At Unreal Fest Orlando, the State of Unreal 2025 keynote opened with a live on-stage presentation of The Witcher 4, showcasing improved Unreal Engine 5 tech.
The State of Unreal 2025 presentation is intended to deliver the biggest advancements to Unreal’s development toolkit in a digestible form to attendees. Unreal Engine 5.6 brings big advancements, and Epic Games figured the best way to showcase what they’ve been working on is by revealing a brand new The Witcher 4 tech demo utilizing the tech. What CD PROJEKT RED and Epic Games unveiled was a brand new look at The Witcher 4, complete with a new region and a fresh look at the title’s protagonist and resident monster detective, Ciri. The tech demo can be seen below, as seen at the State of Unreal 2025 (thanks, GamersPrey).
Like nearly every other Witcher trailer, The Witcher 4 tech demo follows Ciri in the middle of a monster contract. The tech demo takes place in the region of Kovir, making its very first appearance in the video game series with The Witcher 4, and the presentation followed Ciri and her horse Kelpie as she travelled her way through the mountains and dense forests of Kovir to the bustling port town of Valdrest. The demo has notably boasted a constant 60 FPS performance while utilizing the new Unreal Animation Framework, Nanite Foliage rendering, MetaHuman technology with Mass AI crowd scaling, and more features outlined in the full State of Unreal 2025 presentation.
The tools shown in The Witcher 4 are set to roll out with future versions of Unreal Engine 5, beginning with the release of Unreal Engine 5.6 today. Although the tech demo was presented on the PlayStation 5, the technology will be usable across all platforms that The Witcher 4 launches on. The demo begins with Ciri tracking a monster that prefers the taste of humans over hunger, as she literally picks up the pieces of the scene to determine what creature caused the carnage. As the demo progresses, Unreal deconstructs the tech, highlighting ray tracing features and Nanite-powered foliage rendering.
In one standout segment, Unreal peels back the skin of Ciri’s horse, Kelpie, to reveal dynamic horse muscle simulation—an impressive display of equine anatomy and motion physics. Every element showcased in the demo is designed to enhance immersion, right down to watching Gwent cheaters being thrown out of inns.
Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games, said: “CD Projekt Red is one of the industry’s best open-world game studios, and we’re grateful that they’re working with us to push Unreal Engine forward with The Witcher 4. They are the perfect partner to help us develop new world-building features that we can share with all Unreal Engine developers.”
The presentation toolkit used in The Witcher 4 tech demo—dubbed Unreal Engine 5.6—is available starting today. More information can be found on the Unreal Engine website.
