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The Coalition's Xbox Series X|S's Unreal Engine 5 Demo Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg

Lunatic_Gamer

Gold Member
Earlier this week, The Coalition released two tech demo videos of its own tests with Unreal Engine 5 to stunning results. However, the Gears 5 developer says that what we saw in the demo was just the tip of the iceberg as the demo does not show how Unreal Engine 5 can take full advantage of Microsoft's ninth-generation consoles.

In an email sent to IGN, a representative for The Coalition said that the tech demo shown off on Monday was not fully optimized to take advantage of the Xbox Series X/S hardware. The Coalition believes that once Unreal Engine 5 is fully optimized, it can anticipate any projects it develops using the game engine to achieve something more impressive than what they showcased in the Alpha Point demo.

The developer also goes on to explain that once new features come to the Series X/S that include improvements to the shader compiler, as well as variable-rate shading optimizations into the game engine, it would allow the developer to take better advantage of the hardware when working with Unreal Engine 5.

"With upcoming Xbox Series shader compiler improvements, adopting faster render target formats, and more usage of async compute and raytracing to use our extra GPU power we expect higher performance and quality through better throughput and utilization of the hardware," a Coalition representative told IGN. "We also have yet to add hardware Variable Rate Shading optimizations which we demonstrated benefits through VRS in Gears 5 on XSX/S, that are not yet in UE5 but The Coalition plans to work with Epic to add. These Xbox-specific advantages are on top of cross-platform optimizations we expect from Epic on the road to UE5 official release next year."







 
The comments are largely meaningless until they start showing what they are able to do though.
Microsoft seems to be having issues managing their messaging at the moment, an email sent to IGN to counter how people are reacting to what they show is hardly the most positive way to show off their games. I'd say the same for the Halo demos they've just shown too.
Saying that the email came from "a representative for The Coalition" makes it sound specifically that it's come from somebody in PR rather than somebody who actually understands the tech.
 
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01011001

Banned
I sure hope it is... I have become a bit disillusioned by UE5 tbh... every demo we saw so far runs at dynamic 1440p30 on console, which is... let's be honest... a bit shit... and it seems lumen really tanks performance, so one feature of the engine already gone if you wanna go for 60fps

then nanite... nanite doesn't work with any dynamic object and only with static environment assets... which is not too bad but still, we might see some weird mismatch where static stuff is super high detail but as soon as you get close to a character you see obvious polygon edges and stuff.

so until someone shows a 60fps demo that looks impressive imma be very reserved with my expectations on this engine
 
shahs of sunset sex and dating GIF by RealityTVGIFs
 

Kenpachii

Member
The comments are largely meaningless until they start showing what they are able to do though.
Microsoft seems to be having issues managing their messaging at the moment, an email sent to IGN to counter how people are reacting to what they show is hardly the most positive way to show off their games. I'd say the same for the Halo demos they've just shown too.
Saying that the email came from "a representative for The Coalition" makes it sound specifically that it's come from somebody in PR rather than somebody who actually understands the tech.

Problem i have with the demo that after playing AC origin a game from 2017 on ultra high with PC, the whole coalition demo looks like it could belong in that game. It's just not a jump forwards from what i would expect from a new generation console. they need to start smashing the detail far higher and make a game from 2017 look like ancient.

But they won't becaues the only thing they are focused at is static enviroments that feel death already.

Just look at this.
11wbAEj.jpg


rM6lp4W.jpg


a00a5aadd3adf89bd104abc5617396d3.jpg


b15ac30b4b72a8739a830673248c56ee.jpg
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
Then they should have showed the iceberg and not the tip.

The demo was underwhelming.

Unlike the Sony/Epic funded demo this wasn't made for a general audience to sell a console, it was made for TC (and other developers) to test workflow and find out where UE5 took them in form of pros and cons, modifications, and to give feedback to Epic about it all. There's no point analyzing solely the clip taken out of the presentation because the demo is TC presenting how it was made and their experience with it. To make it into something else is either ignorant or disingenuous.
 
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Unlike the Sony/Epic funded demo this wasn't made for a general audience to sell a console, it was made for TC (and other developers) to test workflow and find out where UE5 took them in form of pros and cons, modifications, and to give feedback to Epic about it all.
The Epic demo that ran on PS5 was actually made as a playable demo for GDC to advertise the engine to developers rather than being made to sell consoles to the public. GDC are by their very nature for game developers, the vast majority of people who end buying any of the consoles will have no idea at all what GDC is.
I would say that although it did the job of selling the engine to developers I don;t think it was that impressive as at the time it could only run at 40fps to 45fps on the PS5 so they ended up locking it at 30fps.
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
Hmmm. Sounds like damage control. I Thought the demo looked fine. But they probably shouldn't even hyped it up if it was internal only thing.
Agree. I thought it was gonna be longer. I wasnt expecting anything like the initial reveal that was on PS5 but just something longer.
 

oldergamer

Member
Problem i have with the demo that after playing AC origin a game from 2017 on ultra high with PC, the whole coalition demo looks like it could belong in that game. It's just not a jump forwards from what i would expect from a new generation console. they need to start smashing the detail far higher and make a game from 2017 look like ancient.

But they won't becaues the only thing they are focused at is static enviroments that feel death already.

Just look at this.
11wbAEj.jpg


rM6lp4W.jpg


a00a5aadd3adf89bd104abc5617396d3.jpg


b15ac30b4b72a8739a830673248c56ee.jpg
Still trying to downplay it? predictable
 

CamHostage

Member
Unlike the Sony/Epic funded demo this wasn't made for a general audience to sell a console, it was made for TC (and other developers) to test workflow and find out where UE5 took them in form of pros and cons, modifications, and to give feedback to Epic about it all. There's no point analyzing solely the clip taken out of the presentation because the demo is TC presenting how it was made and their experience with it. To make it into something else is either ignorant or disingenuous.

That's fine, but...
  • It's over a year later
  • It's a project for a console that's now been on the market for 8 months
  • It's three months after the UE5 Early Access preview build was released to the public, with countless project demos presented already on Youtube & Twitch
  • It's a very capable developer, owned by the console manufacturer, at a leading trade show (where, not always, but big demos do sometimes get unleashed)
  • It was promoted beyond the trade show, and released to the public through mainstream channels (including the Xbox Youtube page)
To act like it's no big deal that 40 seconds of rocks and one unanimated face were promoted in 2021 as a "an early look at what’s possible with Unreal Engine 5 on Xbox Series X|S" when we've already saw in 2020 an early look at what was possible with UE5 on the other console and we've seen all year long early looks at what's possible on PC, that's tough to give a pass here. There's reasons why this demo was what it was, and there's reasons why dabblers can make things that seem awesome with UE5 Preview but that a pro studio still has to do it the hard way, and there may be reasons why the PS5 demo was possible a year earlier yet that platform's technology may not be as far ahead as it seems... but those reasons are not going to be seen as reasonable until the audience gets to start seeing delivery on expectations and excitement. This wasn't that, I wouldn't say.

And even now, Coalition is kind of backhandedly promoting this as a big deal as part of its damage control. I can understand, it is a big deal to them and to MS (and maybe to other developers,) but it's hard to take it as a big deal for gamers. Like, they "anticipate" that future UE5 Xbox projects will eclipse Alpha Point? I should hope so, games usually need more than a metal diamond in a hallway to be fun. They shouldn't have released it to the public, and if they were going to release it, they should have been smarter about how to talk about it in public so Xbox gamers know what it really means and where their console of choice really stands as this next-generation technology comes closer to being used in actual games. Instead, the demo says something to the fans that isn't good in comparison to everything around it, and this new response is kind of continuing that impression for fans. It's a lot of talk about how awesome UE5 on Xbox Series X/S will be, and how this is just the beginning of their work to bring it over, but (at least as the public understands it, which is different from how developers know it to be, but the optics are what they are) we have seen way more than the beginnings of UE5 elsewhere.

Tip of the iceberg? That's one way to look at it...

okSslGv.jpg
 
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oldergamer

Member
That's fine, but...
  • It's over a year later
  • It's a project for a console that's now been on the market for 8 months
  • It's three months after the UE5 Early Access preview build was released to the public, with countless project demos presented already on Youtube & Twitch
  • It's a very capable developer, owned by a major manufacturer, at a leading trade show, where big demos do sometimes get unleashed
  • It was promoted beyond the trade show, and released to the public through mainstream channels (including the Xbox Youtube page)
To act like it's no big deal that 40 seconds of rocks and one unanimated face were promoted in 2021 as a "an early look at what’s possible with Unreal Engine 5 on Xbox Series X|S" when we've already saw in 2020 an early look at what was possible with UE5 on the other console and we've seen all year long early looks at what's possible on PC, that's tough to give a pass here. There's reasons why this demo was what it was, and there's reasons why dabblers can make things that seem awesome with UE5 Preview but that a pro studio still has to do it the hard way, and there may be reasons why the PS5 demo was possible a year earlier yet that platform's technology may not be as far ahead as it seems... but those reasons are not going to be seen as reasonable until the audience gets to start seeing delivery on expectations and excitement. This wasn't that, I wouldn't say.

And even now, Coalition is kind of backhandedly promoting this as a big deal as part of its damage control. I can understand, it is a big deal to them and to MS (and maybe to other developers,) but it's hard to take it as a big deal for gamers. Like, they "anticipate" that future UE5 Xbox projects will eclipse Alpha Point? I should hope so, games usually need more than a metal diamond in a hallway to be fun. They shouldn't have released it to the public, and if they were going to release it, they should have been smarter about how to talk about it in public so Xbox gamers know what it really means and where their console of choice really stands as this next-generation technology comes closer to being used in actual games. Instead, the demo says something to the fans that isn't good in comparison to everything around it, and this new response is kind of continuing that impression for fans. It's a lot of talk about how awesome UE5 on Xbox Series X/S will be, and how this is just the beginning of their work to bring it over, but (at least as the public understands it, which is different from how developers know it to be, but the optics are what they are) we have seen way more than the beginnings of UE5 elsewhere.

Tip of the iceberg? That's one way to look at it...

okSslGv.jpg
What a load of crap. You and others are over analyzing something fully intended for game developers.

You have yet to see a single thing from a game studio using unreal 5 until this gdc talk, yet you claim amature demos of ported unreal 4 projects are some how comparable? They talked about technology and this done to build on top of some ue5 features. You and many others are missing the point as usual.
 

nemiroff

Gold Member
That's fine, but...
  • It's over a year later
  • It's a project for a console that's now been on the market for 8 months
  • It's three months after the UE5 Early Access preview build was released to the public, with countless project demos presented already on Youtube & Twitch
  • It's a very capable developer, owned by a major manufacturer, at a leading trade show, where big demos do sometimes get unleashed
  • It was promoted beyond the trade show, and released to the public through mainstream channels (including the Xbox Youtube page)
To act like it's no big deal that 40 seconds of rocks and one unanimated face were promoted in 2021 as a "an early look at what’s possible with Unreal Engine 5 on Xbox Series X|S" when we've already saw in 2020 an early look at what was possible with UE5 on the other console and we've seen all year long early looks at what's possible on PC, that's tough to give a pass here. There's reasons why this demo was what it was, and there's reasons why dabblers can make things that seem awesome with UE5 Preview but that a pro studio still has to do it the hard way, and there may be reasons why the PS5 demo was possible a year earlier yet that platform's technology may not be as far ahead as it seems... but those reasons are not going to be seen as reasonable until the audience gets to start seeing delivery on expectations and excitement. This wasn't that, I wouldn't say.

And even now, Coalition is kind of backhandedly promoting this as a big deal as part of its damage control. I can understand, it is a big deal to them and to MS (and maybe to other developers,) but it's hard to take it as a big deal for gamers. Like, they "anticipate" that future UE5 Xbox projects will eclipse Alpha Point? I should hope so, games usually need more than a metal diamond in a hallway to be fun. They shouldn't have released it to the public, and if they were going to release it, they should have been smarter about how to talk about it in public so Xbox gamers know what it really means and where their console of choice really stands as this next-generation technology comes closer to being used in actual games. Instead, the demo says something to the fans that isn't good in comparison to everything around it, and this new response is kind of continuing that impression for fans. It's a lot of talk about how awesome UE5 on Xbox Series X/S will be, and how this is just the beginning of their work to bring it over, but (at least as the public understands it, which is different from how developers know it to be, but the optics are what they are) we have seen way more than the beginnings of UE5 elsewhere.

Tip of the iceberg? That's one way to look at it...

okSslGv.jpg

The wall of text you wrote changes none of the simple facts that I stated. It's almost like you even didn't read it judging by lines like "it's hard to take it as a big deal for gamers". WELL, NO SHIT SHERLOCK! This test that was later used for the presentation wasn't for gamers, the only reason they finally released the presentation was because people demanded it because they were hoping to use it for warring (well, to be fair, some are legitimately into the behind the scenes stuff). UE5 is not finished, TC put a handful of its people at the task of helping preparing themselves for the workflow and to give feedback to Epic so that they'll make UE5 mature enough to help make a fully realized big game. As it is now, according to devs like TC it needs more iterations. It's all in the presentation they released, which the small clip was a part of.
 
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elliot5

Member
The wall of text you wrote changes none of the simple facts that I stated. It's almost like you even didn't read it judging by lines like "it's hard to take it as a big deal for gamers". WELL, NO SHIT SHERLOCK! It wasn't for gamers, the only reason they finally released the presentation was because people demanded it because they were hoping to use it for warring (well, to be fair, some are legitimately into the behind the scenes stuff). UE5 is not finished, TC put a handful of its people at the task of helping preparing themselves for the workflow and for Epic to make a UE5 good enough to make a game. As it is now, according to devs like TC it needs more iterations. It's all in the presentation they released, which the small clip was a part of.
It's also dumb reading comments about how hobbyists have uploaded Nanite/Lumen tech demos that look "more impressive" or whatever since the preview build went public.

Like, okay? The Coalition made this demo as a way to explore functionality and pipeline changes. They have to consider frametime budgets and artist workflows and overall tools necessary for content creation. Joe Schmoe on his 3090 rig dumping in photogrammetry assets and megascans doesn't. The considerations TC is making takes time as they are putting in the work now to make things easier in the future. Epic made impressive demos previously, but they were demos made internally which are always going to be the best quality. It's apples and oranges.
 

CamHostage

Member
What a load of crap. You and others are over analyzing something fully intended for game developers.

You have yet to see a single thing from a game studio using unreal 5 until this gdc talk, yet you claim amateur demos of ported unreal 4 projects are some how comparable? They talked about technology and this done to build on top of some ue5 features. You and many others are missing the point as usual.

You've commented on my posts on other threads and I assume read the parentheticals in what I wrote, so you know that I generally understand the real technical work underneath and what "the point" of the demo was supposed to be...

Problem is, fuck "the point". They released a tech demo for gamers to see, and it was some rocks and a face and not a ton else. And they told those who tuned in that this was "first bits of...what’s possible with next-gen character creation" and "an early look at what’s possible with Unreal Engine 5 on Xbox Series X|S." (And then, they went to mainstream site IGN to try to explain things further, and instead of downplaying the situation as you are indicating they should have, they apparently said it was just the tip of the iceberg.)

Because, you know, this other GDC demo from earlier was also something fully intended for game developers too. Also, it was freaking awesome.



It wasn't for gamers, the only reason they finally released the presentation was because people demanded it because they were hoping to use it for warring (well, to be fair, some are legitimately into the behind the scenes stuff).

You're simply wrong that they released it just because people "demanded" it.

A, that's not how GDC presentations work that the speaker can just release it if there's a lot of demand. (People pay over $350 for those badges, and rights to rebroadcast presentations are only kept by the owners if it was agreed to ahead of time in the terms of the show, otherwise GDC has its own streaming service for making show content available afterwards, for a subscription price.) Epic Games had already gone about to retain the rights, and it release all of its GDC 2021 streaming presentation events, including the Alpha Point one they hosted and invited The Coalition to present at.

And B, this was promoted to the public (albeit on tech sites, if you want to call The Coalition's Twitter page a tech site, but Microsoft and Coalition did nothing to tamp down expectations when it started to get buzz in the mainstream,) it was immediately announced by Coalition's Studio TD that it would be made public after there was confusion that maybe it wouldn't be, and it was released on Xbox's main Youtube page (they have separate a Microsoft Game Stack account for tech-oriented video releases) as well as given out to the media.

It's also dumb reading comments about how hobbyists have uploaded Nanite/Lumen tech demos that look "more impressive" or whatever since the preview build went public.

Like, okay? The Coalition made this demo as a way to explore functionality and pipeline changes.

They did the work for real. And they also had a number of backend goals with the project, including assessing for Microsoft and Epic how best to optimize UE5 and other tools for the future as these services come to viable use. The full talk reveals a lot about what this project was behind the scenes. (BTW, Colin Penty of Coalition takes a little poke at people impressed by the dabblers porting their UE4 projects and kitbashing some Quixel assets and calling it a "UE5 demo", that the scene is cool but the real work with UE5 is much, much more complicated.) Alpha Point was made to learn about and to build upon the future of UE5 on Xbox hardware, and looking kind of cool was pretty far down the line of points to meet in project goals.

True to all of that. A technical person may get what they needed out of seeing the Alpha Point reveal. A general person, however, will see a forest full of apples and one single, tiny, mostly-green little orange, and they're not going to hear the reasoning when somebody says it's an apples-to-oranges comparison.
 
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Kenpachii

Member
Unlike the Sony/Epic funded demo this wasn't made for a general audience to sell a console, it was made for TC (and other developers) to test workflow and find out where UE5 took them in form of pros and cons, modifications, and to give feedback to Epic about it all. There's no point analyzing solely the clip taken out of the presentation because the demo is TC presenting how it was made and their experience with it. To make it into something else is either ignorant or disingenuous.

U mean, a xbox developer made a tech demo for there xbox pushed by xbox and in the hottest and most discussed engine on the web by gamers which created massive traffic for UE5 and PS5 and PC crowd on all gamer websites and forums and now xbox does a tech demo and suddenly "its not for any of those people and won't for sure be picked up by gamer media or discussion forums"

Delusional.

The moment u drop this shit on the internet with those tags it will be picked up 100% by gamers.

The demo is absolutely laughable. for the reasons everybody already pointed out in the thread.

Still trying to downplay it? predictable

Go on, what's so predictable about it? Please explain i wanna see your shit logic in full display.
 
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umwhat

Banned
Then they should have showed the iceberg and not the tip.

The demo was underwhelming.
tell me you know nothing about development without telling me you know nothing about development

do you honestly think a new iteration of an engine comes out and BOOM the devs are all injected with 100% knowledge and skill of the new toolset? Yikes.
 

lh032

I cry about Xbox and hate PlayStation.
we want the whole thing, not just the tip., tip alone will not satisfy us.
 
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umwhat

Banned
we want the whole thing, not just the tip., tip alone will not satisfy us.
Question for you: why do you think games look better over a generation? Why didn't games look like TLOU2 and GoT when the PS4 dropped? Don't strain yourself.
 

Kenpachii

Member
tell me you know nothing about development without telling me you know nothing about development

do you honestly think a new iteration of an engine comes out and BOOM the devs are all injected with 100% knowledge and skill of the new toolset? Yikes.

cringe-gif-13.gif


Guess random people not hired by a 2 trillion company juggernaut are able to do so?

Watch this









There are like 100's of them lamo.

U still think its not embarrassing mate?

Get first demo, with curtains then the other one with its grass physics.

e048524a8a8b0c68578fbf86adf27298.gif


Then smash it up with a gears of 6 model they are making for there game and smash the entire room up with endless physics.

tenor.gif
 
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Shmunter

Member
I’m sure the next Gears game from them will look great, but this tech demo wasn’t that good.
Big misstep. After a year of debate on UE5 after what was shown on PS5, this comes out and makes a mockery of ‘what to expect’ from next gen.

And proclaiming it’s just the tip of the iceberg as if it were some kind of Wow moment really comes across as complete lack of self awareness.

Obviously sound minds can extrapolate that things will look a lot better down the track, but that doesn’t preclude the fact that this whole thing is a shambles.
 
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CamHostage

Member
tell me you know nothing about development without telling me you know nothing about development

do you honestly think a new iteration of an engine comes out and BOOM the devs are all injected with 100% knowledge and skill of the new toolset? Yikes.
Is GAF a place where you need to know something about development to be part of the experience? Is Xbox's video hub? Is IGN?!

If this was just game developers talking about Alpha Point, then you wouldn't need to write BOOM in all capital letters when talking with one another because we'd be speaking on a different level of understanding. But it's not. This was a publicly presented UE5 demo, the third one brought to a GDC to show the engine's power, the first on this console after an earlier demo was shown on the "other" console, and you tell me where it ranks in terms of impressing you?

I said no such thing, now did I? ....Can you point to where I stated only developers can talk on GAF?

Is this a trick question? I'm trying not making fun, but you do know what the point of the "Tell Me Without Telling Me" meme that you used here, right?

Also, you did BOOM, but never mind, we've got other things to talk about...
 
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umwhat

Banned
cringe-gif-13.gif


Guess random people not hired by a 2 trillion company juggernaut are able to do so?

Watch this









There are like 100's of them lamo.

U still think its not embarrassing mate?

Get first demo, throw the shit u see in here with the curtains like this in there, with the moving grass of the other demo.

e048524a8a8b0c68578fbf86adf27298.gif


Then smash it up with a gears of 6 character they already have to show of physics etc.

tenor.gif

Did you... just really use single rooms and landscapes you can hardly see as evidence of your point? Yikes.

Question for you too! Why doesn't any PS5 game look like this at the launch of the console? Do you think they intentionally hold back ? YIKES.
 
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umwhat

Banned
Is GAF a place where you need to know something about development to be part of the experience? Is Xbox's video hub? Is IGN?!

If this was just game developers talking about Alpha Point, then you wouldn't need to write BOOM in all capital letters when talking with one another because we'd be speaking on a different level of understanding. But it's not. This was a publicly presented UE5 demo, the third one brought to a GDC to show the engine's power, the first on this console after an earlier demo was shown on the "other" console, and you tell me where it ranks in terms of impressing you?
I said no such thing, now did I? Read that second sentence I wrote REALLY closely, champ. Can you point to where I stated only developers can talk on GAF?

Lmfao. I did not write BOOM in all caps anywhere. Again, why do launch games not look like end of gen games? There is your answer :D
 
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CamHostage

Member
Big misstep. After a year of debate on UE5 after what was shown on PS5, this comes out and makes a mockery of ‘what to expect’ from next gen.

And proclaiming it’s just the tip of the iceberg as if it were some kind of Wow moment really comes across as complete lack of self awareness.

Interestingly, Sony's own studios may be (and probably are? most certainly are?) just as far back as Microsoft's studio here as far as actually making anything with UE5.

The software's not done yet (even Epic can only make this or that with it because it's fundamentally not finished,) and despite the Early Access build having some really cool features, it's really not ready to make a "real game" with. Developers have their work cut out to do all the things they need to do with their tools when prepping to move to a brand new process, and pre-fab UE5 may look good in the Early Access project videos, but professional game development is another matter. Also, we're used to game devs having access to technology in private long before we the public see it, so when we saw Epic show UE5 last year and then release the Early Access build wide this year, it was easy to think, "Oh shit, just imagine what the pros have been making with this all that time...", but Coalition didn't get its pre-Early Access copy until November, and even that was a step under what got released in May. So, yes, we saw the PS5 demo by Epic and it worked fine even before the console released - and was playable - but that's Epic on its own software. If one of Microsoft's lead studios, a studio that's acting as go-between for optimization for the whole platform before they ever commit a project to the technology, if they only got it in house a few months ago, probably nobody outside Epic is really that far into UE5 project prototyping or understanding yet how to bend the technology to their needs.

...But, then, Sony didn't go in public and whip out the tip of their iceberg.

(In fact, when they wanted to show some ice, they just invited out the iceberg.)
 
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elliot5

Member
cringe-gif-13.gif


Guess random people not hired by a 2 trillion company juggernaut are able to do so?

Watch this









There are like 100's of them lamo.

U still think its not embarrassing mate?

Get first demo, throw the shit u see in here with the curtains like this in there, with the moving grass of the other demo.

e048524a8a8b0c68578fbf86adf27298.gif


Then smash it up with a gears of 6 character they already have to show of physics etc.

tenor.gif

Nothing is impressive - beyond superficial 'wow lumen is cool' - about the demos you posted. They're all using photogrammetry or professional premade assets plopped in the editor and either ran at 15-20 fps or off a 3090 (check descriptions).

Like I've said in this thread, there's nothing special about hobbyists putting in marketplace or quixel megascans and assets in the editor. The needs of a real production studio differ greatly and that's what The Coalition is showing and talking about at GDC with their demos.
 

CamHostage

Member
Like I've said in this thread, there's nothing special about hobbyists putting in marketplace or quixel megascans and assets in the editor. The needs of a real production studio differ greatly and that's what The Coalition is showing and talking about at GDC with their demos.

...And if Microsoft/Coalition had been able to convey that to the public (or maybe better yet, had given that as its reason why the GDC demo was not shown to the public and then not shown it to the public,) that would have been one thing. It would have just been a developer talk, for and by developers, and maybe somebody would have snuck out a video rip, but it would have been clearer what the point was.

But in the eyes of fans excited for UE5 and interested in seeing it showcased, Microsoft is behind. PS5 was used to show a massive demo (a playable one at that) over a year ago on pre-released hardware, and it still has reverberations and inspires awes (and may be helping sell hardware) to this day. So now, this was kind of presented as the Xbox's first turn at bat. (Hype did run away from intentions, but MS made no attempt to reset expectations when the press started to write about the GDC showing, and they instead fanned the flames by giving those demos out to everybody.) It wasn't ever meant to be on that scale, it has different goals than competing on that scale, but it still weighed a heck of a lot less on the scale ultimately.
 

ZehDon

Member
Yeah, talking up the tech demo for a developer conference was always going to lead to heart ache. This wasn't something they should've hyped - now people think this is what their team and their hardware can achieve, as opposed to being a floor for "this is where we are in terms of workflow, with over a year of fulltime work to go before the engine itself is even ready for proper release".
 

Sinthor

Gold Member
Well, they are beautiful demos, I'll give them that. Reminds me of when new computers from Commodore or Atari would come out and there would be graphic 'demos' to show what the systems could do with graphics. Thing is, we never saw actual GAMES on those systems which performed and looked like those demos. It doesn't seem that things have changed that much even in 20+ years. Until we start seeing actual games that can look and perform like these demos we need to temper expectations somewhat. The demos are still very cool and valid in that they show some of the best that these systems can do. But to pretend (at least currently) that they represent what actual developed titles will be like is disingenuous. At least until or unless things change.

So everyone should enjoy and talk about the details of these demos in detail. Just don't tie your hopes and emotions to them because it's more likely than not that you'll be disappointed if you do.

That said, the character rendering demo looked really good as well, but I noted that unlike some other character demo's we've seen there was absolutely no animation. It was completely still. Now, I think they could have animated it probably at that same level of detail, but then again maybe not!
 
The wall of text you wrote changes none of the simple facts that I stated. It's almost like you even didn't read it judging by lines like "it's hard to take it as a big deal for gamers". WELL, NO SHIT SHERLOCK! This test that was later used for the presentation wasn't for gamers, the only reason they finally released the presentation was because people demanded it because they were hoping to use it for warring (well, to be fair, some are legitimately into the behind the scenes stuff). UE5 is not finished, TC put a handful of its people at the task of helping preparing themselves for the workflow and to give feedback to Epic so that they'll make UE5 mature enough to help make a fully realized big game. As it is now, according to devs like TC it needs more iterations. It's all in the presentation they released, which the small clip was a part of.
It's like trying to get blood from a stone with a lot of these posters, they literally bury their heads to the facts and push their own agenda.

On the demo, it's great to see The Coalition working with Epic on adding and improving UE5 just like they did with UE4. Hopefully they have the two projects in development like the rumours suggest.
 

Helghan

Member
cringe-gif-13.gif


Guess random people not hired by a 2 trillion company juggernaut are able to do so?

Watch this









There are like 100's of them lamo.

U still think its not embarrassing mate?

Get first demo, with curtains then the other one with its grass physics.

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Then smash it up with a gears of 6 model they are making for there game and smash the entire room up with endless physics.

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The fact you think this is representative of game development is what baffles me.
 

Greggy

Member
That's fine, but...
  • It's over a year later
  • It's a project for a console that's now been on the market for 8 months
  • It's three months after the UE5 Early Access preview build was released to the public, with countless project demos presented already on Youtube & Twitch
  • It's a very capable developer, owned by a major manufacturer, at a leading trade show, where big demos do sometimes get unleashed
  • It was promoted beyond the trade show, and released to the public through mainstream channels (including the Xbox Youtube page)
To act like it's no big deal that 40 seconds of rocks and one unanimated face were promoted in 2021 as a "an early look at what’s possible with Unreal Engine 5 on Xbox Series X|S" when we've already saw in 2020 an early look at what was possible with UE5 on the other console and we've seen all year long early looks at what's possible on PC, that's tough to give a pass here. There's reasons why this demo was what it was, and there's reasons why dabblers can make things that seem awesome with UE5 Preview but that a pro studio still has to do it the hard way, and there may be reasons why the PS5 demo was possible a year earlier yet that platform's technology may not be as far ahead as it seems... but those reasons are not going to be seen as reasonable until the audience gets to start seeing delivery on expectations and excitement. This wasn't that, I wouldn't say.

And even now, Coalition is kind of backhandedly promoting this as a big deal as part of its damage control. I can understand, it is a big deal to them and to MS (and maybe to other developers,) but it's hard to take it as a big deal for gamers. Like, they "anticipate" that future UE5 Xbox projects will eclipse Alpha Point? I should hope so, games usually need more than a metal diamond in a hallway to be fun. They shouldn't have released it to the public, and if they were going to release it, they should have been smarter about how to talk about it in public so Xbox gamers know what it really means and where their console of choice really stands as this next-generation technology comes closer to being used in actual games. Instead, the demo says something to the fans that isn't good in comparison to everything around it, and this new response is kind of continuing that impression for fans. It's a lot of talk about how awesome UE5 on Xbox Series X/S will be, and how this is just the beginning of their work to bring it over, but (at least as the public understands it, which is different from how developers know it to be, but the optics are what they are) we have seen way more than the beginnings of UE5 elsewhere.

Tip of the iceberg? That's one way to look at it...

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I'm not sure why you're judging that 40 seconds demo as if it was Gears of War 6. What damage is there to control? Damage to the reputation of the Coalition? No studio has a better track record of development on the Unreal Engine. Damage to the capacity of the console? Nobody who has Flight Simulator or who saw the E3 show and knows what's coming to Xbox can think that.
I'm all for nitpicking but let's not take our own forum speculation too seriously.
 

Vasto

Member
Long story short, " This is just a sample, its only going to get better "

Looking at what The Coalition has done with Gears I know their next game using UE5 is going to be look amazing. Series X is just an amazing system and games like Microsoft Flight Sim and Forza Horizon 5 are showing how it is in a league of its own.

Now how long before The Ascent unlocks. :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Salt Bae Sport GIF by UFC
 

Leyasu

Banned
The usual suspects in here talking shit and posting static room pictures like it provides proof.

TC showed some early tinkering for fellow devs. Have any devs came out and said that it was totally underwhelming yet? Have they been critical of the engine? Or is it just the internet trolls?

This should not be confused with what epic showed last year. Their demo was to sell licenses of their engine. Not even close
 
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