Since the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt back in 2015, an entirely new console generation has been released and hit its stride. Developer CD Projekt RED wants to ensure this jump in console generations is also visible in its upcoming RPG The Witcher 4. Speaking to GamesRadar, The Witcher 4’s engineering production manager Jan Hermanowicz explained that the studio is working on the “generational shift when it comes to hardware, engines, and technology between The Witcher 3 and The Witcher 4.”
Hermanowicz said that CD Projekt RED wants to do this generational jump right. This would mean that the studio wants to take full advantage of the Xbox Series X/S and PS5 hardware to create a dense world for players to explore, completely with realistically and immersively dense cities. “That generational shift, we want to do it right,” Hermanowicz said. “Our ambition is to take full advantage of it and really deliver the next-gen experience.”
To do this, Hermanowicz spoke about how the developers of The Witcher 4 are spending plenty of time with one of the densest cities from The Witcher 3 – Novigrad. “We actually looked at what we did in the past, what was cool about that, and what we couldn’t do at the time,” he said, while also noting that the studio is “stepping up” the NPC density in the upcoming title, especially when compared to Novigrad. He, however, does say that CD Projekt RED is “not stepping into this blindly.”
“We actually looked at what we did in the past, what was cool about that, and what we couldn’t do at the time,” Hermanowicz said.
An example of the kind of density that CD Projekt RED appears to be going for could be seen in the tech demo for The Witcher 4 that the studio had released in collaboration with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine division. The tech demo examined the city of Valdrest, featuring plenty of NPCs going about their business as protagonist Ciri walked through.
The tech demo was primarily used to showcase how the studio is making use of new Unreal Engine 5.6 features like the improved MetaHuman Creator as well as the Nanite Foliage system to develop The Witcher 4. As noted in the video, the team was able to make use of 300 skeletal mesh agents for the animations showcased.
Senior technical animator Julius Girbig spoke about some of the new features that the team can make use of in Unreal Engine 5.6. In an interview from earlier this month, Girbig noted that while he is “not actually digging into the code that much,” the new tool allowed him to create and refine “hundreds of characters.”
“It just unlocks me as an artist,” said Girbirg. “Now, with this engine, it suddenly unlocks me to create much bigger things and think bigger. It’s really, really awesome to be able to use things like the nanite foliage to create these vast forests and whatever comes to your mind, and it will be available for everyone.”
The Witcher 4 is currently in development doesn’t yet have a release date.