Witcher 4 PS5 Demo Reveals Unreal Engine 5.6’s Power with 60 FPS Ray Tracing

The Witcher 4 Demo Sets a New Bar for Console Graphics

CD Projekt Red teamed up with Epic Games to show off something that’s hard to ignore: Witcher 4 running at a steady 60 frames per second with ray tracing ON—the kind of feature that usually melts hardware. But this wasn't just any high-end PC flex. This was on a regular PlayStation 5, and the showcase happened live at the State of Unreal 2025 event. That sent ripples across the gaming world, because normally, consoles struggle to pull off this kind of spectacle without some sort of technical compromise.

The star of the demo wasn’t just the technology, but also the new direction for the franchise. Instead of Geralt, gamers saw Ciri stepping into the protagonist’s shoes, trekking across the frosty, warring nation of Kovir. The setting itself looked nothing like the classic landscapes we've trekked through in previous Witcher games—it was a parade of snow-clad streets and bustling trade hubs, all rendered in uncanny detail. What really stood out was how weather, light, and movement each played together to create something that seemed more like a living, breathing world than a static game level.

Behind the Magic: Unreal Engine 5.6’s Standout Features

The magic behind these leaps is Epic's Unreal Engine 5.6, crammed with tools designed for realism and efficiency. ML Deformer pushed character animation to new heights with machine learning-driven muscle movement, so Ciri’s every dodge or smile looked more human than ever. Then there was Fast Geometry Streaming, which meant that huge cities and open fields loaded in without those awkward, blurry pop-ins. Instead, even sprawling regions rendered instantly as the camera panned—no waiting, no weird hitches.

Nanite Foliage took foliage rendering to the next level, letting each blade of grass, tree branch, and snowflake appear hyper-detailed, even when you zoomed in. The demo also went out of its way to spotlight a much more natural horse companion, Kelpie—a clear replacement for Roach. Instead of stiff movements, Kelpie's anatomy shifted in real-time, limbs and muscle flexing as if a real animal moved under the skin.

CD Projekt Red and Epic were quick to point out: this was tech, not gameplay—a controlled setup rather than a slice of the finished product. The message was about where open-world games could go next, not necessarily where Witcher 4 currently stands in development. None of this was smoke and mirrors: the improvements are meant to become standard tools for more studios, giving game designers easier ways to build believable worlds—whether they’re fantasy epics or something else entirely.

By opening up these features to everyone using Unreal Engine 5, the Witcher 4 demo isn't just a flex from one franchise; it's a sneak peek into the technical tricks we’ll start seeing more across the industry. As open-world games get bigger and prettier, what used to be reserved for ultra-high-end PCs is finally coming to the living room console.