We at CD Projekt Crimson are collaborating with Epic Video games to push open-world recreation design additional than ever earlier than, and we needed to share our progress with the gaming neighborhood via The Witcher 4 Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo — a showcase of how we’re bringing extra life, depth, and reactivity to the Continent than ever earlier than.
This isn’t gameplay of The Witcher 4, however we nonetheless needed to include CD Projekt Crimson’s signature storytelling into the tech demo, displaying our new protagonist Ciri within the midst of a harmful monster contract. We additionally reveal the never-before-seen area of Kovir, a rugged land the place cities are constructed on commerce and hold a cautious distance from the navy conflicts that plague the remainder of the north.
However the focus of this tech demo is simply that — tech — and we have been proud to point out it stay on stage, operating at 60 frames per second on a PlayStation 5. The instruments highlighted received’t simply energy The Witcher 4, however will even be shared with the broader online game growth neighborhood via Unreal Engine 5. The tech we’re creating with Epic will profit the whole business, finally bringing a greater expertise to gamers.
ML Deformer
Early within the tech demo we introduce Ciri’s horse Kelpie to the world — and the way she’s way more complicated than our outdated pal Roach. Alongside tech that makes controlling Kelpie really feel rather more grounded and lifelike, we’ve labored arduous to develop high-quality, real-time character deformations.
ML Deformer permits components like Kelpie’s muscle tissue to maneuver and flex precisely, due to high-fidelity information offering it with the flexibility to approximate complicated deformations effectively throughout gameplay. This enables these extremely real looking actions to happen with out the sport taking a efficiency hit.
Quick Geometry Streaming
We’re listening to the big scale too. Quick Geometry Streaming permits every little thing within the tech demo — from the snowy mountaintops to the deep valleys and huge forests — to seamlessly load with out compromising efficiency. It’s current all through the tech demo, and the very fact it could’t be observed proves it’s doing its job.
Contemplate once we meet up with Ciri earlier than she reaches the bustling buying and selling hub of Valdrest, for instance. We transfer rapidly via the world, in and round totally different components of the setting, however there’s no stuttering or object pop-ins. Quick Geometry Streaming is optimized to rapidly load static geometry, utilizing a light-weight technique to register and unregister property. The result’s what we present all through the tech demo: clean and seamless world loading that permits the fantastic thing about Kovir to shine.
Nanite Foliage
Talking of Kovir, we take a detour via one in all its dense forests whereas Ciri is driving to Valdrest. Nanite Foliage know-how we’re creating with Epic, and the way it permits our builders’ creative imaginative and prescient to be totally realised in Unreal Engine 5. This tech renders extremely detailed and real looking bushes and vegetation by way of each density and constancy, with out compromising efficiency.
Nanite Foliage is a brand new know-how that effectively renders huge quantities of foliage at runtime, making it doable to effortlessly populate landscapes with complicated property — comparable to lush bushes with particular person branches that sway within the wind.
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Unreal Animation Framework
We all the time need to make our open worlds really feel alive and lived in, and the Unreal Animation Framework proven off within the tech demo lets us add extra life than ever to the villages, cities, and cities of the Continent. This tech powers superior mixing, state machines, and procedural animation workflows, letting us have many complicated characters interacting with the world directly.
After we place a band on the stage in Valdrest, for instance, we make the most of Unreal Animation Framework to drastically enhance the variety of NPCs on display. And these aren’t simply easy onlookers standing nonetheless or working on a loop; every one reacts to what’s going on round them. We would like the hole between Ciri and the NPCs of The Witcher 4 to be as small as doable.
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Mass Framework
One other instrument that provides to the believability and lived-in feeling of the world, Mass Framework simulates massive crowds and AI behaviour like those seen within the busy market of Valdrest. The data-driven design of Mass manages hundreds of brokers with minimal efficiency value, making it ultimate for creating real looking, dynamic populations in video games.
It additionally permits sensible objects and sophisticated interactions to perform. As Ciri approaches the market we see her stumble upon a person carrying a crate of apples, for instance. Discover how he doesn’t simply react to her collision; he loses his footing and drops a number of apples, which roll down the hill and set off additional, unscripted chain reactions like kids operating to steal one or pigs searching for an early lunch. Implementing interactions like these is a method we’re making The Witcher 4 essentially the most immersive Witcher recreation to this point.