It’s an exciting time for game developers as the anticipated introduction of next-gen consoles later this year provides them with a powerful new platform to express their creative vision. One such developer is CD Projekt RED whose upcoming game Cyberpunk 2077 is being built using the third iteration of the studio’s renowned REDengine that was used to bring The Witcher 2’s ambitious world to life.

REDengine 3 will incorporate a number of new features that enable CD Projekt RED’s game designers to craft graphically stunning open-world RPGs featuring non-linear narratives and huge environments to explore.

Studio head Adam Badowski had this to say about the new engine:

“If we look at RPGs nowadays we find two approaches, one which emphasises 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. 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.”

The new engine features advanced face and body animation systems that offer “realistic expression of emotions” and “movie quality scenes and character interactions”.

For the more technically-minded among you, here’s a breakdown of some of the REDengine 3’s notable features:

“The technology uses high dynamic range rendering with 64-bit precision that ensures superior picture quality with more realistic and precise lighting without losses derived from reduced contrast ratio. A flexible renderer prepared for deferred or forward+ rendering pipelines has a wide array of cinematic post-processing effects, including bokeh depth-of-field, color grading and flares from many lights. A high performance terrain system allows multiple material layers to be efficiently blended and uses tessellation for the best possible detail. The technology also includes seamless blending between animations and physics along with many more features. 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.”

Head over here for El33tonline’s previous coverage of Cyberpunk 2077, and stay tuned for a possible announcement from CD Projekt RED regarding The Witcher 3 which is also likely to be built using REDengine 3.

Tags: cdprojektred, cyberpunk2077, gameengine, redengine3, screenshot, thewitcher3