Unreal Fest 2025 is currently taking place, highlighting the newest innovations from Epic Games, featuring an exclusive look at the visual capabilities of The Witcher 4 and the launch of Unreal Engine 5.6. The event in Orlando showcases the fresh features of Unreal Engine along with the highly awaited The Witcher 4.
**The Witcher 4: A Technical Showcase in Unreal Engine 5.6**
A key highlight of the State of Unreal keynote was the showcase of The Witcher 4. Differing from prior reveals that relied on pre-rendered trailers, CD Projekt Red and Epic Games showcased scenes from the present development stage. Nonetheless, these visuals serve as a technical illustration in the realm of Unreal Engine 5.6 and do not represent actual gameplay. The demonstration immersed players in the new area of Kovir, where Ciri traverses snowy mountains and thick forests on her horse, Kelpie.
**Unreal Engine 5.6: Emphasis on Performance and Open-World Creation**
Epic Games declared the immediate rollout of Unreal Engine 5.6, stressing enhancements for open-world titles and stable 60 FPS performance on existing console hardware.
– **Lumen Enhancements**: The lumen system for global illumination has been revamped to remove CPU bottlenecks, elevating hardware ray tracing to match the performance of the software-based alternative.
– **Rapid Geometry Streaming Plugin**: This trial feature facilitates the faster loading of static geometry with steady frame rates, ensuring smoother transitions in open-world games devoid of loading delays or frame rate issues.
– **Renderer Parallelization**: The Render Hardware Interface (RHI) has been revamped to harness multithreading capabilities, eliminating restrictions on rendering tasks.
**MetaHuman: Innovative Workflows for Realistic Characters**
MetaHuman Creator, Epic’s application for crafting lifelike digital humans, is now embedded in the Unreal Editor with new parametric body systems and enhanced visual fidelity. Utilized in The Witcher 4 to produce NPCs, it delivers a high level of realism. The revamped MetaHuman Animator facilitates real-time workflows for facial and bodily animation.
The Witcher 4 demonstration also highlighted lush vegetation enabled by “Nanite Foliage,” an addition to the Nanite virtualization system, rendering intricate trees and plants without a decline in performance. However, the complete version of this capability is anticipated in Unreal Engine 5.7.