I plan on using textures from the Quixel Megascans library to add more realism and depth into my environment pieces whether it would be indoor or outdoor spaces. Quixel (2019; 2021) goes over all of the basic details for artists to jump straight into any application and start using some of the materials and assets provided by Quixel, and they show how they experiment with the light world in the new UE5 engine, which is integral to how the artists push the limits of textures within Unreal.
In addition to accessing the Quixel library, I will also be using Substance Painter for texturing as well. Not only does it provide me with some already proven experience, I will ensure that I push the boundaries of how indoor assets primarily are as they appear to be, with some extra flare splashed on these assets to make them stand out more. FlippedNormals (2019) explains many different type of shaders and masks inside Substance Painter that should enhance the overall quality of an asset, including ambient occlusion, displacement maps, roughness maps and much more for me to try and experiment with. Furthermore, we can look at how the Quixel team searches for each environment based on their reference images posted on their sites.
In the image above, we can see the vast amount of detail on these rocks, as they appear to have moss and grass attached to them. This detail is what gives otherwise simple and plain assets their charm and aesthetics to make the viewer or, in the case of a game environment, the player feel immersed into the environment piece.
Another reference image that Quixel have taken from the same environment shows how rivers act and behave in this setting. We see rocks of different shapes and grass surrounding that takes its form from the water in the river beneath the give the landscape its rural feeling.
I have compared some Quixel Materials to those found in the built-in starter content that Unreal provides. I have downloaded a rock texture from Quixel (ROCKY GROUND, n.d) that has potential to have some height information with the chunks of separated rock and moss surrounding it, compared to the Gravel texture preset that I’ve found to be a little underwhelming in terms of quality.
Then I compared the brick material from the starter content with two Quixel materials (BRICK WALL, n.d; ROUGH BRICK WALL, n.d) and placed them to the right of the preset texture, similar to the last example with the rock. Here, we can see the vast amount of detail on the Quixel textures with the cement protruding between the individual bricks to show its age and be significant to the surrounding areas.
Conclusion
All in all, what I have learned is how detailed more of the textures used within the Quixel Megascans library are in comparison to the ones built within the Unreal Engine starter content, and how well the former uses real-world imagery to create photorealistic textures to give artists an unlimited amount of exploration and opportunities to use these textures in their projects. From the research that I’ve undertaken, and how they compare to the textures used in Unreal’s starter content, I will be using textures from the Quixel library to enhance the environments more.
References:
BRICK WALL (n.d) Available online: https://quixel.com/megascans/home?category=surface&category=brick&search=brick&assetId=vgvmcgf [Accessed 30th November 2022]
FlippedNormals (2019) Texture Maps Explained – Essential for All Texture Artists [Video] Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOHNRlrd1Ak [Accessed 25th November 2022]
Quixel (2019) Megascans Ecosystem: Giving More Power to Artists [Video] Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfbNlk-QCfs [Accessed 15th November 2022]
Quixel (2021) Megascans workflows for environment creation in UE5 Early Access [Video] Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyJqS0980no [Accessed 25th November 2022]
ROCKY GROUND (n.d) Available online: https://quixel.com/megascans/home?search=gravel&assetId=vjdqcba [Accessed 30th November 2022]
ROUGH BRICK WALL (n.d) Available online: https://quixel.com/megascans/home?category=surface&category=brick&category=rough&search=brick&assetId=vl4kehbfw [Accessed 30th November 2022]
TUNDRA (n.da) Available online: https://quixel.com/megascans/collections?category=environment&category=natural&category=tundra&tab=references [Accessed 28th November 2022]
TUNDRA (n.db) Available online: https://quixel.com/megascans/collections?category=environment&category=natural&category=tundra&tab=references [Accessed 28th November 2022]