I spent the last few days putting together this scene and experimenting with Quixel Megascans. I was inspired by the river cave shot in Pixar’s Onward which I reccomend btw. The scene is lit dynamically and uses raytracing features also. I use an RTX 2080 Ti. and I work on a Sony HDR 4K Display.
Initially I intended to build the interior of the cave but I decided to focus on the main concept which was the narrow canyon area with the stream. Its been a while since I used Unreal Engine. I originally started using Unreal Engine 3 professionally back in 2006 as a licensed developer. So to ease myself back in I decided not to bite off more than I could chew. Plus the scene is very asset heavy even with instancing. It runs smooth but not if I add any more stuff. Perhaps if I bake the lighting down but I love dynamic GI, how can I go backwards! Thanks for your comments Cleveyus. I was feeling a bit ‘glanced over’ before you posted.
Hey subspark, loved the scene. It feels very natural. It’s not easy to nail quality vs fps under raytracing. You did a really great job. I’m always looking for photorealism and if you tweak a little more your post process volume, you can get even further. Really nice job.
Thank you wsangi much appreciated comments. I intend to revisit this scene in the future with the feedback I’ve received from various forums including this thread.
While I consider this piece in its current iteration complete, a few things have crossed my mind that I will address in the future. Others may see what I see and agree:
Improve lighting (more depth / less flat)
Higher poly vine over fallen tree
Vertex shader wind on plants
Add weather (storm?)
Max out object draw distance to stop popping
Add some subtle wildlife (birds etc)
Add giant man-eating venus fly traps
I’m working on my next scene right now and will post updates in the WIP forum this time.
