[UE4] Old West - Western Themed Environment

kimmokaunela · Aug 2018

Hi all!

I´ve been planning to create a western themed UE4 project for a long time. Red Dead Redemption 2 trailers pushed me to start this. My plan is to create a large set of different props and then create modular building system and a simple environment to blend everything together.

My tools for this is again 3ds max for modeling, Zbrush for detail stuff, Substance Designer for most of the texturing, Photoshop for different things like icons/paintings and Unreal Engine for everything else.

EDIT: I finally managed to capture some video:

Also this package is now available in Unreal Marketplace: https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/western-desert-town

This is where I am right now.

FreneticPonies · Aug 2018

Looks great! Lighting, props, etc. all look good.

If I had concerns I'd mention that the ground itself doesn't look like it's textured other than a straight, flat deep orange/brown vertex color, in most parts. A lot more variation could be used in color, luma, normal map, and etc. I'd also say the distribution of rocks and grass is a bit too "video gamey" IE just some random distribution that's too patterned.

Here's a dirt ref similar in color to yours:

kimmokaunela · Aug 2018

@FreneticPonies Thanks! That ground is just a plane right now with only a single color material. I´m going to create a landscape with textures later on with many layers and stuff like that. Also that foliage is just painted there randomly. I´m going to also tweak that when I get further with this project.

BootScoot · Aug 2018

As a big fan of your work, kimmokaunel, I really look forward to seeing where this latest project of yours goes.

kimmokaunela · Aug 2018

@BootScoot Thanks! I´m pretty excited to see how this project will end up

Pretty big update. More props done and lighting is changed from static to fully dynamic. I also added a landscape with a material that I´ve been iterating for the last 6 months on and off. I also created landscape textures using my existing Substance Designer graphs with few tweaks and boosts. There is also now a dynamic wetness system in materials that I originally made for a game project I´m currently working on called Planetrism. I also added more rocks from my previous projects that right now works as a placeholder that I might use in the final but with better textures.

And with wetness

Zi0 · Aug 2018

So far looking very good!

Durkel · Aug 2018

Really nice stuff textures Kimmo!

Prutsirs_JayJay · Aug 2018

This looks lovely! I'm really digging the colors and the textures!

AlirezaMorgan · Aug 2018

i love the colors
keep up the good work

kimmokaunela · Aug 2018

Thanks all!

Small update again. I started to work with building models. Few modular pieces done and some texture from Substance Designer. I also made a building material that allows to change a bunch of different things to help making more variations between buildings.

kimmokaunela · Aug 2018

Little more work done with modular building models. I also created a blueprint that allows me to change a bunch of different paint colors and stuff like that to speed up things. I also started to work with interior areas too.

rezinekk · Aug 2018

I love the material, the waves in the sand are so realistic!You captured the atmosphere really well. Really inspiring for me.

kimmokaunela · Aug 2018

@rezinekk Thanks! That material took way too long to set up right and I still need to tweak with values.

More props done. General store props are starting to get together. I still have few models that I need to make and then onto next buildings

kimmokaunela · Sep 2018

More work done for another buildings. Also started to make the interior parts.

kimmokaunela · Sep 2018

Small update again! I´ve been working on with interior parts and making more props and textures.

Someone also asked me how I make carpets so I made a small fast tutorial for that:

FreneticPonies · Sep 2018

That might be dipping into overly atmospheric on the lighting there. Pretty much the opposite of the usual problem, but, I dunno, is it supposed to be horror, spooky nighttime inside, etc.? Because it feels way too dark inside for the outside to be daytime in the same scene.

Remember, daylight is, quite literally, thousands of times brighter than lanterns.

kimmokaunela · Sep 2018

@FreneticPonies I´m still trying to experiment with interior lighting. I agree that it is very dark. I´m using a dynamic lighting and I need to figure out a good solution to have both exterior and interior areas looking right. Right now I´m doing things in local post process volume to fake some things but I need to boost some settings more. Baked lighting will solve this issue but I would really like to have a fully dynamic day and night system with dynamic rain that I have already set up.

FreneticPonies · Sep 2018

Hope this can help: https://forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/rendering/1493669-localized-ibl-implementation

kimmokaunela · Sep 2018

@FreneticPonies That looks interesting and I need to try that. Thanks for sharing!

kimmokaunela · Sep 2018

I spent 40 mins this evening to make this small tonic bottle. I also finally managed to test that new cinematic DOF and its pretty good.

mutedwrrrJW · Oct 2018

@kimmokaunela newbie here. are the building walls modular meshes as well or bsp with holes cut out for doors/windows?

Great work! Pretty neat to see a fleshed out scene for both exterior and interior.

kimmokaunela · Oct 2018

@mutedwrrrJW Thanks! I don´t use bsp at all. Everything is modeled in 3ds max and then put together in UE4. Here is my building set so far.

Sorry for my lack of updates. I´ve been crunching with this day and night. I created a better system for modular buildings using parent blueprint class that controls exterior wall paint and trim colors, terrace colors, interior wall materials/colors, curtain colors, floor colors and so on. Also local fog and post process volumes and bunch of different triggers to help change things when player is inside or outside. Its actually pretty hard to get both outside and inside working well. I also made A LOT more furniture and building related props.

I re-tweaked the whole lighting system to make it fully support dynamic day and night cycle with distance field effects. There is also now support for rain so materials will get wet depending on the metallic values, non-metallic materials will get darker and roughness values are changing. Water drop layer is added on top of models using world aligned blend with flip book normal texture. All of this is controlled in the environment control blueprint where I can specify what time of day it is, how fast the time will go, how dry the air is so there will be dusty wind and so on.. Oh and I also added LPV support and it works as good as LPVs can

Landscape material is also tweaked more. There is now a new function in the sand layer to have windy sand effect. Rock material is using distance fields to blend them better with the ground and also its much more generic approach so its so much faster to make rocks without any extra texture baking needed.

More foliage types created like different type of cactus models, better rules for procedural foliage spawners. I also hand made colliders for every model so its possible to use this environment for something

I will try to capture some gameplay and video footage.

YF_Sticks · Oct 2018

Wow this is stunning. Love your work man, keep it up!

kimmokaunela · Oct 2018

I´m calling this done. I have some ideas where to push this more in the future but for now its done. I will capture some video soon. Here are some of the shots.

pixelpatron · Oct 2018

Bloody FANTASTIC! ALL aboard, next stop Polycount showcase! 2018.

Your making the wait for Red Dead a little more unbearable, minus 1 point.

CrackRockSteady · Oct 2018

Hot damn

ChrisFraser · Oct 2018

Holy crap this is outta control. Love the DOF shots in there. The whole thing is really atmospheric.

Really makes me want to put together a posse and rob that town