Striving for Photorealism in UE4

Here’s a screenshot of my master foliage material for those that were asking, kept it fairly simple.


For my newer landscape scenes it gets a lot more complex with various masks but the general base setup is the same.

Also here is a quick lowpoly/bush test (All 2D planes using Megascans)

Not good enough!
Just kidding… it’s absolutely gorgeous!

Incredible work, really inspiring for newer artists! I can’t wait to get a hold of your example project, especially your materials and wind function! If you had the time, a breakdown of how you got the 3D plant materials setup from bridge would be appreciated!

These screenshots looks really awesome. I am buying these packs. But before that could you give me a breakdown on the lighting? Are you using VXGI? If not what are the settings for your dynamic lighting? (Include screenshots if possible :p) Also what about the colour of the sunlight and the sky? And I am wondering how your post process volume looks like. Actually, I have a lot more to ask but for now I think this would do. If it bothers you I am using 1080Ti SLI (Ive been a hardcore gamer through all the years just thought I should start doing something productive for my life) XD

Is that rendered in Ue4…
And here I am… trying to make simple grass…
347ae74ac62e1996e2253d92015646b020693cfa.jpeg

Can you make this one in a higher resolution, I also want to use it as a wallpaper :slight_smile:

This is new quality of “material” and “lighting” and you press this to the next level.

But… to be honest, i think not all your screenshots is render in UE4. I think you use VRay to render some of this foliage, because lighting is too good and detail.

Wait is that landscape shot rendered in UE4? Are the rocks we see on the terrain part of the landscape material or actual meshes?

Thank you! The lights used on those scenes were a simple skylight, directional light and if needed, a second directional light to act as a “fake” bounce light or to emphasize the SSS.

Unfortunately that scene and raw screenshots are long long gone but will be doing full forest scenes in the next few months so will be sure to aim for some similar shots there.

That is a great compliment :slight_smile: Everything posted here is 100% UE4 with no touchups even in Photoshop after. It’s a fun challenge to try and get the feel of a rendered image right in the editor.

Yep this is rendered in UE4. The rocks are a mix of the landscape material and handplaced rock meshes to help break up the smooth shape of the landscape. Any small rocks are purely material work but the large ones that clearly jut out are meshes.

Yeah that’s what I was wondering, I’ve been trying to make a similar procedural grass and rock material using megascans assets:) I assume you’re using World Machine for the landscape, if not do you do the texturing in UE4?

Thanks for the reply though!

For what it’s worth, I’d be happy to buy some of those scenes on the marketplace. I’m pretty sure you could put something in the $50 range and get lots of clients, and I’d be first in line :slight_smile:

Wow! Man!!
I wanna learn this!
Using UE4 combined with to make a movie, using greenscreen and all and therefore need this kind of quality for the stuff I’ll use as background.
By any you’ve made (or thinking about making) a tutorial?

Two new WIP scenes that I’m working on:

@ : why are u doing this to me ?!!
man, we need the tutorial/example u have talked about badly !

anyway it’s gorgeous ! GJ .

Thank you! This new scene is actually part of a new tutorial I’m doing for Quixel that will be released on their channel some time this week. Tried to condense as many small useful tips when building scenes in UE4 as possible into one video. Hopefully you’ll find it useful.

Here’s the final scene from that tutorial:
https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/006/699/128/large/eoin-o-broin-finalshot.jpg?1500566798

https://cdnb.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/006/581/997/medium/eoin-o-broin-screenshot00041.jpg?1499700627

Incredible work! =)

Still no Desktop Background versions :frowning: Id love 2560x1440 :slight_smile:

Awesome work though!

I’ve finished an almost hour long tutorial for Quixel, going over creating a realistic meadow scene in UE4, from setting up materials to lighting, post processing and scattering. You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/ATX7kmET4zE

Thanks so much! My megascans subscription expired before any of the 3D foliage or large cliff scans were released, but after seeing the tutorial I’m considering another month:)

BTW any of a tutorial on the landscape material?

Seconded. At the very least, I’d love to know your splatmap setup in World Machine. It looks fantastic for only a two material blend.