Setup
Unreal Engine 4 environment creation playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPTQEHtBC4vkIXU8QpfMCtepPJOp19VOe
Landscape painting
Creating Landscape Materials - https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Landscape/QuickStart/4/index.html
RATSGAME UE4 Landscape Materials playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2G_ecHWhZBmEQih1qfe4yIzY49tKxST6
Terrain creation (advanced version of landscape)
Rather than using Unreal Engine's landscape system it is possible to create a terrain which can be thought of as a large geometry mesh which can have materials applied almost like any other mesh. This mesh can be divided up to allow using of techniques such as LOD. World Machine (http://www.world-machine.com/) is a great tool for creating/generating terrain that can be imported into UE4.
Weight maps can be used to control how materials are applied to the terrain. They are quite low resolution, but in combination of using height maps the materials can be blended together more naturally.
GDC 2015: Creating the Open World Kite Real-Time Demo in Unreal Engine 4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clakekAHQx0
Lighting and Shadows (WIP)
Lightmass Global Illumination
https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/LightingAndShadows/Lightmass/index.html
Ray Traced Distance Field Soft Shadows
https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/LightingAndShadows/RayTracedDistanceFieldShadowing/index.html
Distance Field Ambient Occlusion
https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/LightingAndShadows/DistanceFieldAmbientOcclusion/index.html
Unreal Engine 4 Twitch Broadcast - Soft Shadows & Subsurface Scattering - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQt_OopZadI
Places to look for important settings/features
Lightmass Settings in World Settings
Static Lighting Level Scale - lower value = more contrast/deeper shading
- Light and Distance Field Ambient Occlusion tabs
- sky distance threshold to 1
- uncheck the low hemisphere is black (to get some fake "bounce light" from the ground)
Foliage (WIP)
Overview
When creating foliage it needs to be thought of and split into 2 sets:
- Foliage - normally larger objects like tress and rocks that have collision which are manual or procedural placed
- Grass/Vegetation - smaller objects like grass, flowers and pebbles that have no collision and placed through material placement
My recommend tool is Speedtree for UE4 (http://www.speedtree.com/ue4/) allows semi-automatic generation of foliage such as tress and bushes, but manual creation for grass by simply applying textures to polygon planes.
Creating Models For UE4 (SpeedTree) - http://docs.speedtree.com/doku.php?id=creating_models_for_ue4
Unreal Engine 4 foliage creation playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPTQEHtBC4vlTDRf_YPQNThOHa_EeU2BC
Advanced features
To get the best results on foliage I enable Distance Field Ambient Occlusion and update the following settings on the mesh's Build Settings (hidden drop down under each LOD in the asset viewer):
- Enable Generate Distance Field as if Two Sided
- Increase Distance Field Resolution Scale to improve AO quality
The slider on the left shows the difference when Generate Distance Field as if Two Sided option is toggled and the left slider shows the difference when Distance Field Resolution Scale is increased which brings back some of the depth lost when enabling the two sided option. I found that values above 5 did not really increase visual quality, but did massively increase the time taken to generate the distance fields.
NOTE: you must enable the option for instanced foliage if you want to paint foliage or use the procedural foliage spawner system. This can be found in the Modes window under the Foliage tab, after selecting a foliage type, scroll down to the Instance Settings rollout and check the option for Affect Distance Field Lighting. This does need to be done for each foliage type which will use DFAO.
Examples
UE4 - Forest - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3loi-2Bx72A
UE4 SpeedTree Forest - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsniFiDS1lk
UE4 - SpeedTree - DFAO/GI test - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slc--V2pi5c
UE4 SpeedTree dynamic day cycle - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AphIofwFnUU
[FREE] Foliage Starter Kit - https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?59812-Free-Foliage-Starter-Kit
Creating roads, paths, fences etc
Landscape Splines - https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Landscape/Editing/Splines/index.html
DokipenTechTutorials Unreal Engine Spline Road Tool Tutorial playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHadbgEqCTxDgj-RwPQGkaUypb05NJYN6
Water
Water Surface Overview in UE4 - https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Videos/Player?series=PLZlv_N0_O1gYq4tiS45UAgghUxoF916rH
Gaming and Engine Tutorials Water Tutorials Unreal engine 4 playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd2rY36Ym3b8Iqc8Ji7indM4oaLv_l2UT
Level building
Building the Glass Walls (v4.7) - https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Videos/Player?series=PLZlv_N0_O1gak1_FoAJVrEGiLIploeF3F&video=xzGWuW_iWPM
Examples
Creating a quick Unreal Engine 4 desert scene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlgvfEicdwU
Creating a quick Unreal Engine 4 Night/Lake Scene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRxnKYy62KE
Creating a quick Unreal Engine 4 Valley Scene - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgwtME_WhXI
Other tips
Adding Atmospheric fog to enable light shafts - https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Actors/FogEffects/AtmosphericFog/index.html
Good examples of environments and levels developed in UE4
Breaking Bad Cabin Environment [UE4] - https://vimeo.com/101387734
Unreal Engine 4 - Ghosts'N Goblins - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grJZEVRx2vY
UE4 - Trailed - Walkthrough - StudentProject - NAD - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEkl-h3e6Us
P.T. recreated on Unreal Engine 4 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKiy2Pwp8Ek
UE4 - Snow 2 by koooolalala - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-FpKzD9_uM
UE4 - Forest by koooolalala - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3loi-2Bx72A