Strategy Informer  

The Witcher 2 dev CD Projekt RED has just announced the third iteration of the in-house REDengine. The studio bemoans RPG approaches of a 'strong story, weak world' or a 'big world, simple story'.

With REDengine 3 they "combine the positive aspects of both" to deliver an "open environment with a complex, multi-thread story." The engine is "tailor-made" to CD Projekt's RPG needs.

The studio's upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 will feature "prime examples" of REDengine 3's capabilities as to why it's the "perfect tool for creating immense universes".

“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. With the REDengine 3 we combine the positive aspects of both approaches for the first time, creating an open environment with a complex, multi-thread story."

Adam Badowski continued: "Together with believable characters, a captivating tale and a world where players can roam freely without loading times, we will be able to move gaming to a new level with a realistic feel and full player immersion. When working on our previous titles, I didn’t dream that we would achieve something like this. Thanks to the support of all our fans, now we have the possibility to use REDengine 3 and create something many RPG fans dream of.”


They blurb more on how they're 'next-gen ready': "The advanced technology of the REDengine 3 makes RPGs comparable to top-shelf shooters, both in terms of game world presentation and the epic proportions of events that the player is drawn into. 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."

"All the state-of-the-art visuals form a living ecosystem allowing the player to be a part of a vivid environment. The new face and body animation systems implemented in REDengine 3 offer realistic expression of emotions, movie quality scenes and character interactions."

"The engine uses CD Projekt RED’s new version of its proprietary REDkit editor with tools made specifically for RPG game creation. The editor can build complex, branching quests and set them in a free roaming environment with a simplicity not achieved by similar toolsets."

Cyberpunk 2077 received a teaser trailer back in early January. There is no release date available.

Related games: The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings (PC), The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition (Xbox360), Cyberpunk 2077 (PC)