The Witcher "4": Unreal Engine 5
The impending Witcher game, of course, should not be overlooked when unveiling the final Unreal Engine 5. CDPR outlines why they are switching to the Epic engine.
The Unreal Engine 5 is complete, and that alone warrants a news item. But what was happening around it was almost as fascinating, as two new UE5-based games were also announced in the neighborhood.
Although a new The Witcher game has already been announced, the future Tomb Raider is also based on the Unreal Engine 5. In both cases, the creators are handing over control of their own engines.
CDPR's Pawel Zawodny (CTO) and Jason Slama were also present at the Unreal Engine show (Game Director). They clarify that, while they've only been working with Epic for a short time, the main reason they've become aware of Unreal Engine 5 is the shift to the open world.
In fact, there was most likely a specific trigger: Jason Slama reports on Quixel's Medieval Environment demo, which was released last year and included a reference to CDPR.
"There was a demo last year, the Medieval Environment demo, which at one point featured a billboard that inspired us a lot of our own past projects and even had a sign that said 'Monster Hunters Wanted," Slama says in the video.
"See how good your games look on it," I believe he was saying, implying that we should move to the Unreal Engine. Was it the underlying goal of the entire demonstration? I'm not sure, but it sparked my interest."
Zawodny adds that the collaboration marks the beginning of a new chapter in which they hope to learn how "our experience with open-world games can be merged with Epic's engineering power."
When opposed to linear games, open-world games offer "exponentially greater chances of things going wrong." This allows gamers to pursue any path they want and access information in whatever order they like.
To do so, you need a "very stable environment" in which you can "be completely certain that any modifications you make will not cause 1,600 problems elsewhere."
The Unreal Engine 5 has several advantages because it is already being utilized by many teams around the world and is being improved through user feedback. Because of the diverse perspectives of the developers, the tools become more agile.
It's "a truly cool technique for quickly building compelling and realistic prototypes and surroundings."
