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'The Cavern' is a cinematic test demo The Coalition built in Unreal Engine 5

The Coalition showed off the impressive capabilities of Unreal Engine 5 in the cinematic test demo, The Cavern.

Morgan Shaver

April 5, 2022 10:00 AM

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During today’s State of Unreal event, Gears of War developer The Coalition showed off an impressive cinematic test demo called “The Cavern” created using Unreal Engine 5. As noted by an accompanying Xbox Wire post, The Cavern was created by The Coalition “entirely in UE5.”

Prior to The Cavern, The Coalition had created another tech demo called “Alpha Point” which was originally created in Unreal Engine 4 before being brought over to Unreal Engine 5.

The process of bringing Alpha Point over to UE5 is described as being easy and seamless by The Coalition studio technical director, Kate Rayner. “As of now, our full studio has transitioned to UE5,” Rayner remarks in the Xbox Wire post.

Diving deeper into the creation of The Cavern and the studio’s utilization of Unreal Engine 5, Rayner explains:

Rayner then goes on to answer other questions regarding The Cavern and its creation in Unreal Engine 5, while pointing out the team isn’t ready to talk about their next game just yet. However, there are clues as to how detailed the game may end up looking thanks to tools like Lumen and Nanite.

Also included in the Xbox Wire post is an overview of how long The Coalition has been working with UE5. According to Rayner, the team has been working with UE5 for over a year now, since before UE5 went into Early Access.

The Coalition is also described in the Xbox Wire post as being “instrumental” in bringing The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience to Xbox Series X|S consoles. That said, Rayner notes that The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 experience was “very much a collaboration with Epic, The Coalition, and the Xbox development team, to harden and optimize Epic’s vision, first on Xbox Series X, and then on Xbox Series S.”

Wrapping things up and commenting on what The Coalition is most looking forward to with UE5, Rayner states:

For more on The Cavern cinematic test demo, Alpha Point, The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 experience, and other aspects of Unreal Engine 5, be sure to read through the full post on Xbox Wire.

After taking a look at The Cavern, we’re curious what you think about it, and about Unreal Engine 5 as a whole. Let us know in Chatty, and for more on the State of Unreal event, be sure to check out this story about how Crystal Dynamics is developing a new Tomb Raider game using Unreal Engine 5.

Morgan Shaver

Senior Editor

Morgan is a writer from the frozen wastelands of Maine who enjoys metal music, kpop, horror, and indie games. They're also a Tetris fanatic who's fiercely competitive in games like Tetris 99... and all games in general. But mostly Tetris. You can follow Morgan on Twitter @Author_MShaver.