Archive notice: This article was originally published on June 13, 2019. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
How quickly can realistic environments be created in Unreal Engine 4 – asset libraries make it possible? Artist Wiktor Öhman from Quixel shows how he recreated the Counter-Strike map Dust II using various techniques. The newly created scene runs at 120 fps on his 2080 TI RTX, 8700K Intel processor with 32 GB RAM.
Photogrammetry and Blocking
Wiktor first created a series of screenshots of the Dust map in Counter-Strike. He used the photos to generate basic geometry data with the help of Reality Capture. Based on this data, he created low-poly assets from simple geometries in Maya – such as houses, walls, roofs and crates, followed by UV unwrapping. According to his own account, Wiktor produced the simple 3D models in only a few hours and imported the assets directly into Unreal.
Materials and Details
By using Quixel’s Megscans library, Wiktor selected existing PBR materials. Import and material instancing could be automated from the selected materials with Quixel Bridge and applied to the geometries in Unreal Engine via drag & drop. By layering additional textures and decals over the seamless PBR materials, the individual assets then received an individual look. For further detail, other 3D PBR assets from Megascans, such as wooden boards and stones, were also used, which he placed in multiple variations and copies at different points in the scene.
Extended Breakdown
For further insight, you can watch the recording of the livestream that was broadcast yesterday evening. In it, Wiktor goes into further details such as texture mapping, material editing in Unreal and more:
