A couple of weeks ago, we reported that CD Projekt RED is
revising their development tools for Cyberpunk 2077, per a conversation that iDigitalTimes had with CDP's visual effects artist Jose Teixeira. While the source of that information seemed to suggest that this would place the release of the RPG somewhere in the better half of the distant future, Mr. Teixeria has since
cleared the air during another conversation with Kotaku:
“I mentioned that we were upgrading the engine based on the feedback everybody gave from The Witcher 3,” Texiera said. “We’re upgrading the engine. It’s a pretty thorough upgrade. Almost every aspect of the engine is getting upgraded. My particle effects editor is getting upgraded, as is almost every other tool.”
“But the article that was written online was worded in a slightly click-bait-y type way that made it sound like we haven’t even started really working on Cyberpunk yet,” he added. “I didn’t say that. We’re just upgrading the tools. That’s all I said. That’s something that any company that uses custom software has to do from time-to-time. That’s all.”
An engine is a software framework used for game creation. Some engines, like the Unreal Engine and Unity, are more widespread than others. The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk both use versions of CD Projekt’s custom REDengine, an in-house proprietary engine tailored to their particular needs. Development tool upgrades are actually a pretty regular thing with game engines, and they don’t necessarily impede progress. CDP’s learned a lot while working on Witcher 3 DLC and Cyberpunk. Naturally, they’re feeding that back into the engine’s capabilities and ease-of-use.
“The engine team took all the feedback, and they’re upgrading it,” said Texiera. “The hope is that it’ll allow us to do a lot more with the same engine. A lot more and faster. It’s still very much an ongoing process, but it’s promising stuff.”
