Full project with cinematic here :
Kokemushita oka - UE5 - Lumen
Approachable description here :
Kokemushita oka is my latest personal project developed in Unreal Engine 5, pushing the power of Lumen Global Illumination and Reflections. It was fun to make and I would do it again.
Boring tech description here :
I’m not gonna lie, I wanted to spend the less amount of time possible in building up the environment, though without sacrificing the attention to the little details and a good level of consistency around the scene.
This is why I’ve used assets from the Megascans library and Epic’s marketplace (this include all the 3D assets, rain effects and particles, trees and materials). I’ve reiterated and added more details all the time, to the point that I had to be strict with myself and say enough (I know that some areas would still benefit from further improvements but I wanted to keep my focus on lighting). All was left to do was to add the landscape blending with the assets and activate the virtual textures support.
Now, finally some lighting fun smiley
I wanted to be sure that my workflow was PBR friendly, so I’ve checked that all the textures used were in range and that so was also true for the lighting. I opted for an HDR backdrop as a base pass, made sure it was bright enough (Illuminance values + Google smiling_face), and combined it with a soft directional light (just to give a subtle directionality from the top. I’ve lowered its shadow’s resolution to emulate some soft shadows, it’s a nice trick) and a skylight, keeping a typical light / shade contrast of 2:1.
Anchored my EV at 11 and created an exposure compensation curve to get full control on the exposure.
I wasn’t happy with the level of depth given by the default height fog system so I’ve watched many tutorials and developed a custom local fog solution which helped me art directing the fog. Rain drops and wind fx made the rest.
For the local lighting I’ve created a blueprint system that easily allows me to alterate the lights intensity, color and tech parameters. I’ve relied on an enum structure and a serie of preset intensities, and a couple of light functions for the flickering.
Last, some post process mainly to get that misty cold atmosphere that distinguishes a rainy day, and to make sure that blacks and whites were not too pushed.
I’m also a sucker for reflections so I’ve decided of course to build a rainy scene to allow myself to bring down those roughness values wink
Credits for the music track:
I couldn’t find the name of the track but it’s included here :
“Zen on the Top of the Mountain - Beautiful Japanese Music For Meditation, Soothing, Healing” , go and listen it, it’s beautiful
