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How The Coalition Worked with Epic to Bring The Matrix Awakens to Life on Xbox Series X|S - Xbox Wire

Yesterday, in a surprise announcement at The Game Awards, Epic Games revealed that The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience, a new playable Unreal Engine 5 technical demo, was available for everyone on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Created by members of the original “The Matrix”movie...

news.xbox.com

Yesterday, in a surprise announcement at The Game Awards, Epic Games revealed that The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience, a new playable Unreal Engine 5 technical demo, was available for everyone on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Created by members of the original “The Matrix”movie team including Lana Wachowski, James McTeigue, and John Gaeta in collaboration with teams across both Epic Games and partners, this experience offers a glimpse at what interactive storytelling and entertainment created with Unreal Engine 5 could look like in the future.

One of those partners was The Coalition, the studio behind the Gears series, who have been working with Unreal Engine for many years now. With that experience under their collective belt, the team set out to support development of the project. While Epic created the demo, The Coalition got involved helping to refine and optimize their vision, having previously worked with Epic on UE4 support for Xbox Series X.

“We worked with Epic on the initial Unreal Engine 4 support for Xbox Series X when the new console was revealed back in March 2020,” says Kate Rayner, Studio Technical Director at The Coalition. “We later shipped a native update to Gears 5 on Xbox Series X|S that added visual enhancements like SSGI, increased material & texture details, and pushed our 4k real-time cinematics to 60fps, all while boosting Multiplayer to support a 120FPS performance mode. Through this we learned how to optimize for that hardware to push visual and performance.”

When Epic reached out in 2021, The Coalition had been working with Unreal Engine 5 “Early Access” for almost a year. The team had been collaborating and providing feedback to Epic about their experiences with UE5, which especially helped to push it forward for Xbox Series X|S and Windows PCs. With their track record of creating games that are technical showcases for Unreal and Xbox, along with their collaboration and early experience with UE5, The Coalition was positioned well to jump in and help optimize and polish The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience with Epic.

So what exactly did the team at The Coalition do? A primary focus for them was on memory and performance optimizations to fully take advantage of both Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Because the experience features an incredibly large and dense world with a staggering amount of content, the first step was working on memory optimization. In that area, they worked with Epic to ensure the assets in the demo were set up to fully leverage virtual texture streaming and nanite wherever possible and tuned internal memory systems, especially on Xbox Series S, to ensure it all fit in the memory.

On the performance optimizations side, the teams made some threading improvements to improve utilization of the CPU cores. They also made some Xbox Raytracing optimizations, resulting in performance wins of about 0.5ms. Finally, they enabled Vertical Sync tuning to ensure a stable FPS throughout the experience.

With this focus, the Xbox Series S version shipped with all the same UE5 features enabled as Xbox Series X (albeit with different quality) including but not limited to raytraced reflections and raytraced shadows. Regardless of which platform you experience it on, you’re in for a visual treat.

“Unreal Engine 5 has continued to improve from the “Early Access” version over the last several months, both in terms of performance and quality. The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience is an excellent example of all of UE5’s systems coming together to make something special and noticeably next-gen,” says Rayner. “Most of all, it really got us excited for the potential of Raytracing for shadows and Lumen, Nanite at scale with Virtual Shadow Maps, and the new World Partition System tying it all together. With these technical advances, it’s never been a better time to be a gamer.”

 

[Nyxir]

I cannot wait for their next game.

 

[Elder Legend]

Bring on Gears 6.

 

[TheDreadLord]

I would love if they had more creativity freedom to explore the Gears lore. It is a shame we don’t get more of it. I can easily see a horror/survival game based on this universe. Heck, even a rpg would be possible.

 

[Iced Arcade]

the coalition is basically the best with unreal next to epic.

 

[Ozriel]

I would love if they had more creativity freedom to explore the Gears lore. It is a shame we don’t get more of it. I can easily see a horror/survival game based on this universe. Heck, even a rpg would be possible.

they have all the creativity they need, tbh.
They just can’t make too many changes in the mainline games since it’s welded to the Multiplayer.

you’re right that they’d need to make it a spin-off to make it dramatically different

 

[Bernkastel]

you’re right that they’d need to make it a spin-off to make it dramatically different

Gears Tactics

 

[JLB]

Geard 6 will be something to watch.

 

[R3claimer117]

the coalition is basically the best with unreal next to epic.

They’re better then epic at this point they’re are the masters of that engine by far.

 

[SlimySnake]

They’re better then epic at this point they’re are the masters of that engine by far.

Eh. Epic created this and the PS5 demo earlier this year.

Epic is leagues ahead of everyone out there right now.

 

[Gameplaylover]

Can't wait for Gears 6. Gears 5 Series patched already looks better than most current gen games.

 

[Ghost of Caelid]

The Coalition is the GOAT with the engine. I cant wait to see their next non gears game...going to be a treat.

 

[JLB]

I would love if they had more creativity freedom to explore the Gears lore. It is a shame we don’t get more of it. I can easily see a horror/survival game based on this universe. Heck, even a rpg would be possible.

With Ninja Theory (Hellblade 2, Project Mara) + Starfield + Outer Worlds2 + new InXile thing + Fable plus others, horror and rpg are specially well served. I'd say they stick doing what they do great.

 

[JLB]

Can't wait for Gears 6. Gears 5 Series patched already looks better than most current gen games.

Indeed. Hyvebusters is going the best looking games out there.

 

[R3claimer117]

Eh. Epic created this and the PS5 demo earlier this year.

Epic is leagues ahead of everyone out there right now.

Coalition makes the best unreal games we aren’t talking about demos and performance wise also. Yes the guys creating the engine make the best tech demos. They engine in the hands of the coalition makes better games.

 

[SLB1904]

They’re better then epic at this point they’re are the masters of that engine by far.

jesus christ

 

[BennyBlanco]

They should let the Coalition make a Matrix game. Enjoyed Gears 5 but can’t say I’m in a rush for another one.

 

[Imtjnotu]

They’re better then epic at this point they’re are the masters of that engine by far.

 

[Darsxx82]

Reading the article you get the feeling that without the help of TC the XSeries version of the demo might not have been released.

Practically TC's job was to help optimize a demo previously created by EPIC, possibly for PS5. It would not be surprising knowing that EPIC already made another specific one for PS5.

TC is MS's weapon for the UE5 to end up working its best on XSeries and especially extra work on XSS. The feeling that right now the UE5 in XSeries is less optimized than in PS5 and that Epic and other dev required the help of TC, better aware of the specialties of XSX and XSS.

It's my feeling at least maybe Im wrong

That said, TC is great and knows UE as well as EPIC itself. Surely now they are quite busy instructing the large number of Xbox Game Studios developers who use UE5 for their games.

 

[SlimySnake]

Reading the article you get the feeling that without the help of TC the XSeries version of the demo might not have been released.

Practically TC's job was to help optimize a demo previously created by EPIC, possibly for PS5. It would not be surprising knowing that EPIC already made another specific one for PS5.

TC is MS's weapon for the UE5 to end up working its best on XSeries and especially extra work on XSS. The feeling that right now the UE5 in XSeries is less optimized than in PS5 and that Epic and other dev required the help of TC, better aware of the specialties of XSX and XSS.

It's my feeling at least maybe Im wrong

Thats the feeling I got as well. The lack of any PS studio involvement means Tim Sweeney was probably up to something lol and MS couldnt take the risk of having another fancy demo go PS exclusive.

The demo isnt particularly optimised on the PS5 either. Which is a good thing because they are clearly not worried about downgrading anything to get it to run at a stable framerate.

 

[Vasto]

Gears needs to be totally revamped and overhauled.

 

[Dr Bass]

Gears needs to be totally revamped and overhauled.

it needs to be given a break. Not everything needs to be run into the ground or continued into perpetuity. The coalition should make new stuff.

Reading the article you get the feeling that without the help of TC the XSeries version of the demo might not have been released.

Practically TC's job was to help optimize a demo previously created by EPIC, possibly for PS5. It would not be surprising knowing that EPIC already made another specific one for PS5.

TC is MS's weapon for the UE5 to end up working its best on XSeries and especially extra work on XSS. The feeling that right now the UE5 in XSeries is less optimized than in PS5 and that Epic and other dev required the help of TC, better aware of the specialties of XSX and XSS.

It's my feeling at least maybe Im wrong

That said, TC is great and knows UE as well as EPIC itself. Surely now they are quite busy instructing the large number of Xbox Game Studios developers who use UE5 for their games.

Thats the feeling I got as well. The lack of any PS studio involvement means Tim Sweeney was probably up to something lol and MS couldnt take the risk of having another fancy demo go PS exclusive.

The demo isnt particularly optimised on the PS5 either. Which is a good thing because they are clearly not worried about downgrading anything to get it to run at a stable framerate.

I seriously doubt Tim Sweeney was "up to something", and I doubt UE5 is "less optimized" for SeriesX. What's with the conspiracy theories in here? Epic is about supporting all platforms as equally as they can. Epic likely just didn't want to spend the bandwidth to do it all when there is a good studio that works with the Xbox that could work on the Xbox version. Remember they "helped" they didn't "make it." It was almost surely just a simple partnership/agreement and that's it. No conspiracies.

 

[Darsxx82]

Thats the feeling I got as well. The lack of any PS studio involvement means Tim Sweeney was probably up to something lol and MS couldnt take the risk of having another fancy demo go PS exclusive.

The demo isnt particularly optimised on the PS5 either. Which is a good thing because they are clearly not worried about downgrading anything to get it to run at a stable framerate.

Especially the fact that an XSS version requires extra work and surely EPIC was not for the job either.
Epic is already knowledgeable about PS5 tools because it has already worked specifically for it and not so with XSeries.

As you say, maybe MS wanted to avoid the damage of PS5 getting another WHOA moment!!! and they send TC (there is no one better for it) to resolve the situation.

 

[SlimySnake]

Especially the fact that an XSS version requires extra work and surely EPIC was not for the job either.
Epic is already knowledgeable about PS5 tools because it has already worked specifically for it and not so with XSeries.

As you say, maybe MS wanted to avoid the damage of PS5 getting another WHOA moment!!! and they send TC (there is no one better for it) to resolve the situation.

Yeah ms came prepared for this conference. They had the best looking game at the show in hellblade 2 and managed to get this thing running on a 4 tflops gpu.

 

[bentanchorbolt]

Reading the article you get the feeling that without the help of TC the XSeries version of the demo might not have been released.

Practically TC's job was to help optimize a demo previously created by EPIC, possibly for PS5. It would not be surprising knowing that EPIC already made another specific one for PS5.

TC is MS's weapon for the UE5 to end up working its best on XSeries and especially extra work on XSS. The feeling that right now the UE5 in XSeries is less optimized than in PS5 and that Epic and other dev required the help of TC, better aware of the specialties of XSX and XSS.

It's my feeling at least maybe Im wrong

That said, TC is great and knows UE as well as EPIC itself. Surely now they are quite busy instructing the large number of Xbox Game Studios developers who use UE5 for their games.

I would think that TC probably did this in order to get their feet wet on UE5 which is a pretty neat position for them to be in prior to the engine releasing, and given the work TC and Epic have collaborated on in the past, this doesn't surprise me.

 

[Darsxx82]

it needs to be given a break. Not everything needs to be run into the ground or continued into perpetuity. The coalition should make new stuff.





I seriously doubt Tim Sweeney was "up to something", and I doubt UE5 is "less optimized" for SeriesX. What's with the conspiracy theories in here? Epic is about supporting all platforms as equally as they can. Epic likely just didn't want to spend the bandwidth to do it all when there is a good studio that works with the Xbox that could work on the Xbox version. Remember they "helped" they didn't "make it." It was almost surely just a simple partnership/agreement and that's it. No conspiracies.

My thinking does not imply any conspiracy. It is simply objective that EPIC (specifically the developers in charge of the demo) already have an experience of several years with the tools and features of PS5 and that is very important when it comes to getting the best performance in the shortest time.
Their experience with XSX is nil and TC's help may have been needed to cater for XBox versions. Especially to cater and offer a version worthy of XSS.

It is 100% certain that TC is doing the same job of helping the different XGS studies that are using UE5. That is, it is only a question of time and that the thing is beginning.

 

[tusharngf]

I think its time to move away from gears franchise. The studio has great potential and i dont think fans wants another gears game. I enjoyed the series till the 3rd game later it went bland.

 

[Mr Moose]

My thinking does not imply any conspiracy. It is simply objective that EPIC (specifically the developers in charge of the demo) already have an experience of several years with the tools and features of PS5 and that is very important when it comes to getting the best performance in the shortest time.
Their experience with XSX is nil and TC's help may have been needed to cater for XBox versions. Especially to cater and offer a version worthy of XSS.

It is 100% certain that TC is doing the same job of helping the different XGS studies that are using UE5. That is, it is only a question of time and that the thing is beginning.

Not like they've released games on Xbox Series consoles, right?

 

[Darsxx82]

I would think that TC probably did this in order to get their feet wet on UE5 which is a pretty neat position for them to be in prior to the engine releasing, and given the work TC and Epic have collaborated on in the past, this doesn't surprise me.

The interest is common but the main interested was MS, I think. It is clear that the goal of both is to look for all the formulas to make UE5 work great in Xseries and this demo was an opportunity. First of knowledge and second from the point of view of marketing avoid "giving" Sony a Moment Whoa!! which would suppose a single PS5 version of the demo.

As I said, it is 100% certain that TC is having the same task of providing help and knowledge to the many MS studies that use UE5

 

[DenchDeckard]

Is there any in depth detail on how this runs on series s? It will blow my mind if it’s even close to looking like the big twins

 

[Dr Bass]

My thinking does not imply any conspiracy. It is simply objective that EPIC (specifically the developers in charge of the demo) already have an experience of several years with the tools and features of PS5 and that is very important when it comes to getting the best performance in the shortest time.
Their experience with XSX is nil and TC's help may have been needed to cater for XBox versions. Especially to cater and offer a version worthy of XSS.

It is 100% certain that TC is doing the same job of helping the different XGS studies that are using UE5. That is, it is only a question of time and that the thing is beginning.

So you think the people who created the engine that make it run on XSX have "nil" experience with XSX.

I've said it on this board and I'm saying it again.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[M1chl]

Not like they've released games on Xbox Series consoles, right?

Also just to suggest that one of the biggest software houses for Engine, don't know or don't get the very edge of the information available about certain HW is certainly...let's say misunderstood. It's not like all people were on PS5, they might have had like a few dozens people working on the SSD subsystem and that's probably it. Also I/O don't work for on rendered. Because it's quite honestly different branch.

 

[SportsFan581]

Great on the coalition to take the time to make sure that Xbox users had the best experience they could with the demo. All the 3rd parties are familiar with the hardware by now, but typically the first party can make the systems sing the most.

 

[bentanchorbolt]

The interest is common but the main interested was MS, I think. It is clear that the goal of both is to look for all the formulas to make UE5 work great in Xseries and this demo was an opportunity. First of knowledge and second from the point of view of marketing avoid "giving" Sony a Moment Whoa!! which would suppose a single PS5 version of the demo.

As I said, it is 100% certain that TC is having the same task of providing help and knowledge to the many MS studies that use UE5

I try not to add info that doesn't exist to a narrative. I mean you could be right but its pure speculation on your end. We all know that Epic and The Coalition have an excellent working relationship given that TC is probably the most talented studio outside of Epic, them coming on board to assist with Series S and X makes perfect sense. I am not saying you are wrong, because its not an unreasonable thought. Imagine this demo on PS5 and not Series X, this board would be on one right now lmao.

 

[Darsxx82]

Not like they've released games on Xbox Series consoles, right?

Under UE4, yes....... Game that use all the features of UE5 (lumen, nanite, RT etc ...) that are the basis of the new generation and that is still in testing and development ............. NOl

Their experience with XSeries, specifically that of the few developers who created the demo, does not exist and they also do not have the time and resources to focus on XSS optimization which surely is the one that has taken TC the most time to help optimize.

 

[Spitfire098]

They’re better then epic at this point they’re are the masters of that engine by far.

 

[Darsxx82]

Reading the article you get the feeling that without the help of TC the XSeries version of the demo might not have been released.

Practically TC's job was to help optimize a demo previously created by EPIC, possibly for PS5. It would not be surprising knowing that EPIC already made another specific one for PS5.

TC is MS's weapon for the UE5 to end up working its best on XSeries and especially extra work on XSS. The feeling that right now the UE5 in XSeries is less optimized than in PS5 and that Epic and other dev required the help of TC, better aware of the specialties of XSX and XSS.

It's my feeling at least maybe Im wrong

That said, TC is great and knows UE as well as EPIC itself. Surely now they are quite busy instructing the large number of Xbox Game Studios developers who use UE5 for their games.

In my first post I said...

"It's my feeling at least, maybe Im wrong"

It's clear that I'm speculating and it's a feeling after reading the article.

 

[Mr Moose]

Under UE4, yes....... Game that use all the features of UE5 (lumen, nanite, RT etc ...) that are the basis of the new generation and that is still in testing and development ............. NOl

Their experience with XSeries, specifically that of the few developers who created the demo, does not exist and they also do not have the time and resources to focus on XSS optimization which surely is the one that has taken TC the most time to help optimize.

Did the Coalition help them with this, too? I don't remember.

Unreal Engine 5 First Xbox Series X Footage Shown, Free Early Access and Demo Available

Unreal Engine 5 is available for anyone to play with, right now! Check out an impressive new demo running partly on Xbox Series X!

wccftech.com

 

[kirby007]

LMAO at these peeps ... I mean a canvas maker aint an artist

 

[Interfectum]

They’re better then epic at this point they’re are the masters of that engine by far.

 

[Dr Bass]

Yeah ms came prepared for this conference. They had the best looking game at the show in hellblade 2 and managed to get this thing running on a 4 tflops gpu.

The bar has been raised. Ball is in Sony’s court now.

It wasn't a conference, it was an awards show. And the Matrix looked better than Hellblade. And it looks the same on PS5 and XSX. Get over the warring people. The consoles for all intents and purposes, are nearly identical in visual and computational capability.

The ball isn't in Sony's court, or Microsoft's court, or anybody else's. Every platform has great looking games, and will continue to have great looking games. That just isn't a question. UE5 is a tool available to everyone, and multiple studios will use it, and if they have the talent the games will look fantastic. It's going to come down to the actual design and execution of the games. You know, things like gameplay. Atmosphere. Music. Tone. The visuals are gonna be there.

I'll tell everyone right now how this generation is gonna go. Nintendo is gonna sell a ton of consoles and games. Sony is gonna sell a ton of consoles and games. Microsoft is gonna sell a ton of consoles and ... well, maybe not games but they will sell a mix of GP and games. Every platform is gonna have great software, with each likely catering their exclusives to the style of game people on that platform seem to prefer. You'll be able to have fun everywhere!

"The ball is in Sony's court now." Give me a freaking break.

This board is totally nuts sometimes.

 

[Bernkastel]

Not like they've released games on Xbox Series consoles, right?

Gears 5: Hivebusters

 

[Mr Moose]

Gears 5: Hivebusters

Epic?
Edit: The other person is saying Epic have zero experience with Series consoles.

 

[AGRacing]

In my first post I said...



It's clear that I'm speculating and it's a feeling after reading the article.

I ran the demo on both PS5 and Series X and I had the feeling performance was notably better on Series X ... particularly in the car chase part. Perhaps it is at a lower resolution or there's some explanation to the difference... but that was what it felt like to me.

 

[bentanchorbolt]

It wasn't a conference, it was an awards show. And the Matrix looked better than Hellblade. And it looks the same on PS5 and XSX. Get over the warring people. The consoles for all intents and purposes, are nearly identical in visual and computational capability.

The ball isn't in Sony's court, or Microsoft's court, or anybody else's. Every platform has great looking games, and will continue to have great looking games. That just isn't a question. UE5 is a tool available to everyone, and multiple studios will use it, and if they have the talent the games will look fantastic. It's going to come down to the actual design and execution of the games. You know, things like gameplay. Atmosphere. Music. Tone. The visuals are gonna be there.

I'll tell everyone right now how this generation is gonna go. Nintendo is gonna sell a ton of consoles and games. Sony is gonna sell a ton of consoles and games. Microsoft is gonna sell a ton of consoles and ... well, maybe not games but they will sell a mix of GP and games. Every platform is gonna have great software, with each likely catering their exclusives to the style of game people on that platform seem to prefer. You'll be able to have fun everywhere!

"The ball is in Sony's court now." Give me a freaking break.

This board is totally nuts sometimes.

Well said.

 

[Darsxx82]

Did the Coalition help them with this, too? I don't remember.

Unreal Engine 5 First Xbox Series X Footage Shown, Free Early Access and Demo Available

Unreal Engine 5 is available for anyone to play with, right now! Check out an impressive new demo running partly on Xbox Series X!

wccftech.com

Surely, yes. But the difference is that there would be no need because that demo was never going to be shown publicly and getting a few seconds of footage to show does not require the same as a 100% playable demo and that you are going to publish.

That TC has its own technical demo that served (said by themselves) to learn, optimize and adapt UE5 to XSeries says a lot. That PS5 was the base platform on which they developed the original demo would be ridiculous to deny its beneficial effect against XSeries.

 

[Mr Moose]

Surely, yes. But the difference is that there would be no need because that demo was never going to be shown publicly and getting a few seconds of footage to show does not require the same as a 100% playable demo and that you are going to publish.

That TC has its own technical demo that served (said by themselves) to learn, optimize and adapt UE5 to XSeries says a lot. That PS5 was the base platform on which they developed the original demo would be ridiculous to deny its beneficial effect against XSeries.

Their experience with the Series consoles is nil!

 

[Darsxx82]

Their experience with the Series consoles is nil!

What is really null is your lack of understanding ....

1. Fornite as an example is very funny.

2. Fornite does not use the vast majority of UE5 functions that are also in the testing and development phase. In fact, you have the examples in the article of how TC with small tweaks to the code managed, for example, to reduce 0.5ms in RT in XSeries ...

3. Those in charge of creating the Matrix demo are not the same people in charge of Fornite, which has nothing to do with technology. If you don't know how to see the difference and effects between having several years of experience working specifically for PS5 hardware (optimization and technical demos included) and not having done anything before for another .....

 

[DarkMage619]

Is there any in depth detail on how this runs on series s? It will blow my mind if it’s even close to looking like the big twins

Xbox Tester broke it down.

 

[M1chl]

Their experience with the Series consoles is nil!

You can fault people to not knowing this obscure gem