State of Unreal 2026: All the 4K Gameplay

[00:06] Welcome to the Pay Save Supertore in

[00:09] downtown Colona. In previous games, a

[00:13] space like this was limited to three

[00:15] shadow casters in view. With megalytes,

[00:18] we now have hundreds of light sources,

[00:20] all casting shadows at 60 frames per

[00:23] second on Xbox Series X.

[00:30] This TV display wall utilizes animated

[00:33] area lights with light functions that

[00:35] are driven by the video itself fully on

[00:38] the GPU.

[00:40] They each cast eerie and unsettling

[00:43] dynamic shadows with soft penumbra

[00:46] across the scene.

[00:50] The pay and save is a great example of

[00:52] how we've created environments with

[00:54] geometry collection destructible assets

[00:57] like this tiled pillar.

[01:04] These dynamic objects cast and receive

[01:06] light correctly so destruction stays

[01:09] visually grounded exactly the way you'd

[01:11] expect in the real world.

[01:16] Let's check out the freezer section.

[01:19] All these freezers have multiple area

[01:21] lights inside them to simulate that

[01:24] realistic lighting effect of the frozen

[01:26] food section of your local grocery

[01:28] store.

[01:30] During combat, bullets create a dynamic

[01:33] shatter point in the glass. When it

[01:35] shatters, all the pieces collide with

[01:37] the environment using hardware ray trace

[01:40] collisions with physically accurate

[01:42] translucent reflections.

[01:49] It's amazing to see how many light

[01:51] sources there are in here. There are

[01:54] hundreds of them. From the small lights

[01:56] on Marcus' armor to the large spotlights

[01:59] on the ceiling,

[02:01] there is no way we'd ever be able to

[02:03] achieve this effect or have this many

[02:05] rayraced area lights on current

[02:07] generation hardware without mega lights.

[02:15] A staple of the Gears franchise, e-holes

[02:18] are back in Gears of War Eday. So, let's

[02:22] open some up

[02:29] without all the monsters in the way. You

[02:31] can see all the volumetrics and smoke

[02:34] lit perfectly.

[02:37] One of the things we're super excited

[02:39] about that was unthinkable in the past

[02:41] is having shadows on every single one of

[02:43] our muzzle flashes.

[02:48] This is a really great improvement that

[02:50] adds to the dynamic combat of gears with

[02:53] a more believable firing experience that

[02:55] puts you right in the middle of the

[02:57] action like never before.

[03:02] Our

[03:19] game isn't limited to just a single

[03:21] space. We can explore the entire city of

[03:24] Colona with tens of thousands of

[03:27] shadowcasting lights.

[03:33] Delivering EDAY with this level of

[03:35] visual fidelity has not been easy, but

[03:39] we can iterate so much faster with

[03:41] hardware ray trace lumen compared to the

[03:44] baked lighting we used in the past.

[03:48] With Megalytes, our lighters are no

[03:50] longer constrained by the number of

[03:51] real-time shadow casters, giving them

[03:54] the freedom to light our game with the

[03:56] same complexity as the real world.

[04:02] And we have 100 times the geometric

[04:04] detail in our assets due to Nanite's

[04:07] micro polygon rendering.

[04:19] Come on.

[04:24] >> We're all in. Hold tight while I get us

[04:27] the hell out of here.

[04:32] No,

[04:33] >> we're not out of it yet. Incoming.

[04:37] Eat it. You son of a [ __ ]

[04:43] >> I lost visual. Anyone see it?

[04:45] >> Negative. I've lost it.

[05:01] Stop there.

[05:03] >> MY BIRD.

[05:09] >> Once everything is dynamic, it starts to

[05:12] affect the gameplay in more direct ways.

[05:14] Players can shoot out the street lamp,

[05:17] flood a space with a flashlight, or they

[05:20] can leave an area in darkness and have

[05:22] the AI and PCs react to light and

[05:25] shadow,

[05:26] shying away from glare,

[05:29] searching through darkness,

[05:32] >> or escalating when something feels off.

[05:38] >> Let's see who's GOT THE BIGGER GUN,

[05:40] [ __ ]

[05:41] To make the city feel alive, we leaned

[05:43] on the mass framework to drive our

[05:45] crowds. MPC density and types shift

[05:48] based on time of day, region, and

[05:49] weather. In the slums, a storm clears

[05:52] the streets, but in the more sinful

[05:54] parts of Port Desire, even heavy rain

[05:56] won't slow things down. Mass lets us

[05:58] simulate thousands of characters at

[06:00] once, over 3,000 at any given time,

[06:02] which is also more than the entirety of

[06:04] the ascent. So, the city always feels

[06:06] active no matter where you are.

[06:09] We're also using using Metahuman paired

[06:11] with our own character randomization

[06:12] system. Together with Metahuman

[06:15] Animator, we can generate and bring to

[06:17] life thousands and thousands of

[06:19] variations of characters so that the

[06:21] main characters and the extras in the

[06:22] background are all unique.

[06:25] We wanted a world that reacted

[06:27] systemically to the player without us

[06:29] having to hand place effects and

[06:30] destruction. Filling a world of this

[06:33] density and scale with contextual

[06:34] effects while maintaining performance

[06:36] and interactivity was one of our key

[06:38] challenges. By combining PCG and Nagra

[06:41] data channels, environmental effects are

[06:43] procedurally populated where

[06:45] appropriate. Wherever artists place

[06:47] trash or leaves, particles will spawn

[06:49] dynamically based on wind, weather, and

[06:51] player actions.

[06:53] Shoot a bullet or throw a grenade and

[06:57] particles will move out of the way.

[07:01] We combined chaos physics and our own

[07:04] GPUdriven solution to support tens of

[07:06] thousands of moving objects

[07:08] simultaneously.

[07:09] The result is a reactive environment

[07:13] where smoke lingers,

[07:15] embers drift, and broken glass stays

[07:18] where it fell.

[07:21] Creating no law has been the process of

[07:23] finding where the engine ends and our

[07:25] custom tools begin. Achieving this level

[07:28] of density, lighting complexity, and

[07:30] systemic reactivity was previously

[07:32] impossible for a studio of our size. By

[07:35] leveraging UFI's latest tech to bypass

[07:39] traditional development bottlenecks, we

[07:41] have finally been able to build the

[07:44] uncompromised version of the world we

[07:46] wanted to create for years.

[08:14] Woo!