PCG Forest Planet
This project utilized a PCG node framework from Unreal Engine 5.4.4. The project features Multiple Node Trees that combine to create a realistic environment simulated onto a sphere suspended in space.
TOOLS USED
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Unreal Engine 5
Art Direction and Design
PCG Master graph created to organize the various other graphs responsible for creating the Various flora, rocks and dead trees. A mesh sampler is used to identify which mesh is being sampled. In this case since the points that are being sampled are from a primitive sphere.
The get actor data node is used the get the location data.
Within each subgraph is a similar set of nodes that are each responsible for spawning different assets. The reason for multiple subgraphs is to be able to better control the transforms of each set of meshes. As this is my first project working with the Mesh Sampler I was unaware as to how I could go about designating certain areas of the sphere to only spawn designated meshes. I have previously worked with PCG to create a landscape environment where I was able to use landscape masks to designate certain spawning areas for meshes. To work around this I decided to create a more homogenous grassland landscape where scattered rocks and trees would look realistic no matter where they get placed.
The scene is comprised of a center planet and two revolving stars, one blue star and one orange star. In this image I am still experimenting with the placement of meshes and and lighting. The bright blue star in the background is a sphere with a emissive material instance placed on it.
Material Graph of emissive texture
Updated Lighting with warmer and less intense lighting which gives everything more of an eternal sunset feeling. Additionally a Niagara Particle System is used to create various fireflies scattered across the surface of the planet. A camera rail was also added to allow the camera to easily travel around the planet and constantly track the surface.
Niagara System Node in charge of spawning the "Fireflies". The System is set up so that the particles fade in as a bright green and fade out as a soft red. The combination of these colors leads to a beautiful combination of green red and orange.
An HDRI was used to create the seemingly never ending stars that surround the planet. The HDRI was sourced from spacespheremaps.com.
In order to create the lakes seen on the planet, a duplicate of the planet was created and a water texture was applied to it. The water texture came from the Built in Water plug-in from Unreal Engine. I then used the vertex sculpt option to carve out lakes and rivers from the original planet mesh.