For The Witcher 2, CD Projekt RED abandoned the Aurora engine and replaced it with its internally developed REDengine, resulting in one of the best looking games of this generation on both the PC and Xbox 360 platforms. Despite achieving high marks with this toolset, CD Projekt RED looks to continue to push the graphical envelope with the development of REDengine 3.
For the port of The Witcher 2 on the Xbox 360, CD Projekt RED optimized the original REDengine toolset and internally called this improved version REDengine 2. REDengine 3 appears as if it will offer much more than additional optimization as the studio aims at advanced development for the next generation of video game platforms. Able to handle non-linear, but story-driven RPG games, REDengine 3 looks to provide an open world experience while narrowing the visual divide between pre-rendered CGI and real time rendered graphics. The new tools are also intended to lessen the uncanny valley effect by implementing new face and body-animation systems that will more realistically show emotions, allowing for “movie-quality scenes.”
Adam Badowski, head of CD Projekt RED, explains what the company hopes to ultimately achieve with REDengine 3:
Expect to see REDengine 3 in action in both of CD Projekt RED’s upcoming titles, The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. While CD Projekt RED is unlikely to generate real time rendered graphics near the quality of their recent CGI teaser for Cyberpunk 2077, the studio achieved a new level of visual presentation in The Witcher 2, proving CD Projekt RED has the ability to deliver. Despite the high level of detail offered in that game, it performed amazingly well on modestly powered PCs. Based upon the lofty goals of REDengine 3, however, gamers may need to invest some dollars in a quality PC graphics card to take full advantage of CD Projekt RED’s newest toolset.
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