56
CD Projekt CEO reveals why the company decided to use Unreal Engine for The Witcher 4
(www.techspot.com)
Disappointing.
this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2026
56 points (98.3% liked)
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For everyone not in the know, the Unreal Engine Lighting model is about 260 years out of date. No, that's not a joke. The lighting model is based on Lambert's paper from 1760. That's the reason why literally every surface looks like plastic.
But plastic didn't exist in 1760!
It doesn't matter if plastic existed back then. The consequence of the Lambertian lighting model is that every surface, because of the flawed reflectance physics, now looks like plastic. Alternatively, you could say it looks like clay. It doesn't matter what analogy you use, the surfaces should not look this way.
Lambert, Lambert, what a prick.
This is so funny (and wrong). Just code your shaders yourself to use the model you want.
Explain why it is wrong you doofus.
Don't just drive by saying 'This is so funny...'. :/
Engines dont force a lighting model (since like y 2000 or very simple ones) because you make your own with the pixel shaders, and with the setup you want (deferred lighting is more complicated for example, toon shading not so much, phong is super simple, flat is simpler and so on. All available with the UE). So the whole "lighting model from 200 years ago" is just a joke, it's like "they force you to use mommy brown, a color not made any more!" It doesn't make sense, or if it do so, please do enlighten me ๐
Generally the onus is on the one making the claim to prove it is correct.
They did that?
Which is why the "nuh uh wrong" is now a new statement that needs to have some foundation to be worth anything. Cmon this ain't rocket science
Where exactly in this comment did they prove their claim?
"For everyone not in the know, the Unreal Engine Lighting model is about 260 years out of date. No, that's not a joke. The lighting model is based on Lambert's paper from 1760. That's the reason why literally every surface looks like plastic."
They put the name there so you can easily Google it. If you had any intention you could find Lambert shading on Wikipedia real quick, that's usually enough for a conversation between people that's not a scientific paper.
I have no scientific footnotes for these statements I just made, don't even ask.
You're insufferable, however a quick search brings up threads such as this one: https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-do-i-make-basic-lambert-style-shading/2669505
Where the user is specifically asking to get Lambert shading, which to me, indicates that is in fact not the default.
But go off
Edit: JK you right did more research, obviously using an older diffusion model based on an old paper isn't great, but it's not like that's literally all the engine does/can do.
It's just a hyperbolic claim while partially correct.
Woah, calm it with the aggression, it's not a life threatening issue
If it gives them more room to focus on story and other decisive qualities, why not.
The Witcher 3 was able to do all those things, why make ourselves dependent on an American game engine?
Letโs keep using the Polish one instead for Ciriโs story.
From what I heard it's because they reached the maximum of the Red Engine with Cyberpunk.
You can upgrade game engines...
There are limits to what can be easily done, at some point it makes more sense to start over. Given the choice of build a new game engine or use an existing one, I would choose to use an existing one.
I would choose to use an existing one.
If youโre thinking small and donโt care about innovation sure.
Iโm still pissed about how Halo Infiniteโs game engine was sabotaged because Microsoft cared more about avoiding employee benefits so they hired 18 month contractors who kept getting fired right when they mastered the new engine.
Most games aren't that innovative. But you are correct for projects like Kitten Space Agency a custom engine makes sense. However building from scratch takes longer and added to development cost.
Witcher developers arenโt starting from scratch though, they can optimise the engine and add better physics.
That optimisation may come at a greater cost than using an existing engine. You also have to consider, with an industry standard engine it is easier to hire and train new devs.
Why? Then it's just going to look like every other game that came out in the past few years ffs!
And the physics would be boring.
Xbox360 graphics was good enough.
The Witcher 4 isn't going to look and feel like a "generic" UE5 game, Nowakowski suggests.
is this an ai article?
I just hope they can create a playable experience for hanhelds. It's not like the ram shortage is going to stop anytime soon. EDIT to add: it would be ideal if they switched to a different engine for their next installment, but doing that mid game would just cause a repeat of cyberpunk 2077.