[UE4] Open world V2

SimonTG · May 2018

Hi everyone! I'd like to share some screenshots from a project I've been working on for the past few weeks.
A fully procedural open world landscape project built in Unreal Engine. Still a work in progress, comments / critiques are welcome!

It features:
-A 64km2 landscape
-Level streaming (Split in 64 levels, streaming seamlessly)
-Custom landscape master material
-9 Material layers
-Ground Tessellation
-Procedural ground textures
-Procedural grass and foliage placement
-Dynamic GIobal Illumination (LPV)
-3 Lighting Scenarios

Trees, rocks and fern models from Unreal's kite demo, everything else is my personal work.

More screenshots on my Artstation!: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/DPw5R

SimonTG · May 2018

Also made a little video breakdown showing my setup from World Machine to Unreal. Check it out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jECiblWH2kk

Ged · May 2018

nice work! those trees are growing at very strange angles but Im sure you know that

SimonTG · May 2018

Thanks for the feedback Ged.
Yeah a few other people mentioned the same thing. I need to review those procedural rules

X-One · May 2018

Nice work; as mentioned it looks as though your trees are biased towards normal direction. Also, for my tastes, in all but the last set of shots, your fog colour is far too blue. You have the right idea, but unless you're going for something more stylized, you need to tone it back a notch or two.

SimonTG · May 2018

I definitely went with something that's a bit stylized when it came to lighting/fog. I know I pushed it quite a bit, especially the turquoise fog "dawn" lighting scenario. Just went with whatever looked good to me at the moment honestly. I do appreciate the input though.

I keep tweaking the lighting constantly, 100% dynamic with no build times and easy way to save and switch between different lighting scenarios makes it really addictive!

AlirezaMorgan · May 2018

awesome job love the lighting and the colors
the style looks like something right out of the witcher 3

Finnn · May 2018

Looking fabulous! I really like the variation you have on the ground materials and vegetation.
One suggestion for your darker, foggy lighting scenario.
It could use some thicker fog evolving from the ground, kind of like this:

httpswwwshutterbugcomimagesarchivesart0606picture11jpg

httpspreviews123rfcomimagesandreiuc88andreiuc881402andreiuc8814020003526455007-road-trough-a-dark-creepy-forest-with-fog-on-halloweenjpg

Add3r · May 2018

Great start to the world you are building! I do have one critique though, specifically on how you are injecting color into your scene with the use of colored fog. The middle shots with the blue fog and strong directional shadowing from your atmospheric key light (the sun or moon directional light), they initially read as game-y underwater sequence. The strong god rays filtering through the trees and the very artificial color of the fog is the culprit IMO, but they would work for a very stylized environment (if that is what you are focusing on).

Having saturation in your fog is totally acceptable, even in physically 'correct' scenes due to the fact that we usually do not have the systems to support light scatter from light sources in our volumetric fog. In this case I would suspect that is largely what you are attempting to emulate with a blue moon light from above. Instead of injecting all of that color you could desaturate the fog hue by about 50% or more, and instead use a much more blue ambient (shadow) color and a neutral directional light color (moon?) for your scene. Not only will this feel more 'correct' when you are in pockets of shadowed fog, but it will closer match movie 'correct' visuals which we usually perceive as the norm for night shots. The idea with most lighting work is to sell the visual interpretation of your subject at the very first glance, usually have about 3 seconds before a person determines if it feels right or wrong (without an idea of what it might be).

Good luck with the rest of the progress, aside from my thoughts on the fog I think your start is great

(P.S. I would do a paintover, but I am writing this on a short break while at work lol)

OyvindAndersson · May 2018

Looks great! I for one love the vibrant colors, especially the last shot with the blue volumetric fog. Although it kinda does look like an underwater scene.

The grass and ground in the first three images - first one especially - does not blend that well imo. Easier to spot in a daylight scene.

I think it would be good to color the grass mesh with some gradient that samples the ground color at the specific world spot and brightens it a bit towards the "top".

It could also help to tone down/soften the shadows they cast, and adjust the shadow color.

King Mango · Jul 2018

One of the things I do with trees when I'm using the foliage tool to place them is uncheck align to normal but then I add a +/- 5 degrees vertical tolerance.
https://i.imgur.com/VvPB6J8.jpg

[UE4] Open world V2

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