Moss

There’s also some overlaid moss geometry, using the same masked & layered method as in ‘Ryse: Son of Rome’. It’s essentially four sheets of geometry, stacked, with the bottom layer having the least transparency and the top layer having the most. This gives the moss a little fuzzy pop! You can mess with the ‘FuzzyShading’ material node in Unreal to enhance this effect, and add a ‘TemporalAADither’ node plugged into the ‘Pixel Depth Offset’ output to help with surface blending. If you’re interested in learning more about this method, one of the artists from Ryse broke it down in a Polycount thread, and it produces great results!

Skybox

Having a charming skybox was always on my to-do list, as your sky is half of your scene. I think that it is important to show that there is more to a world than just the areas you can reach. In ‘Halo’, Bungies’ skyboxes give the player the feeling that although they have the power to change their surroundings, there are still jobs out there that are too big for them. It seems to put the player in place and add an element of mystery. Halo was a big inspiration to me during this project.

Lighting and Effects

After deciding I wanted to go with a dusk setting – for dramatic lighting and long shadows – I found a sky panorama that had enough clouds to add some interesting accents to the blue. I used this to create a 360° cloud-ring to enhance the horizon, and a few individual cloud cards that used ‘Parallax Occlusion Mapping’ for pop, and UV distortion for subtle movement. There’s also a masked and dithered cloud in front of the sun to cast a three-dimensional vignette through the fog and onto the landscape.