Developer The Coalition has revealed more details about how it made use of Unreal Engine 5’s features for the development of the upcoming Gears of War: E-Day. As part of Epic Games’ recent State of Unreal showcase, technical director Kate Rayner spoke about how the team “rebuilt everything from scratch” to ensure that the chaos of Emergence Day could be accurately portrayed.
The fact that the team rebuilt all of its assets for Gears of War: E-Day also explains why the game took so long to develop, with The Coalition’s last entry being 2019’s Gears 5.
In the tech demo, which you can check out below, we get a close look at the various settings of Gears of War: E-Day, from the ruined outdoor environments to stores that have been left in a bloody mess by the Locust springing its surprise attack on the humans of Sera. The video also notes that the demo was running on an Xbox Series X at a frame rate of 60 FPS.
“In previous games, a space like this was limited to three shadowcasters in view,” explained Rayner as she gave a tour of one of Kalona’s large stores. “With MegaLights, we now have hundreds of light sources, all casting shadows at 60 frames per second on Xbox Series X.”
She also went on to discuss other features of Unreal Engine 5 that were used for the space, like animated area lights for a TV display wall. The tech allowed the studio to create a moody atmosphere thanks to how the TVs are able to cast soft shadows and act as their own light sources, all rendered entirely on the GPU.
Unreal Engine 5 also allowed The Coalition to include dynamic geometry throughout the space, like pillars lined with tiles. When shot at, the pillar remains unaffected, while its various tiles realistically break apart and fall down. Similarly, various refrigerators also have completely destroyable glass windows, complete with realistically-refracted light depending on damage like individual bullet holes.
“There is no way we’d ever be able to achieve this effect, or have this many ray-traced area lights on current-generation hardware without MegaLights,” said Rayner.
The technology also has tangible effects on gameplay, with Rayner showcasing how volumetric light and fog work whenever new Locusts pop up through their E-holes. “One of the things we’re super excited about that was unthinkable in the past is having shadows on every single one of our muzzle flashes. This is a really great improvement that adds to the dynamic combat of Gears, with a more believable firing experience that puts you right in the middle of the action like never before,” she said.
Creative director Matt Searcy, brand director Nicole Fawcette, art director Aryan Hanbeck, along with Rayner, had previously discussed how Gears of War: E-Day is the studio’s first game since 2015 to not reuse any assets or code.
Gears of War: E-Day is being developed for PC and Xbox Series X/S, and is slated for release on October 6th. It will also be one of the first recent games, along with 2027’s Clockwork Revolution, to be console-exclusive to the Xbox Series X/S.
