Tired of creating virtual deserts from scratch? Poly Haven’s Namaqualand 3D Scan Library has landed, bringing 30+ high-quality scans of rocks, plants, and ground debris. Captured on-site in South Africa’s Goegap Nature Reserve, these assets can be used for any project—motion graphics, game development, or VFX. And the best part? All available for free under a CC0 license.
Need rocks? They’ve got 10 scans. Branches and desert flowers? Check. Over 10 HDRIs at 16K resolution? Yep, that too. Each asset comes ready to use in Blender, FBX, glTF, or USD format, with textures up to 8K. No more excuses for lackluster desert landscapes.
The scans integrate into nearly any DCC tool or game engine, while the HDRIs (provided in HDR and EXR) are perfect for lighting setups with high dynamic ranges. Got a soft spot for formats? Poly Haven delivers HDR, EXR, FBX, and USD—all open-source. No marketing fluff here, just free, solid assets to spice up your virtual desert without sucking the moisture from your budget.
The team trekked into South Africa’s Goegap Nature Reserve, equipped with drones and photogrammetry tools to capture the desert’s rocky terrain and vegetation. Combining photogrammetry with LIDAR scans, they meticulously reconstructed the unique, dry landscape. After hundreds of hours of processing, cleaning, and optimization, the data transformed into detailed, ready-to-use 3D models and HDRIs. The painstaking effort paid off—delivering highly accurate, free assets for the VFX community, from the desert floor to the last flower.
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