Desert Town
This was an Unreal level to simulate a desert town. i wanted to experiment with Unreal Engine 5 for realistic areas that could potentially be used in games. One of the ideas I always wanted to try was a western town which served two uses, one would be just as a place to explore, but another would be as a possible map for a first person shooter. I wanted each building of the town to have a structured interior as well, and ensured each building had interiors. upon trying the level the first time, i realized that it would be a lot of fun to explore around the cliffs & canyon structures. In a game, these would serve as good vantage points to navigate around and potentially take out opponents on. I made ways to explore on top of the canyons and seeing both the areas of the town by creating a set of bridges. i added cacti and rock to add some more foliage to the town and make it look less flat. finally, to make the level look more dynamic, i added a day and night cycle and a very minor amount of fog.
the entire level, save for the houses & rope bridges, is made from Unreal 5's Quixel assets. the cliffs, rocks and foliage were downloaded from Quixel and laid out in a dumbbell kind of shape so that users can't see the outside from the center of the town. The houses were downloaded from a free Western 3D model pack online and laid out throughout the map. the bridges were also downloaded online but i extended them also created a cylinder with a rounded top to act as support beams for the rope bridges to sell the immersion. I also warped the bridges a bit to bend them as rope bridges tend to bend in the middle without tension. The day and night cycle was done by rotating the directional light and changing the intensities of other lighting sources in the scene in conjunction with the angle of the light.
