A handful of us artists at Epic have worked tirelessly to put this project together and were incredibly happy, proud and excited to bring you Dark Ruins a Free sample scene available via Fab for Unreal Engine 5.5. Our hope is that itll be useful, either as inspiration, as a fun exploration or by directly augmenting or kickstarting your own project. Weve done our best to ensure it runs smoothly and is as lightweight as possible to make airlifting it into your project a breeze. Dark Ruins is made almost entirely using Megascans assets, with some custom artist-built assets.The environment is built using relatively few assets, which helps keep the footprint down. Were also using methods of increasing the texel density and visual fidelity on the material side by the use of additional UV channels and masks to drive the details on several assets especially the larger cliffs. This keeps the size of the individual assets down, while it adds a level of visual cohesion and increases the detail of the assets.Originally the project was meant to be used for cinematics with various set locations within the environment. Because of this, we wanted to have the option to adjust the lighting for the different sections of the environment independently of each other. We decided to lean on Megalights to enable us to light each area of the level with local lights. This gave us the freedom to easily art direct the lighting of any given location without having to worry about the impact these adjustments would have on other areas of the level. As the visual target of the project was leaning towards the fantastical and stylized, it was extremely helpful to be able to specifically art-direct bespoke highlights, contrast, volumetrics and extra bounce light with local lights, treating individual sections almost like dioramas, all without being restricted by severe performance implications.Along with the Dark Ruins level we also created an Asset Zoo in which assets are laid out logically, along with a few example dioramas, demonstrating how the environment was built. Our hope is that these dioramas will enable and inspire you to expand upon whats already there.This sample scene is the result of some incredible teamwork and each and every one involved in making this project went above and beyond! Wiktor hman Principal Environment Artist Epic Games Saga Alayyoubi Senior Environment Artist Epic Games Jakob Keudel Senior Environment Artist Epic Games Jack Mckelvie Environment Artist Epic Games Isac Crafoord Senior Environment & Lighting Artist Epic Games Gabe Tandy Environment Artist Epic Games Download the Dark Ruins sample scene for Unreal Engine 5.5 free on Fab here.The post Quixel Dark Ruins Art Blast Sample Scene for Unreal Engine 5 appeared first on ArtStation Magazine.