[0:06] Welcome to the Pay Save Supertore in
[0:09] downtown Colona. In previous games, a
[0:13] space like this was limited to three
[0:15] shadow casters in view. With megalytes,
[0:18] we now have hundreds of light sources,
[0:20] all casting shadows at 60 frames per
[0:23] second on Xbox Series X.
[0:30] This TV display wall utilizes animated
[0:33] area lights with light functions that
[0:35] are driven by the video itself fully on
[0:38] the GPU.
[0:40] They each cast eerie and unsettling
[0:43] dynamic shadows with soft penumbra
[0:46] across the scene.
[0:50] The pay and save is a great example of
[0:52] how we've created environments with
[0:54] geometry collection destructible assets
[0:57] like this tiled pillar.
[1:04] These dynamic objects cast and receive
[1:06] light correctly so destruction stays
[1:09] visually grounded exactly the way you'd
[1:11] expect in the real world.
[1:16] Let's check out the freezer section.
[1:19] All these freezers have multiple area
[1:21] lights inside them to simulate that
[1:24] realistic lighting effect of the frozen
[1:26] food section of your local grocery
[1:28] store.
[1:30] During combat, bullets create a dynamic
[1:33] shatter point in the glass. When it
[1:35] shatters, all the pieces collide with
[1:37] the environment using hardware ray trace
[1:40] collisions with physically accurate
[1:42] translucent reflections.
[1:49] It's amazing to see how many light
[1:51] sources there are in here. There are
[1:54] hundreds of them. From the small lights
[1:56] on Marcus' armor to the large spotlights
[1:59] on the ceiling,
[2:01] there is no way we'd ever be able to
[2:03] achieve this effect or have this many
[2:05] rayraced area lights on current
[2:07] generation hardware without mega lights.
[2:15] A staple of the Gears franchise, e-holes
[2:18] are back in Gears of War Eday. So, let's
[2:22] open some up
[2:29] without all the monsters in the way. You
[2:31] can see all the volumetrics and smoke
[2:34] lit perfectly.
[2:37] One of the things we're super excited
[2:39] about that was unthinkable in the past
[2:41] is having shadows on every single one of
[2:43] our muzzle flashes.
[2:48] This is a really great improvement that
[2:50] adds to the dynamic combat of gears with
[2:53] a more believable firing experience that
[2:55] puts you right in the middle of the
[2:57] action like never before.
[3:02] Our
[3:19] game isn't limited to just a single
[3:21] space. We can explore the entire city of
[3:24] Colona with tens of thousands of
[3:27] shadowcasting lights.
[3:33] Delivering EDAY with this level of
[3:35] visual fidelity has not been easy, but
[3:39] we can iterate so much faster with
[3:41] hardware ray trace lumen compared to the
[3:44] baked lighting we used in the past.
[3:48] With Megalytes, our lighters are no
[3:50] longer constrained by the number of
[3:51] real-time shadow casters, giving them
[3:54] the freedom to light our game with the
[3:56] same complexity as the real world.
[4:02] And we have 100 times the geometric
[4:04] detail in our assets due to Nanite's
[4:07] micro polygon rendering.
[4:19] Come on.
[4:24] >> We're all in. Hold tight while I get us
[4:27] the hell out of here.
[4:32] No,
[4:33] >> we're not out of it yet. Incoming.
[4:37] Eat it. You son of a [ __ ]
[4:43] >> I lost visual. Anyone see it?
[4:45] >> Negative. I've lost it.
[5:01] Stop there.
[5:03] >> MY BIRD.
[5:09] >> Once everything is dynamic, it starts to
[5:12] affect the gameplay in more direct ways.
[5:14] Players can shoot out the street lamp,
[5:17] flood a space with a flashlight, or they
[5:20] can leave an area in darkness and have
[5:22] the AI and PCs react to light and
[5:25] shadow,
[5:26] shying away from glare,
[5:29] searching through darkness,
[5:32] >> or escalating when something feels off.
[5:38] >> Let's see who's GOT THE BIGGER GUN,
[5:40] [ __ ]
[5:41] To make the city feel alive, we leaned
[5:43] on the mass framework to drive our
[5:45] crowds. MPC density and types shift
[5:48] based on time of day, region, and
[5:49] weather. In the slums, a storm clears
[5:52] the streets, but in the more sinful
[5:54] parts of Port Desire, even heavy rain
[5:56] won't slow things down. Mass lets us
[5:58] simulate thousands of characters at
[6:00] once, over 3,000 at any given time,
[6:02] which is also more than the entirety of
[6:04] the ascent. So, the city always feels
[6:06] active no matter where you are.
[6:09] We're also using using Metahuman paired
[6:11] with our own character randomization
[6:12] system. Together with Metahuman
[6:15] Animator, we can generate and bring to
[6:17] life thousands and thousands of
[6:19] variations of characters so that the
[6:21] main characters and the extras in the
[6:22] background are all unique.
[6:25] We wanted a world that reacted
[6:27] systemically to the player without us
[6:29] having to hand place effects and
[6:30] destruction. Filling a world of this
[6:33] density and scale with contextual
[6:34] effects while maintaining performance
[6:36] and interactivity was one of our key
[6:38] challenges. By combining PCG and Nagra
[6:41] data channels, environmental effects are
[6:43] procedurally populated where
[6:45] appropriate. Wherever artists place
[6:47] trash or leaves, particles will spawn
[6:49] dynamically based on wind, weather, and
[6:51] player actions.
[6:53] Shoot a bullet or throw a grenade and
[6:57] particles will move out of the way.
[7:01] We combined chaos physics and our own
[7:04] GPUdriven solution to support tens of
[7:06] thousands of moving objects
[7:08] simultaneously.
[7:09] The result is a reactive environment
[7:13] where smoke lingers,
[7:15] embers drift, and broken glass stays
[7:18] where it fell.
[7:21] Creating no law has been the process of
[7:23] finding where the engine ends and our
[7:25] custom tools begin. Achieving this level
[7:28] of density, lighting complexity, and
[7:30] systemic reactivity was previously
[7:32] impossible for a studio of our size. By
[7:35] leveraging UFI's latest tech to bypass
[7:39] traditional development bottlenecks, we
[7:41] have finally been able to build the
[7:44] uncompromised version of the world we
[7:46] wanted to create for years.
[8:14] Woo!