Fantasy Ruin

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hZyEG4dPvE&t=306s

This video is a speed level design of some ruins using assets purchased from the Unreal asset store, including a sky sphere. The level looks pretty good despite it being made in a short time in part due to the lighting and atmospheric fog giving it a polished and visually pleasing look and feel. The creator enables sun shafts on the directional light source meaning that light realistically pushes through gaps in the environment in the form of beams of light. The creator uses a landscape tool to make smaller lumps and bumps on the ground to give it more depth and stop the level from feeling too flat. They also use the landscape paint tool to create transitions from grass to stonework. All of this creates a more natural environment that adds realism and subtle visual complexity to the scene. The grass used has the Simple Grass Wind in its material as it sways around. The creator here also makes sure to fill out the background with hills and trees to ensure the level doesn’t feel empty or fake.

As I have not yet made an environment in Unreal set in outside I decided to try and make a speed level of my own using the free Infinity Blade assets found in the Unreal asset store. This was a simple test with the level being unfinished and not design for any kind of player interaction or exploration, but the quality of the result makes me more inclined to potentially make and outdoor environment for my project. There are a lot of modifiers on both the directional sun shafts and atmospheric fog to create the desired look and feel. The fog can interact with the directional light with a sun multiplier that accentuates the glow of the fog as the light hits it. The amount of bloom the sun shafts create can also be adjusted. Changing these values can dramatically change the tone of the scene. High values on these settings had the potential to overwhelm the scene with light and bloom so I attempted to balance the variables to prevent the lighting from being too intense. One thing I would do to improve the scene would be to add some background detail like the creator did to make the world seem less flat and artificial

Creating this small level has also helped inform how I will manage my time. With access to a large quantity of assets creating a nice-looking level was surprisingly quick and easy. Now I am comfortable with the basic tools of Unreal from my FPS level assignment and during my research I can see the majority of my time being spent creating the 3D assets to create the level. Creating assets well beforehand will also mean I can create more complicated materials to make the texture work look a lot better.