http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2016-gears-of-war-4-tech-interview
The Coalition has been hard at work on Gears of War 4 for years now, but 2016 is the year when fans will finally get their hands on the game. Microsoft showed off an impressive demo of Gears 4 at its E3 media briefing this year and we were impressed to learn that it was shown running on Xbox One when a PC version is also in development. The Gears franchise has always pushed the boundaries of console hardware, but the transition to a new hardware platform using a new engine with a new team is no trivial matter.
As striking as the E3 stage demo was, it's the 25-minute demonstration shown off later that impressed us the most. The game's co-op mode was demonstrated using both the Xbox One and PC versions of the game thanks to the Xbox Play Anywhere initiative. The PC was connected to a massive 98-inch 4K LCD display with the game operating at this extremely high resolution and it looked great. Next to this, however, was an Xbox One S connected to a 65" HDR-capable LG OLED display. Despite the higher resolution on PC, the strength of HDR combined with the remarkable performance of the OLED display resulted in a breathtaking presentation. We had our doubts about HDR displays but, after the demo, we immediately started price-checking HDR-capable OLED TVs. It was that impressive.
Beyond that, the game was shown running at a consistent 30 frames per second on the Xbox One S. The quality of the animation, post-processing, materials, and effects really pushes Gears 4 to the forefront of real-time rendering on the platform and we simply had to know more. The result is this interview.
What is it like working with Unreal Engine 4 on Xbox One? What impact does HDR have on workflow? What features are going to be included in the PC version? Mike Rayner, Technical Director for The Coalition, answers all of these questions and many more.
