The Coalition Debuts New Unreal Engine 5 Tech Test with 100x More Graphic Detail 

Xbox and Epic Games Join forces to create a Future-Proof Foundation for Unreal

S with|S with The Matrix Awakens: Experience an Unreal Engine 5, we’re excited to share a deeper look at our technical partnership with Epic Games as part of today’s “State of Unreal” event. The Coalition’s latest Unreal Engine 5 demo, The Cavern Cinematic Tech Test, shows how movie-quality assets – featuring tens of millions of polygons – can be rendered in real time, a massive 100x leap forward in detail.

This latest collaboration is part of a long tradition with Epic Games, Unreal Engine. This year marks 20 years since the launch of Unreal Engine for Xbox. Unreal ChampionshipAnd Splinter CellIn 2002.

We spoke with Kate Rayner, the studio technical director at The Coalition, about her team’s collaboration with Epic Games, developing in Unreal Engine 5, and what players can expect from next-generation experiences on Xbox Series X|S. 

The Cavern Cinematic Test Demo

Today, you debuted a new Unreal Engine 5 demo during Epic Games’ “State of Unreal” presentation. Can you share what you just witnessed?

First off, I have to give credit to the whole team, as this was truly a studio-wide effort to create our first ever cinematic in UE5 – as well as our first time using Sequencer – and we had a lot of fun making it. A couple things we’re really proud of are the facial animations and just the overall quality of the character model.

Cubic Motion helped us to create a rough version of our next-generation face rig. We also hired an actor who wore a head-cam in order to capture the performance. That, coupled with Control Rig, helped us create someone who looks and moves in the most realistic ways we’ve ever done, and it’s incredibly exciting to think where we can go next. We also utilized Chaos cloth physics to get to a really high level of visual fidelity, and we’re extremely pleased with the results.

The coolest part is that we’ve got all these great visuals and animations running on an Xbox Series X, so that just gives you an idea of the visual fidelity and quality we’re going to be able to create. Demos like this allow us to learn a great deal about the performance of UE5, and I think it’s safe to say that we’re going to be able to create some pretty incredible things with this new tech.

Gears History, Xbox and the Coalition

What will Unreal Engine5 do for the future? Gears Are you looking for franchise opportunities in the short-term and longer-term futures?

We had access to UE5 from the beginning and saw immediate benefits. Future titles will be able to benefit from the improved tools and features set. This allows for better visuals, bigger and interactive environments and a whole host of other exciting aspects that we look forward to in UE5.

Is there a way that The Coalition has contributed to the development of Unreal Engine over time?

We have been having constructive conversations with Epic since The Coalition’s founding – before it was called The Coalition – all the way back in 2010. Since the founding of The Coalition, we’ve had positive conversations with Epic. We shared our feedback using a AAA perspective, and we also submitted pull requests directly to the Engine. This includes everything bug fixes, optimizations, as well as collaborating on ensuring that the Xbox platform support remains as efficient as possible.

Work with UE5

With the full Unreal Engine 5 toolkit available soon, what are some of the specific tools you’ll be leveraging in creating your next game?

We’re not ready to talk about our next game. We are still excited about things like Nanite and Lumen, which have provided new opportunities for us. 

The impact of Nanite can be seen in the cinematic tech testing, where you will see how it allows full-quality movie assets in real time. The result is that artists can now create assets using tens to millions of polygons. This allows them to scale the asset up to scene with billions or billions. These details are amazing, and more than 100x what was previously possible. The number of polygons and vertices in this eyeball detail is equivalent to what an entire character would look like in previous generations of video games.

You also see how we’re doing new things with light. Fully dynamic real-time global illumination lighting has been a long sought-after feature, but up until now, it’s not been possible on console. Lumen is an absolute game changer.

What does your Unreal Engine expertise mean for other Microsoft teams that also work with these tools?

We’ve been really privileged to share our knowledge and best practices with others across Xbox Game Studios, and learn from them as well. Additionally, our team works closely with Xbox ATG (Advanced Technology Group) to help us optimize at a system level.

What time have you worked with UE5 for?

Since before the Early Access, we have worked with UE5 over a year. We keep up-to-date with new code and content updates, experiment with different contents, and run lots of internal testing. We have been able to give Epic early feedback as an AAA studio, with extensive Xbox and Unreal Engine experience.

Was UE5 your first impression? What were your initial impressions of UE5? Were you surprised by anything?

The Coalition members were eager to jump in and get the access. That’s when we began the work to create Alpha Point. I was astonished at how well-designed the engine was and how simple it was to integrate UE4 content with UE5 seamlessly.

What was your transition experience from Unreal Engine 4 into Unreal Engine 5 like?

The transition was smooth and took about two weeks. Our entire studio is now in UE5. Our Alpha Point demo, which was presented at GDC this year, was built originally in UE4. The demo was ported to UE5 very quickly. We were creating this demo in UE4 using next-gen content, adding assets, and it started to bog down. However, once we moved it to UE5, everything was back to normal. The demo was never stopped.

Did UE5 have any new features that make transitioning easier or smoother for you and your team?

The engine’s architecture is modular. We embrace plugins to enhance functionality and customize the engine according to our requirements. Plugins being able to contain content – not just code – has been a revelation. When working with UE4, we made a lot more changes to the engine, so integration costs were higher. Integrations go much faster now, as the engine is more modular and gives developers more control.

What are some of the often overlooked features in Unreal Engine that you can speak about? Are there any aspects that you’d like other developers to know about?

Because developers can gather real-time data during development, Unreal Intelligences is worth noting. Also, Temporal Super Resolution (TSR) – the ability to render 4k for the cost of rendering at 1080p – is an incredible feature that can sometimes be overlooked.

How has your approach to ideation, experimentation and production changed as you moved from UE4 UE5?

UE5 has rapidly increased our iteration time because working within the engine is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get experience. No more guesswork. It is easy to get the tech right now.

What is the “Alpha Point Demo?” What lessons did you take from its development?

Alpha Point Demo is the UE5 Early Access Demo. It includes an environment tech test, abbreviated characters cinematic, and an early largeworld technical test. This allowed us to become proficient in the new tech workflows, and provided feedback to Epic for possible improvements.

You are invited to experience The Matrix awakening

Also, the Coalition played a key role in bringing about The Matrix awakens: Unreal Engine 5 ExperienceS.|S. Please describe the importance of the work, and the wider industry implications.

It is the first example of next-generation gaming that was possible. The experience was hugely educational and showed us the right workflow to make next-generation games.

Can you detail The Coalition’s involvement in the creation of this experience?

It was very much a collaboration with Epic, The Coalition and the Xbox development team, to harden and optimize Epic’s vision, first on Xbox Series X, and then on Xbox Series S.

What would you like to describe? The Matrix RewakensAs a successful person? Are you the most proud?

Absolutely! Amazing! This collaboration resulted in improvements to the Xbox development software, with  runtime optimizations, bug fixes, and tools improvements that benefit all developers.

We are now closer to being able to create game worlds completely independent from real life with the launch of Unreal Engine 5.

If technology has taught us anything, it’s that we are always going to continue to see its further improvement. We are very close to real-time, life-like renderings; however, we will never stand still and claim that we are “done,” and we are going to continue to see games teams working on and refining the medium.

Look Ahead

Are you looking forward most to the launch of UE5

UE5 enables developers to take the handcuffs off and truly create the content we’ve always dreamed of making. No more compromises! It also creates the removal of friction points in workflow – with Nanite we no longer have to manually create low polygon versions of models, and with Lumen, not having to see “the lighting needs to be rebuilt” and waiting for offline static lighting to be re-baked – greatly speeds up the development process.

Thank you so much, and any last thoughts?

The Coalition and Xbox will continue to work with Epic in pushing the limits of modern gaming. We cannot wait for you to see more of the future.