I’m busy learning Unreal Engine 5 by making my very own virtual island

Unreal Engine 5 is both easy and very challenging. It is easy in that most of what you want to do is all menus, settings, layers, and selecting from some amazing 3rd party textures, materials, etc.

The challenging part comes in actually understanding what you are doing. There are literally tons of settings (I mean countless) and the power really comes once you get to understand about 15% of that. I’m still on around 2 or 3%, but I do have a basic island with a landscape, a lake and a river (sort of). As you keep busy with it, you realise there are better ways to do most things. So beyond 15% knowledge, and you start to do things quicker and better.

Apart from just creating islands and any other landscape or structure you can think of, there is 1st or 3rd person gaming views, cinematic and animation, VR, and lost more. It makes Lego look like kids play.

I’m also doing it on Linux, so there are some minor challenges. The main UE5 Editor is now native Linux binaries, as well as the Quixel Bridge add-on. But I’m having massive issues with Epic Games sign-ins and their hCaptcha checks (clearly, I’m not human, yet I solve the identical hCaptcha on other sites this same week!). So, for two plus days I’ve been getting failed login. Funny thing is I was logged in a few days back, but I’m not the only one, it seems, with this issue. So, this is impacting my progress a bit.

The plan is to finish my photorealistic island and then to spend time walking around it, and maybe build it into an Android app or desktop app for some others to enjoy too. And of course, I can keep improving this island.

So, if you’re looking for a 2023 challenge still, Unreal Engine could well be it! It’s free to use but does require a bit of GPU processor and RAM.
#Blog, #creativity, #gaming, #technology, #UE5, #virtualworld