weather systems that transition fluidly, and towns that feel alive—all hallmarks of CD PR’s world-building. The engine’s tech only amplifies these qualities.

For game developers

By showcasing The Witcher 4 tech demo, Epic sends a message: large-scale, photorealistic worlds aren’t just for massive AAA teams with proprietary engines. With UE 5.6, indies and mid-sized studios can access many of the same tools that power CD PR’s multi-million-dollar production. Key takeaways include:

1. Open-world potential: If a team of external collaborators can build and optimize a Witcher-scale open world in UE 5.6, smaller teams can adapt similar techniques—just on a smaller scale.
2. Engine-first pipelines: Reduced reliance on third-party DCC tools means faster iteration cycles and lower overhead for animators, riggers, and VFX artists.
3. Cross-industry benefits: Beyond gaming, industries like film, architecture, and simulation can experiment with UE 5.6’s photorealistic rendering, real-time ray tracing, and dynamic crowd systems without waiting for proprietary updates.

When will Witcher 4 launch?

Despite all the technical fireworks, one question remains unanswered: “When does Witcher 4 release?” While fans hoped for a 2026 arrival, multiple insiders—both in Epic’s camp and from CD PR’s own announcements—have indicated that 2027 is the earliest possible date. CD PR’s transition to UE 5, coupled with the scope of this new trilogy, suggests they’re taking the time to polish every detail. Given that the tech demo is still “early footage” rather than locked-down gameplay, it’s safe to assume there’s at least a couple more years of rigorous quality assurance ahead.

Final thoughts

Epic’s State of Unreal 2025 did more than just show off pretty graphics—it underscored a strategic shift in how blockbuster RPGs are built. By placing The Witcher 4 demo front and center, Epic and CD PR spotlighted not only what’s next for their beloved franchise but also what’s possible for any developer willing to dive into Unreal Engine 5.6. As Nanite Foliage continues to evolve, ML Deformer refines character animation, and mass AI crowds fill every village, the bar for “AAA open world” keeps climbing.

For fans, this means high hopes for Ciri’s next adventure. For developers, it’s a clarion call: the future of real-time interactive experiences is here—and it’s more accessible than ever.