Overview

• The Witcher 4 tech demo presented at Unreal Fest showcased Valdrest in Kovir populated with over 300 NPCs, matching the density of Witcher 3’s Novigrad.
• CD Projekt Red’s team studied video recordings of Novigrad to inform NPC density, crowd behaviors and new world-building ambitions for Valdrest.
• The demo ran at 60fps with ray tracing on a base PlayStation 4 and leveraged Unreal Engine 5, marking CD Projekt Red’s shift from its proprietary REDengine.
• The studio is adopting a console-first model with a 60fps performance target to prevent issues similar to Cyberpunk 2077’s console launch, though the Xbox Series S may struggle to meet that frame rate.
• Developers emphasize that the tech demo is a proof of concept and may not reflect the final game’s visual fidelity or scope.