Goddess Temple in UE4: Lighting & Blending

In the third and final part of this miniseries, Quixel's Jakob Keudel will explain why he chose to use ray traced lighting, discuss considerations for asset blending, and the importance of technical adaptation.
Follow along using the free ready-made environment on the Unreal Engine Marketplace: www.unrealengine.com/marketpl...
See the other episodes in this mini-series:
Iterating on an idea: • Goddess Temple in UE4:...
Remixing Assets: • Goddess Temple in UE4:...
Here's the blogpost mentioned: bit.ly/3dNOmSB
Download Bridge for FREE: bit.ly/3dszTeQ
Download Mixer for FREE: bit.ly/3fUjiCn
Learn more about Megascans: bit.ly/3hZLHIY

[@RenbeOfficial]

have you guys considered doing a ‘from scratch’ series? i’d really, really like a more longform quixel tutorial series, keeping the same style as these videos, of one of your artists building up one of these scenes from start to finish. there are so many aspects such as asset blending, landscape texturing, artist blueprints, and more that are skipped over in essentially every tutorial and livestream making these things quite hard to follow all the way through for a lot of beginners to this workflow, as one or more key parts to achieving the desired look are often missed out assuming that it’s ‘a topic for another time’. it’s not. this stuff is all so interesting, all of it, so please do go off topic and do deep dives into things like setting up asset blending for a scene! we all want that stuff. UE4 as an engine is plagued with years of learning resources that are for game-dev-specific workflows. however, we’re now seeing an enormous influx of people who just want to use the engine to make art, and you guys are one of the only resources out there producing truly high quality educational content entirely specific to artist workflows. this means that the answers to a lot of the questions that these people have are often fairly non-existent anywhere else. i know i’m not the only one either as i have been following this channel for a long time and see most comment sections filled with questions on ‘A’ or ‘B’ aspect that tend to go completely unanswered. these videos are completely incredible, a joy to watch, brilliantly produced, and exciting to see the sheer variety of what can be done with these tools, but i just wish there was more done to fill in the gaps. i think most people are watching because they wanna be able to do what you do and play with these techniques. thanks for everything you guys do. from the tools, to the assets, to the videos you’re doing, this is easily the most interesting creative content online at the moment. EDIT: i hadn’t realised you’d released this scene for people to play around with! still would love to see the whole process of doing something like this from a blank canvas, but having the project is really incredible and useful, thank you.

[@gdavis3d]

We have several tutorials coming out that are from scratch environments. Stay tuned!!

[@iami0]

Agree.

[@tomasgiu8194]

Yes! In summary, there are excellent content, but about quality, we need more quantity (I refer for videos). Cause the Megascans and Bridge are.. 🔥😱🔥

[@infomaticfilms]

@@gdavis3d Look forward to those, thank for this. Beautiful work!

[@avedarek]

yeah, good points there. This video motivated me to produce something after a few months of creative silence, but I ended up trying to understand that asset blending technique. after 2 hours with no luck, I can proudly pronounce my motivation as clinically dead.

[@fourwinds9687]

The cinematic shots at the end are simply phenomenal.

[@chronosschiron]

you'd be surprised how fun and easy things are to setup , once ya get a lil show of how they work

[@shayansharmahd43]

@@chronosschiron id love to get a lil show. UE4 + MS blows any other 3D software out of the water. What a time to be alive

[@brock7682]

umm sorry for being a noob but what is "MS"

[@noneofyourdamnbuisness3484]

@@brock7682 megascans

[@iesdise]

I can't express how much I enjoyed those. I would loved it if you went all in with them, each being 1 hour videos. Please consider more detailed tutorials for the lighting and the materials blending, you have achieved some insane results. I'm really new to UE4, but I'll download this and inspect it to the bone. *Thank you for those, incredible work!

[@ausyakut33]

Quixel will grow so big, you will see. With this generosity they should.

[@JohnSmith-rn3vl]

Epic is the one paying the bills. You can thank them for their generosity :D

[@DEARZISMO]

​@@JohnSmith-rn3vl But the Quixel team are the ones who work hard from the beginning, not everything is thanks to Epic

[@saebr]

Dear quixel team, Thank you for all the effort you guys are doing... Yet please read on as I as well as many others I am sure, have kind of a feedback for you guys. You show awesome stuff, no doubt. BUT, it seems that you guys assume that all of us used ue4 before we were even born.... All the sudden you guys say ( I just used this simple material)... And you open a bizillion node material that I believe most of us don't understand. My point is... Again, you guys are awesome, but honestly your biggest weakness is the lack of a really good beginner friendly tutorial from A-Z. It doesn't have to be 2 hours long... But also not a 5 min tutorial were everything is already pre-built. I saw this video.. And thought OK... I will search for a quixel ue4 mesh blending tutorial... No surprise, I found one by you guys... Again with two experts assuming we are all on that level. Gentlemen, I mean no disrespect, you guys are amazing... But please consider something more beginner friendly... It can be a small scene covering all we need. P.S... The ue4 videos by epic have the same problem... To them, we are all already experts using the software.... Well... We are not. Thanks and Regards,

[@Jedence3D]

You can learn basic things with tons of tutorials here on YT. Quixel is just lights up the place where we can come, but you must find your own way.

[@junkaccount7449]

Check out the official "Unreal Online Learning" website. The guys over at Epic have created some highly digestible breakdowns in the form of bite-sized videos. They don't require any previous knowledge, and their structured learning paths should get you where you want to go! Good luck! You won't regret it :)

[@avedarek]

I have a few years in unreal served, I play with this scene in unreal right now and I came back to this video with the intent to say exactly what you just said.

[@jonathanparlane1]

Hahaha! After almost 4 months of learning and hundreds of tutorials I'm starting to make environments that look realistic, and it's amazing, but I always chuckle when I see a massive complex node array and the 3D artist calls it a simple material. I've come to realize that everything is there to make the magic but it takes a ton of painful learning and some artistry. I think the Quixel artists do have to be a bit more clear on that-it's not as easy as it looks.

[@jonathanparlane1]

...even just getting the birds to fly to a certain point takes a lot of learning...

[@aitorrandez]

THANKS, Putting the project on the ue market place make it super easy for the artist to underestand and really learn from it ! thanks again :)

[@devm3240]

It seems my eyes are so blessed that i get to see such masterpiece art. 🤍🖤 Thanks to the Artist and the ecosystem .

[@100Peterll]

What a great scene and environment, really breathtaking and inspiring. The music used as well is also incredible and very immersive for this scene, really want to be able to create scenes like these someday. Can't wait for more!

[@rfraiol]

I enjoyed this tutorial a lot. The environment and mood are perfect. Great and nice piece of art. Congratulations !

[@Mushcube]

Amazing Jakob. Insane where we have come what comes to rendering..

[@doritodaddy8803]

I could only imagine a full game with this level of realism in terms of graphics.

[@intruderstudio4703]

I can't not thank you enough for publishing this kind of videos, is a great marketing tool but is a better inspiration source for those like me in the fence to start working in virtual productions enviroments

[@fallenhoenix1255]

Man.... Wow... Just...... Wow.... Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!!! Runtime virtual textures... You just changed the game for me... Thank you!

[@ChrrZ]

wow, this is really mindblowing!! well done jakob!

[@tajender_singh]

Beautiful scene... Amazing tutorial series

[@bakcheehong]

This is insanely awesome!

[@erikpolygon5471]

Unity: Shows highly optimiced tech demo with tons of custom programmed features - none of the features are available for the users. Unreal: Just uses features that are available in the engine and writing blogs on how to use the features properly. And it still looks 100times better. One of thousand reasons, why i switched the engine

[@NONinONDAgames]

true story

[@idk2708]

Doesn't look better in my opinions But yeah i agree with you lol

[@weird_videophotography]

In general you can use Quixel assets in Unity, there are also Plugins and so on for it. But you can't use them for commercial purpose. But the problem here is not Unity, the problem is Quixel and their decisions which platform they want to support. I also changed from Unity to Unreal, but because of the weird way of Unity how they handle the new render pipeline.

[@gdavis3d]

Suiheisen Hey there!! Just to be clear, we license to all users across every DCC and renderer. The licensing is different for UE users, but using UE does not preclude you from using Megascans for commercial work. We’ll be posting a reel in the near future highlighting how Megascans is being used across many verticals in a wide variety of applications and use cases!!

[@erikpolygon5471]

@@weird_videophotography yes, you can use quixel for commercial use. You just have to pay for it when you dont use UE.

[@bobbyhodgson4071]

As an independent film producer/Director I see this becoming the future for film environments. Amazing artistry, thank you Quixel and ue4

[@vasudevsingh5582]

Never clicked more fast

[@prltqdf9]

* faster

[@mohnishlandge]

* FASTEST

[@Square-zero-one]

Love the series Thank you

[@impulzive]

Amazing and inspirational work!

[@stank7200]

Thanks to Quixel, Very realistic textures and a variety of great models and templates are available for free use in Unreal Engine. This will make game design fun and easy. Thank you Quixel!

[@harrysanders818]

Yeah, game development will become insanely easy because of a vast scan library and some new texturing tools. Good that we do not need to learn game design, art and programming anymore because of that. (Seriously, pardon my irony, but your viewpoint is a wish or merely an illusion, I mean this in a friendly and constructive way, to trigger a reflection of your statement. If you want to develop games, be aware there are tons of layers of more interdisciplines and knowledge involved than knowing how to throw scans into a game engine. It will become immediately clear when trying to make your first game. Dont be seducted by visuals to believe the word "easy" is ever able to be associated with gamedev. Keep on learning, no time to relax because a few people have created some good new tools for visuals. Trust me, ive been there. Dont underestimate what it takes to make games and be curious and learning about the disciplines involed. Game Design is not visuals alone, but in a game, visuals support game design, not vice versa)

[@stank7200]

@@harrysanders818 I never said it was. I'm saying that it's nice that there's now an easier way to make games visually pleasing.

[@8dioproductions]

Fantastic video!

[@TUKMAK]

Phenomenal work

[@jimmwagner]

Would love to see a step by step setup of that blending process. It's so much easier to hear someone explain it.

[@zakirali8721]

Awesome! GOD bless you for THIS :)

[@SLH_1]

Beautiful!

[@user-cc8kb]

Amazing scene! :)

[@polyg3n]

I waited 20 years for this

[@theflow3513]

Great video. Great speaker. I really like it. of corse also great content

[@SanneBerkhuizen]

OMG. The complete scene is available? I'd say this could become the new benchmark scene people will jump into after buying or in the future upgrading to better RTX cards

[@aditiavfx]

Any information on the PC specification for developing this series? obviously, it's using RTX card, but like what series, how much RAM needed, etc. Thank you so much :)

[@lbpdluis]

impresive

[@YoKhoe]

Would loooove if you guys create a benchmark tool with videos such as this, explaining what each scene utilize and what GPU features are being flexed. With a scoring at the end that we can all compare and evolve with new graphical capabilities each year.

[@Yehoogame]

Wish this was a full breakdown for the scene, I've been waiting for it since I saw the 2020 reel from Quixel, because I've a statue and wanted to do something inspired by this environment. Especially for lighting and full breakdown on the blending. :(

[@virmillium6520]

You can download this scene for free at the marketplace and dive in it to see all the technics used in it.

[@eyefisher]

I've waited my whole life for this.

[@TheFirenick]

best tutorial ever

[@saemranian]

Awesome!

[@SouthernHunter]

Absolutely amazing! Are you going to do a livestream breakdown?

[@gdavis3d]

We are considering it, for sure!!

[@RomasNoreika]

Really beautiful :) I would love to play an mmo game with these graphics :D Maybe in 50 years time we will be able to :D

[@JohnDowson100]

This is an amazing scene! I was wondering: how is the smoke from the incense burners done? Is it a particle effect or does quixel have smoke elements available too? Are the lanterns chains modeled in maya?

[@desertlion7013]

Thanks for the awesome video. Is there any specific render setting to achieve this kind of realistic quality?

[@GamesStudio313]

Nice :D

[@bonanzaff4668]

its dam tempting

[@SanneBerkhuizen]

I think it would be beneficial for new starting Creators if every pack has an ready made scene. Breaking those down taught me a lot.

[@RenbeOfficial]

strong agree

[@danielwoje7258]

@@RenbeOfficial That is something we are working on to bring to the marketplace, no timeline yet, but it's something we have been wanting to do for a long time.

[@anraeth0]

amazing

[@yanreis12]

4:16 it's nice that you think my pc can even dream about opening this project XD

[@vigosaurus4665]

lmao true

[@aliwalil4160]

This guy is so good

[@xiadisun8715]

Great scene! Did you use RT GI in this scene? Could you please share some tips about whether we should use RT GI or not? Thank you~

[@eth7928]

Pretty cool. The smoke really sells the scene tbh. Wonder how they were made. Houdini?

[@AngelsNeverFade]

Google 2d raymarching smoke UE4 :)

[@The9PointStar]

I see a Quixel post, i click

[@jerryatricks4168]

Hey guys, beautiful work! Can you tell me why when I'm running it in editor mode everything looks fine, but when I play it in PIE, everything is very dark? I've tried all scalability settings but get the same results each time.

[@P1oN4ik]

It's perfect.

[@greynade]

Maybe a Quixel X MelodySheep Collab would be Beautiful

[@TheDigitalAnts]

Love it, Price of Persia remake anyone?🤩🤩

[@greynade]

FCKING LEGENDARY

[@blackswan6386]

how you made the candles ? plane blender or real particle ? they looked awesome, will need this in my cinemtaics, thnaks for help & reply

[@brenolad]

I truly appreciate you putting this all together and open for us to look at. But... 07:00 Incredible how you say it's real-time using RTX technology, when I crack this scene open on my RTX 2080 (i7 10700k/64gb RAM) I barely get 1fps and sometimes my GPU drivers crash trying to keep up. I had to enable DSLL and lower the quality to get anywhere near 24fps. When this video was published the 20 series were the top cards. What setup were you using to get real-time feedback like this? Were you using DLSS optimisation? There's no way this was real-time out of the box. I know Quixel won't respond to this but certainly I'd be interested to hear what other people's experience was, did you have any luck at all with real-time raytracing?

[@lukepawelek799]

hi, thanks for the video! i am following the log to set up the RVP, however, i am unable to figure out how you got the node coming out of the Virtual Texture feature switch? my landscape is black and i am unsure as to why? aslo, i support the idea of a full a-z tutorial. maybe even from world machine to finished renders. all the materials in between. could be 8hr long or 38 vids for all i care, i'd lap it up.

[@chronosschiron]

question as im older hardware ray tracing is a no go , im assuming i can keep it off and it would still look very good, would i need to do some adjustments ,im gathering most of this is in the post processing area

[@Techtipsdtyagi]

Amazing.. Please provide a video on detailed lightning setup. I don't have RTX card. Or provide some helpful tutorial link.

[@faruxton8541]

I wonder in total from start to finish how long this took to create? like how long he was in photoshop then how long he spent whiteboxing then asset creation and then finaly assembly with lighting passes ect

[@jkartz92]

How's the blending of assets created? is it only possible with unreal or is it possible in other 3d apps too?

[@BrunoCailloux]

Hi Quixel! Thx you very much for your incredible job! I open your level and I make a render, just to see. But I have a big pb. I got a lot of noise and my export is very dark. How do you made a clean picture from your project? I try so many lignting setup to improve the noise and light but i didn't manage. I hope you could help me :) PS : I got a RTX 2070 8Go on my laptop.

[@D4ns3r]

Hi there, I'm a very beginner just getting curious about Quixel, and I'm wondering : are you using a mouse to do this or a graphic tablet + pen ?

[@yassiraykhlf5981]

Cool

[@dimitriskoutris6139]

Excellent learning material as always! I like the Quixel's approach of making these environments available in the marketplace to reverse-engineer them. Btw where is Wictor? :p Missed his annoying voice :D

[@gdavis3d]

He has the voice of an angel!!

[@gdavis3d]

@@dimitriskoutris6139 well, he is my coworker!!

[@danielwoje7258]

He will be back later this summer with an awesome Mixer tutorial series!

[@Franky4795]

I couldn't get of such a good job here man u great! Can I get some tuts I mean purchase ))

[@cghow]

Anyone interested in unreal engine niagara tutorial

[@dimitriskoutris6139]

Can i reply to all your comments with one fat YES?!

[@doritosvegas2096]

@@dimitriskoutris6139 YES

[@6Phat9]

i love these videos and i have absolutely no clue whats going on

[@ecoartic5469]

HI dear master I have a problem with focus or depth in particle assets like fire ...how your candels fires have depth of focus in this movie?

[@Moonz97]

This is really tempting! I might switch from unity to ue4.. but ue4 seems scary to learn with all of those features :|

[@briangonzalez907]

sorry but were is the link to the website i dont see it

[@dy578]

Can we use quixel assest for mobile game? Can we lower the quality of texture assest?

[@nithinramesh6282]

So when I package it for Windows and run.. it just shows black screen with some white lights and nothing else. Any idea why and how to fix it?

[@SagaraUrz]

Can someone explain to me how exactly does Qixel integrate into Unreal Engine 4 when using it? Can i just download both and have them running? Do they run on a separated .exe?

[@arthurzim8020]

nice joob!

[@VisualArt3D]

Can you tell us your specific hardware you achieved this on? Just to know what system is needed to get the same response that you did. Thanks

[@goshtic9565]

I checked the project out on a 2080 Ti and it's not as smooth as shown on the video. -So he could be use a Quadro RTX with Nvidia's Creator drivers (which is optimized for game engines).- I'm on the normal Game drivers. Edit: Just saw a reply of his, he is on a 2080 Ti, the scene was done in FHD and upscaled to 4K for YT. I was trying to run it in 4K real-time (as it was the quality setting offer by YT). That could explain why it seem like he had something better than a 2080 Ti.

[@beardedarchitect4857]

Is there a way to achieve this kind of blending inside of 3ds max :)

[@MatiisMatiis]

Could you estimate the number of hours you have spent on this scene? (excluding work required to make video tutorial) What is the hardware spec that runs it in realtime?

[@fes.s]

Cinematography is out the roof. What is the music?

[@SynthToshi]

every time i go into play mode everything turns black?

[@dannykai4624]

Is this used in a Disney Raya movie promotional video?

[@12345678907108]

Anyone knows what is the name of music in background?

[@banmuanhacom]

what is your computer hardware's specification

[@isidorasimic253]

How can i import the candles with the flame in my project?

[@jumpinturkey]

What kind of specs would you need to be able to build something like this on a PC? Anyone know?

[@torgnysafro]

fixingport.com/unreal-engine-4-system-requirements/

[@abdullahsohail5395]

Quixel: Achieving the goal in texture blending My GPU gtx 750ti I won't let you do it

[@zonkete]

Whats the song name? It sounds beautifull

[@Calico655]

tutorial for the blending mode please !!!

[@nickgeiserr]

Recently got a RTX Graphics card...So glad

[@user-gd4ol7gh1g]

maybe you will make deteil tutorial. I would buy it at any price

[@sinanarts]

Can I run this in UE5.1 .?

[@TheWillvoss]

are those volumetric particles? or just 2d cards?

[@simplysid]

I have an issue where the edit mode looks completely different from the play mode. The whole environment goes dark except the lanterns and candles, only elements nearby are partially lit, everything else turns pitch black/dark. Not sure what to do.

[@shuxilin9385]

meet the same problem and have no idea what to do

[@simplysid]

I had found a solution to this in UE4. I'll fetch it for you if you want. Its been a while.@@shuxilin9385

[@nikovassilis5715]

I don't know why but when I click play all the scene goes black (like if there was no directional lighting) and only the candles lights are on, but when I'm using the preview everything looks great. Don't think it's a specs problem (the scene runs at 48FPS) but anyway I'm using 3900x + 2080 Super +64 Gb Ram 3600. Can someone help me?

[@shuxilin9385]

I meet the same problem, do you have any idea?

[@josephconnor2261]

Fucking hell wow!

[@Core2]

Holy Shit.......

[@abidnabawi706]

I hope sooner or later we get graphic card that could render this things in real time

[@gdavis3d]

This scene is running in real time!! Be sure to download it from the marketplace for free to see it yourself :))

[@vigosaurus4665]

Well UE4 is intended for high end devices even as optimized as they are you still need atleast a gtx 1060 to play it

[@megaKRZYWDA]

Mind f**k 😍