Artist Turns a 3D Environment Into a Game Prototype With Unreal Engine 5.5

Back in 2023, Principal Environment Artist Martin Teichmann joined 80 Level to discuss the production process behind Antique Shop, a detailed 3D environment with myriads of props, and explain how the scene was modeled, textured, and rendered using Maya, Substance 3D, RealityCapture, and Unreal Engine 5. A year later, to experiment with the recently released Unreal Engine 5.5 Preview, the creator decided to revisit the project and turn the environment into a fully-fledged game prototype, as demonstrated in the video below:

Leveraging the new version of Epic's renowned game engine, Martin has implemented several basic gameplay mechanics that enable the player to explore the shop in first-person and take a closer look at some of the items showcased on its shelves, evoking the idea of a photorealistic game where you manage an antique store and search for a specific item hidden among hundreds of other props.

Additionally, the creator revamped the scene's lighting and introduced numerous optimizations in Unreal Engine 5.5 Preview, ensuring that the prototype offers better visuals than the original environment while running just as smoothly. You can check out more of Martin's projects by clicking this link.

In case you missed the news, Unreal Engine 5.5 Preview was released last week, introducing a slew of new features and improvements for Digital Artists and Developers.

The highlight of UE5.5 is its brand-new lighting feature called MegaLights, which allows artists to use exponentially more lights in their 3D environments. Currently in an experimental phase, this feature enables the addition of countless movable and dynamic lighting sources, all of which generate realistic area shadows and can light volumetric fog. You can try out UE5.5 Preview yourself by downloading it via the Epic Games launcher or GitHub.

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