(WIP) Wintery Medieval Countryside

Lairelosse

This is a project I have recently started working on inspired by some landscapes I saw during this past winter, and thought it would be good to document it here. I plan on making it an old, partially destroyed farm, set in the Irish countryside. I plan on making it a scene of an ambush, so there will be arrows and weapons lying around. Currently I have blocked in the scene, as well as begun placing a few photo scanned assets from Quixel and a few of my own scans.

Any feedback/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Lairelosse

It's been a while since I last posted, work got really busy, but now one of my freelance jobs is ending, so hopefully I can get to making more progress. Here are some updates to the scene. I refined some of the block out meshes, and brought in more 3D scans. I also sculpted a well in 3D coat, and added subsurface scattering to the snow elements in the scene.

Lairelosse

Fixed up the stone fence, also sculpted a tilling texture/geometry to use for most of the stone walls. For the roof I sculpted and textured a couple roof tiles in 3D Coat and then built a few modular pieces using those tiles in blender.

Lairelosse

Adjusted the lighting a bit, trying to get the stables area to not be so dark, but haven't quite gotten there yet. Also made modifications to the procedural snow shader, getting it to take the object's normal map into account to make it look less procedural, and built a wooden crate.

Ashervisalis

Keep going on this, looking cool! I think the snow peppering the wall is really odd, I've never seen snow do that before. Also, the rocks which are stacked to form a wall, shouldn't there be some molding to hold the rocks together? Right now they look like they'll fall over from a slight push. Also there are rocks which aren't on top which still have a cap of snow which look odd. I would love to see a hero prop, something that tells a story... The background is a farmers field from what I can tell, maybe have a wagon in the midground?

Lairelosse

Ashervisalis said:

Keep going on this, looking cool! I think the snow peppering the wall is really odd, I've never seen snow do that before. Also, the rocks which are stacked to form a wall, shouldn't there be some molding to hold the rocks together? Right now they look like they'll fall over from a slight push. Also there are rocks which aren't on top which still have a cap of snow which look odd. I would love to see a hero prop, something that tells a story... The background is a farmers field from what I can tell, maybe have a wagon in the midground?

Thanks! The snow was bothering me too, so I made some modifications to the shader, although it may still require some tweaking. The stone fence is based off of the ones in Ireland, although they do look a bit wobbly. I think I need to make them more rectangular, but every time I sculpt them they end up rounded off, I may have to go out and scan some or find some from quixel. The wagon sounds like a nice touch, I'll have to look into adding that. 

Here are some updated screenshots. These have some tweaks to the snow shader, as well as some new models and footprint paths. I also added some smoke to the distant building to give more life to the scene and to attract the player's eye.

Lairelosse

Switched from static lighting to dynamic lighting due to some problems with shadows and light baking times, I think it has also made the seem feel a bit more realistic. Also added snow flurries, volumetric clouds, more plants in the fields, and a few other small random items like pitchforks and buckets.

Lairelosse

Got a copy of speedtree and began making new trees for the environment. Still have a tree or two to make, plus I need to come up with a system to place snow on the leaves and small branches.

Lairelosse

Cleaned up the trees and adjusted the placement to look more nature, and created a smaller pine tree to scatter in the fields and act as filler in the forest and a flat image of a couple of the trees to fill in in the distance where the horizon was showing. Also added some decals around the scene to make it look dirtier and more natural. 

Lairelosse

Replaced the mesh 3D scanned firepit with a Decal version of the model, which fits more seamlessly into the snow. 3D scanned a tree and cut out a log from it to use as the large logs next to the fireplace. Also adjusted some of the shadow settings.

Lairelosse

Adjusted the area around the firepit and added more items there, also built an actual fire and put a burnt piece of meat over it. Also made a wood cutting area off to the side.

Lairelosse

Made a bunch of minor tweaks and optimizations, I think the scene is almost completed. I tried rendering a flythrough of the scene, but the lens flare for the sun keeps flickering. Does anyone know why this is happening? Polycount won't let me upload a video, so here is the link to my post on the unreal forums, which has the video of the lens flare: https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/flickering-lens-flare/247301
 

Elivenger

This is really starting to shape up now! I think if I were lighting this, I'd make the cool shadows just a tad bit brighter overall. I think that'd help bring out a bit more indirect bounce lighting in your scene, especially with your snow. I would also tone down the lens flare personally. I like to keep those effects pretty subtle usually. Your scene is starting to kinda remind me of A Plague Tale Innocence! Definitely keep going! 

Lairelosse

Elivenger said:

This is really starting to shape up now! I think if I were lighting this, I'd make the cool shadows just a tad bit brighter overall. I think that'd help bring out a bit more indirect bounce lighting in your scene, especially with your snow. I would also tone down the lens flare personally. I like to keep those effects pretty subtle usually. Your scene is starting to kinda remind me of A Plague Tale Innocence! Definitely keep going! 

Thanks for the helpful suggestions! The lens flare definitely was a good suggestions, now it doesn't seem to overpower that shot nearly as much, looking back now it had become the focal point of that shot. I also tried making the shadows lighter (I never really liked how dark the shaded parts of the objects were). How does it look now?