CD Projekt Red showcases The Witcher 4 in a tech demo

At the 2025 State of Unreal presentation during Unreal Fest Orlando, CD Projekt Red shed some light on the future of The Witcher series with a jaw-dropping tech demo built entirely in Unreal Engine 5.6. The video, while not actual gameplay footage, gave fans a first look at the visual and technological leap being made in the franchise's next major installment, The Witcher 4, currently codenamed "Polaris."

State of the art graphics

The demo is set in Kovir, a previously unexplored northern kingdom in The Witcher universe. It follows Ciri as she journeys through a dynamic and richly detailed environment, with landscapes ranging from snow-capped mountain trails to the bustling port city of Valdrest. Powered by Nanite, the terrain boasts incredibly detailed geometry and long-range visual fidelity, setting a new standard for open-world design.

One of the demo's standout moments is the lifelike behavior of Ciri's horse, Kelpie, animated with the new Unreal Animation Framework. Horse movement, physics-based interactions with the environment, and contextual animations gave the character and her mount a sense of physical presence rarely seen in modern RPGs.

On the technical side, the demo ran at 60 frames per second on a standard PlayStation 5, complete with ray tracing effects, large-scale crowd simulations powered by Mass AI, and the use of MetaHuman tools for character realism. These tools enabled dynamic crowd interactions and more natural facial expressions, breathing life into both the protagonist and the NPCs of Valdrest.

Despite its impressiveness, CD Projekt Red was careful to stress that the tech demo does not reflect the final gameplay of The Witcher 4. Instead, it represents a collaborative showcase between CDPR and Epic Games, designed to demonstrate the potential of Unreal Engine 5.6 when applied to open-world RPG development.

The Witcher 4 is the first title in a new trilogy currently under development by CD Projekt Red. Alongside this project, the studio is also working on a remake of the original 2007 Witcher game and a multiplayer spinoff known internally as "Sirius." While no release date for The Witcher 4 has been announced, the tech demo has certainly raised the hype for the game among the fans of the series. If you haven't discovered one of the best RPGs of all time, we highly recommend you use our comparator to purchase The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt at the best price and get ready to dive into an epic adventure while you wait for the next installment in the series.