Ben Kelly
Lead Environment Artist at Unknown Worlds Entertainment
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Alpine Biome

This Alpine Biome was made in just over 20 hours. Assets are from Megascans, apart from the landscape heightmap and weightmaps which I made in Gaea. Distant Texture set made in Quixel Mixer. My focus on this project was on creating a photorealistic game-ready terrain in UE4 using existing assets. All screenshots rendered directly from engine - no further tweaking in Photoshop. Thanks to Josh Van Zuylen and Ryan Benno for feedback and advice on finishing touches. Although optimisation wasn't a key focus, this still runs at 30fps+ at runtime.

Using Landscape Grass Types allowed for automatic scattering of grass and smaller rocks, with some additional clusters added with the foliage tool.

Using Landscape Grass Types allowed for automatic scattering of grass and smaller rocks, with some additional clusters added with the foliage tool.

Macro variation was used to break up repetition in the tiling textures.

Macro variation was used to break up repetition in the tiling textures.

In "unlit" mode, I tweaked the hues of the multiple rock assets to match my reference pics and try to get them to look homogeneous.

In "unlit" mode, I tweaked the hues of the multiple rock assets to match my reference pics and try to get them to look homogeneous.

The cairns are assembled from smaller rocks and a bit of timber. Used to draw the players eye on the path forwards up and around the mountain slope.

The cairns are assembled from smaller rocks and a bit of timber. Used to draw the players eye on the path forwards up and around the mountain slope.

The terrain has three levels of texture detailing, depending on camera distance.

The terrain has three levels of texture detailing, depending on camera distance.

Snow decals are used to blend grass and scattered rock into the ground and allow for better blending than I could achieve with painting terrain layers and RVT blending.

Snow decals are used to blend grass and scattered rock into the ground and allow for better blending than I could achieve with painting terrain layers and RVT blending.

Screenshot from Quixel Mixer. This is the look dev work on the landscape, which then turned into a distant texture set.

Screenshot from Quixel Mixer. This is the look dev work on the landscape, which then turned into a distant texture set.

A quick block out allowed me to walk and fly around the level, testing composition from various angles and make adjustments as needed. Also sped up asset placement.

A quick block out allowed me to walk and fly around the level, testing composition from various angles and make adjustments as needed. Also sped up asset placement.

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