Witcher dev reveals new engine
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
CD Projekt Red's new REDengine 3 for RPGs reportedly capable of rendering "movie-quality" scenes; new screenshot shown.
The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red today unveiled its newest game engine, the REDengine 3. The third iteration of the company's in-house technology, the new engine has been built to develop open-world role-playing games with non-linear stories.
"If we look at RPGs nowadays we find two approaches, one which emphasizes the story but limits the game world, and one that builds a vast, open world but hampers and simplifies the story," said studio head Adam Badowski in a statement.
He said the REDengine 3 combines the positive components of both approaches, an industry-first, according to the developer. The new technology will allow players to roam a world without loading times, which will bring gaming "to a new level," he said.
CD Projekt Red said its upcoming game Cyberpunk 2077 is running on the technology, as well as a second and unannounced game. Reports have long suggested this game is in fact the long-rumored The Witcher 3, though CD Projekt Red has yet to officially announce Geralt's latest outing.
"The engine is a next-gen-ready solution that begins to blur the line between pre-rendered CGI movies and real time rendered graphics, bringing us closer to the most life-like world ever created in video games," the company said.
The REDengine 3 will also feature new face and body animation systems, capable of displaying "movie-quality scenes and character interactions." The technology uses "high-dynamic-range rendering with 64-bit precision" and also includes a range of post-processing effects. These include color grading and flares from many lights, as well as a "high-performance" terrain system allowing multiple layers to be blended.
Lastly, CD Projekt Red revealed a REDengine 3 screenshot (above right), showing a night-set waterside setting with mountains, trees, and clouds.
By
Eddie Makuch, News Editor
Eddie Makuch (Mack-ooh) is a News Editor at GameSpot. He works out of the company's Boston office in Somerville, Mass., and loves extra chunky peanut butter.
247 comments
And yet It's all about Graphic I'm not against it though, How about Story, or A.I...Also I've played Witcher 1&2 and it's a nice game but It wasn't really Special RPG game! the levels were small and simple and not really strong Story and Conversation and some boring missions but It was at a good path, for Me Mass Effect and Games Like Dragon Age Origins with Strong Story and Conversation or Skyrim, Fallout type with a big world are more Important than High Quality RPG game or something middle of them I want a good story as a priority NOT GRAPHIC GRAPHIC something that I only hear these days and see less and less valuable stories.
@syler4815162342 well i dont believe you ... you must have not played the witcher 2 .... saying skyrim story or dragon age story is better ... please... get some sleep ... tw2 was totaly more immersive, gorgeous interesting polished .. with strong scenario great story arcs .... or should u go back to the fish eyes npcs to take an arrow the knee ? .
@haedrianz @syler4815162342 DUDE I've played Witcher 2, the game has really great graphic, Solid story (Main Story), great Game play BUT the STORY was not strong enough AS other RPG games for me! since I like this series I'm saying to become better They should work harder on it, pay attention more on the Story, Too much fan boyish from you, makes you blind.
2 Like @syler4815162342 Not a strong story and conversations? In that case, you and I have been playing different games.
The story (and general plot) exceeds that of both ME series and Da series with relative ease, a large part thanks to its variety of themes TW introduced (politics, racism nationalism, feudalism vs absolutism vs enlightened despotism, and much more) ME and DA grows pale compared to The Witcher.
And conversation: TW literally owns ME and DA when it comes do dialog. There are actually an ingenious level of writing in the conversation in both TW games, something that both ME and DA lacks ("I want to be a dragon!") . And for the record, TW2 had 130,000 line of dialog. ME2 had 25,000 lines of dialog (ME1 20,000).
If you prefer "open world" games over "corridor ones" then sure, that is your opinion. But game companies that work on open world games tend to have a weaker story. And personally I prefer story over huge worlds. But it is subjective.
@Chewin3 @syler4815162342totaly agree my friend ! actually that s why i am a little scared of tw3 annoucement ... i mean i love this company and serie so i ll give the benefice of the doubt
@Chewin3 @syler4815162342 Guys Guys, I'm not saying Witcher is weak game or something, It just couldn't attract me as DAO or ME, the base story is sure great but It wasn't strong enough as ME for me! All I'm saying instead of Graphic Improvement they should work harder on story , RPG games are not really about Graphic, they are about Story and Dialogs...
I agree for the Witcher 1, but not for the sequel. The Witcher 2 was a pretty brilliant game.
I REALLY HOPE that this isn't just talk, because I am so tired of seeing the same old reject quality generation after generation...
@tgwolf The engine will only look better than the one used for The Witcher 2, which remains one of the, if not the, best looking PC game. Even if it's just talk, it'll be better than anything else.
I unfortunately don't have much experience with this companies games aside from the 30 minutes I tried of the first Witcher on OnLive, when I tried OnLive. I trust that they make great games though, and the recent news they've been putting out sounds very exciting. The fact that I didn't play any of their games though really puts me in a situation to be a little less excited for their upcoming products, though not enough to not want to look into all of this. All the graphical talk to make games feel better for next-gen is exciting. I also do love the Cyberpunk genre.
@MatrixGamer78 CDPR are many times better than them . Don't try to convince yourself . And sales are not everything . They make games for die hard RPG fans and not for everyone by ruining the core elements of the original game , cough dragon age 2 cough .
3 Like @MatrixGamer78 they are BETTER than Bethesda..where Bethesda always uses their outdated engine on their games since Fallout 3..
1 Like @dhayter @MatrixGamer78 Bethesda uses old tech and tired game design. TES has not evolved much since TES3. Just look at items for one, they are the same tired weapons and there are not that many modifiers when compared to games like torchlight and diablo. Quests are still set up with the guild structure which is alright but they need to put in way more factions for the archetypes having a mage storyline that last 3 or 4 hours is not nearly enough they need to flesh things out and add extra stories for the character types. Adding more weapon types and more spells would help a bit considering the spells are basically the same as they have always been. Not saying TES sucks but it could be much better with randomized loot and more spells and more storylines that are more in depth.
What are u doing men , witcher 2 wipes the floor with skyrim , u just need the maturity to understand witcher 2 , and given that it was a pc exclusive for a short time , the reception was not that good , but it sold 5 million copies and was completely drm free from the start.
@MatrixGamer78 @Altazen Huh? you're the one that's bragging about skyrim best seller on all platforms when in fact the last few COD games actually sold much more than skyrim on all platforms. therefore like I said, Sales =/= better games.
@MatrixGamer78 /facepalm
more sales =/= better game. do you play COD games?
"skyrim is still best seller on every platform". fanboy much?
@X-7 @dhayter Skyrim is still best seller on every platform whether it is X360, PS3 or PC and recieved too many awards but witcher didnt have any good reception
6 Like Expected nothing less from them. They deserve every penny they get, hell if they wanna start some kind of collections for developments like Chris Roberts I think all of us would be happy to contribute. I think of CDPR as some sort of rebel / renegade faction standing up to the oppressive rule of big corporations like EA, Activision, Ubisoft. Way to stick it to the man CDPR!
3 Like PC focused developers : The Witcher = Bioware Aura Engine , The Witcher 2 = Red Engine , The Witcher 2 xbox 360 = Red Engine 2 , The Witcher 2 EE PC = Optimized Red Engine , The Witcher 3 = Red Engine 3 .
Console Focused Developers : COD modern warfare = their new engine for COD , COD world at war = same old engine , COD modern warfare 2 = same old engine , COD black ops = same old engine , COD modern warfare 3 = same old engine , COD black ops 2 = same old engine , Upcoming COD modern warfare 4 = same old engine .
The witcher = new gameplay with every entry in the series .
COD = same bullshit every year
The witcher = Free DLC and 11 GB update
COD = day 1 DLC .
The witcher 2 = update 2 gives new hair styles
Devil may cry = Exclusive Dante's old look DLC .
@PcGamer4Ever1 Fuck u witcher bitch COD is not console exclusive. there r too many best exclusive titles on consoles just count them all then compile a report u will get a better answer.
2 Like @PcGamer4Ever1 new console hardware= pc being used the way it should have been used 5 years ago the reason you see new pc engines coming out left and right has more to do with the new consoles and less to do with your $2000 rig or $1000 you pc fanboys never got your moneys worth when it comes to graphics the pc should look alot better then it looks best u can do on pc now is run current gen looking ps3 xbox 360 games at 100fps at high res thats the best u can do but when xbox720 ps4 come out thats when the pc will do what it should have been doing
1 Like At least they look good . What happens when you get PC port .? It looks like a playstation 2 game when compared with PC . For Example The Witcher 2 . lol .
1 Like Considering Witcher 2 has some of the best graphics and facial details of characters, that's a pretty bold statement that they're taking it a step further. Should be pretty freaking sweet.
@2bitSmOkEy Amen. IDK Which I want more though with the way The Witcher 2 ended and that cyberpunk trailer. eskugfbskgrbaekhrbgnkhdfbkh
i think the difference between redengine 2 and 3 won't be that grand. We won't see that much of a difference in terms of graphics between witcher 2 and 3. It won't be like going from witcher 1 to 2. I hope I'm wrong though :D
1 Like @Aleksanian The leap from Witcher 1 and 2 was immense, it's not gonna be as mind blowing for The Witcher 3, because the gap in tech is just not as massive. But it will still be pretty darn awesome.
@Total_mischief @Aleksanian Depends on how optimized it is. If it is well optimized you can squeeze more out of it on the same tech. For instance if it runs 30% cleaner than the previous engine you can pump more eye candy in at the same performance.
1 Like @holtrocks Next gen won't be enough. It won't even be enough to run the Witcher 2 on max since I can't and my specs are better than what next gen consoles are supposed to have. More like the gen after next gen.
@theend3r @holtrocks I have an I5 2500k and 8GB ram and a 5850 and I only run it on med-high. XD Beast game. At least it still looks great even at low unlike COD.
2 Like @theend3r @holtrocks The next consoles will run The Witcher 2 at max. Consoles can be significantly less powerful than a PC to achieve similar results, for the first few years.
@theend3r @holtrocks I run the Witcher 2 at max... of course with ubersambling off. I have two 6850 in crossfire and an old Phenom II OC. All this at 1080p.
Damn, I was hoping my laptop would last me another 2 years, well, considering how well optimized the Witcher 2 was I might still be able to run it on the lowest settings... At least I can hope.
10 Like This has become quite rare in recent times, must developers rush out sequels using the same old engine. I tip my hat to you Cd Projekt Red
1 Like @Mega_Loser @johnners2981 Well, on BioWare's defense, they were using Unreal Engine for Mass Effect, which is pretty darn powerful (look at the difference between each games), and they're using Frostbite 2 for Dragon Age 3. As for Dragon Age 2, I like to pretend that was an expansion pack.
4 Like @Total_mischief @Mega_Loser @johnners2981
Don't even mention dragon age 2 when talking about Dragon Age
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