After a host of private press showings at E3 and Gamescom, you can finally watch the full Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay demo. Powered by an Intel i7-8700K and GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, CD Projekt Red says it “started the process of optimization” from the beginning of development.
Speaking to CGMagazine, lead cinematic animator Maciej Pietras says building Night City posed a “huge challenge” against the studio’s previous game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but that optimization was considered from the outset.
“We are thinking about optimization from scratch, about how the streaming works, how to introduce global illumination, for instance, without overwhelming the CPU,” Pietras tells CGMagazine. “We knew we are developing the game for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. And we started the process of optimization right at the start. So that’s why what you see running on the demo is a PC, which is like i7 and 1080 Ti.”
An incomplete build of Cyberpunk 2077 is now playable from start to finish, says game producer Richard Borzymowski—but it seems a final launch date is some ways away.
Nevertheless, yesterday’s showing is impressive. Here are ten highlights from the Cyberpunk 2077 gameplay demo, and five ways it somehow lives up to the hype.