The Witcher IV's lush world is on display in Unreal Engine 5.6 demo
The team at Epic Games, together with CD Projekt Red — developers of the Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077 — premiered a roughly ten-minute gameplay and cinematic demo that follows Ciri through a snowy mountain pass in Kovir and into the bustling port of Valdrest. The visuals in the demo are not truly final scenes from The Witcher IV but serve as a proof of concept intended to highlight the cutting-edge graphics and tech behind the new Witcher installment.
The demo ran on a PlayStation 5 at 60 frames per second with ray tracing enabled. This was made possible by a slew of new open-world building features coming to Unreal Engine 5.6, including a new 'Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin.' Epic says the new plugin should help open-worlds load faster, though exactly how much faster is unclear. A marketplace scene set in Valdrest brimming with life also underscored the ability to create scenes full of high-fidelity characters and visual effects.
Perhaps the most exciting part of the demo was the vast foliage that made up the forests of Kovir. This is thanks to Nanite Foliage, a new system that renders every leaf and branch as real 3D geometry instead of flat textures. This new feature, slated for release with Unreal Engine 5.7, allows for dense high-fidelity foliage without a huge hit to performance.
Unreal Engine 5.6 is now available though many of the tools announced today are marked as experimental, including the Fast Geometry Streaming Plugin, new Control Rig Physics, improved motion capture tools and more. There is no specific release date for Unreal Engine 5.7 yet. As for The Witcher IV , we know not to expect it before 2027.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Tom's Guide
an hour ago
- Tom's Guide
Cyberpunk 2077 finally launches for Mac July 17 — here's the Macs that can play it
It took a long time, but CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 is finally arriving on Apple's Mac computers with Apple Silicon on July 17. If you're counting, that's only two days away. If you've been jonesing for another opportunity to explore Night City, or you've never played the game, you won't need to wait long. Officially called Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, the game will drop on the Mac App Store, Steam, Epic Games Store and giving players a wide range of places from which to purchase the game. If you're one of the people who have already played Cyberpunk 2077 and are looking to sample it on a new platform, it supports cross-progression across all platforms. It includes the Phantom Liberty expansion and all significant updates to the game so far — version 2.3, just released for other platforms, should also be included. Almost all Macs with Apple Silicon will be able to play Cyberpunk 2077, but there are a few exceptions. To run the game, the computer must have at least 16GB of unified memory. Older Apple M1 and M2 devices with 8GB of unified memory will be unable to play the game. While a relatively small percentage of the total Apple Silicon devices in the world, for those who have these models, it's understandably frustrating. Otherwise, developer CD Projekt Red will offer different preset graphics modes for varying levels of hardware, which will eliminate some of the guesswork for those not accustomed to tweaking graphics settings. If you're running an M3 Mac with 16GB of unified memory, you'd select that preset and not have to worry about fumbling with any other settings. Anyone with an Apple XDR display or any of the best HDR monitors will receive HDR support, which should help bring the vibrant world to life. The developers even included spatial audio and head-tracking with Apple AirPods, further increasing immersion. It'll be interesting to see how well Cyberpunk 2077, a five-year-old game, sells on Mac. Sure, it's a new platform for the game, but I wonder how many Mac owners haven't had access through Switch 2, Xbox, PlayStation, or PC at some point. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Either way, it's a good sign for Mac gaming that a high-end, AAA game is coming with tweaks and modes explicitly designed to take advantage of the powerful Apple Silicon chipsets.
The Verge
3 hours ago
- The Verge
Cyberpunk 2077 is launching for Mac on July 17th
Cyberpunk 2077 is coming to macOS later this week, after it was originally set to debut in early 2025. Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition will officially be available for Apple silicon devices for the first time on July 17th, from Apple's own Mac App Store, Steam, Epic Games Store, and CD Projekt Red has optimized Cyberpunk 2077 for a variety of Mac hardware, all the way from the early M1 models up to the latest M4 chip family. Only some M1 and M2 Macs are supported, though — you'll need a Mac with 16GB or more of unified memory to play Cyberpunk 2077, so base 8GB M1 and M2 chips won't be compatible. There will be graphics presets that are optimized for each Apple silicon model, and more powerful Apple silicon chips will also fully support features like path tracing, a film-like full ray tracing mode that greatly improves lighting and occlusion in the game. AMD's FSR upscaling and frame generation will also be available in Cyberpunk 2077 on Mac, helping the game feel more smooth with options like path tracing enabled. MetalFX upscaling is also available, alongside support for Apple's Magic Mouse and Trackpad hardware. Apple and CD Projekt Red haven't shared performance data for what to expect across different Apple silicon Mac configurations. If you own an Apple XDR display, or any other HDR monitor, you'll get HDR support in Cyberpunk 2077, and there's even spatial audio and head-tracking with Apple AirPods. Mac owners have technically been able to run Cyberpunk 2077 on their devices for a couple of years now, thanks to Apple's own Proton-like game porting tool. This official release means the game takes full advantage of Apple silicon and Apple's native Metal graphics APIs, including Apple's Tile-Based Deferred Rendering (TBDR) architecture. Cyberpunk 2077 debuts on Mac just as CD Projekt Red releases the latest 2.3 patch for the game, which includes additional cars and a new photo mode. Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition on Mac will support cross progression across all platforms, and includes the Phantom Liberty expansion and all of the major updates to the game so far.
Engadget
3 hours ago
- Engadget
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition comes to the Mac on July 17
Mac owners will soon be able to play one of the biggest games of the last five years or so. Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition will be available in the Mac App Store as well as Steam, and the Epic Games Store on Thursday, July 17. As the name implies, it includes both the base game as well as the Phantom Liberty expansion from 2023. The port was announced last fall and was originally planned to arrive "early" this year, but it took a little longer to get everything squared away. Unsurprisingly, you'll need an M-series Mac to play this game, but Apple and CD Projekt Red confirm that it'll work on computers all the way back to the M1 — but you'll need 16GB of RAM. For years, 8GB was the standard on entry-level Macs, so those computers will be out of luck. And of course, graphics fidelity will vary widely across the various supported chipsets, but CD Projekt Red is including a "for this Mac" graphics preset that is optimized for each Apple Silicon-based Mac. So at the very least, you shouldn't have to fuss around with settings too much to get a decent experience. As for other technical goodies, the game utilizes AMD FSR for upscaling and frame generation, and Apple's MetalFX also provides upscaling as well. Upcoming Metal 4 features announced at WWDC 2025, including Metal FX Frame Interpolation and Metal FX Denoising, are coming to the game via a future update. Metal FX Frame Interpolation generates an intermediate frame for every two input frames and can be combined with existing Metal upscaling to allow the game to hit 120fps on Ultra settings — but again, we're not sure what specific models will support that. If you use AirPods with your Mac, Cyberpunk 2077 features spatial audio with head-tracking features. And the game supports cross-progression regardless of what platform you play on, which should be useful for anyone who started a game elsewhere and wants to pick it back up on a Mac. If you've already purchased Cyberpunk 2077 from another storefront like Steam, it'll automatically be available for Mac. While Cyberpunk 2077 isn't exactly a new game, it remains one of the more popular and lauded titles of the decade (at least after CD Projekt Red fixed numerous launch bugs). And it joins a still small but growing number of major games optimized for Apple Silicon and the Mac, including the recently-released Assassin's Creed Shadows. A quick look on the Mac App Store also shows AAA releases including Death Stranding, Control, Lies of P, numerous Resident Evil titles as well as smaller but no less awesome games like Neva and Stray. Most big-name games don't come to the Mac at the same time as other platforms still, but the Mac is an option for more than just Apple Arcade games.
