With The Witcher 4, developer CD Projekt Red may fix the known stuttering issues that plague Unreal Engine 5 games by changing how things are done in the engine, but not all improvements may be implemented in a timely manner.
Speaking during the latest episode of their weekly podcast, the tech experts at Digital Foundry replied to a fan asking if CDPR will fix the aforementioned Unreal Engine 5 stuttering issues in The Witcher 4, delving deeper into a topic that was briefly touched upon a few months back. The tech experts highlighted how the developer has made it known they are well aware of them in a presentation held earlier this year during Unreal Fest Prague conducted by Jarosław Rudzki titled How Small Open Doors Can Lead to Better CPU Utilization and Bigger Games. The presentation was centered on the Polish studio’s findings from their own games and in Unreal Engine 5 regarding how frame times get worse by moving around in a game, and the bigger the world, and the more actors get involved in the game’s world, the worse frame times get. As such, it is suggested that things must be done differently in Unreal Engine 5 than ever before to reduce the well-known frame time issues seen so far, such as changing how streaming is handled and more. Judging from this presentation, it is very likely that CDPR will do things differently in The Witcher 4 to address these issues and deliver a smooth open-world experience.
CDPR solving the Unreal Engine 5 stuttering issues for The Witcher 4, however, doesn’t mean that all games powered by the engine will instantly benefit from the improvements made by the Polish Studio. Some of them, for example, could be game-specific, while others may take some time to get implemented in the engine itself, despite the partnership between CDPR and Epic. For example, there’s a well-known issue with software Lumen in games like Fortnite that prevents it from being enabled in AMD APUs, such as those powering handheld systems like the Steam Deck and the ROG Ally, that has yet to be officially fixed. So, there’s a very good chance it will still be mostly up to the developers to address these issues that are affecting the vast majority of Unreal Engine 5-powered games.
Some time since its initial reveal, The Witcher 4 has finally entered full production. A release window has yet to be confirmed, but hopefully, it won’t take long to learn more about the first entry in the series that will not feature Geralt of Rivia as the main character.
