Complementing the stellar soundtrack of the Dune movies are the stunning visuals and set pieces from the mind of Denis Villeneuve. The director has managed to lift the world from the pages of Frank Herbert’s novels and present it to us in a way we’ve never seen before.
Subsequently, Dune: Awakening has some pretty big sand boots to fill when it comes to breathtaking visuals and vistas. If the recent State of Unreal event is anything to go by, Funcom is gearing up to give fans of the series a truly beautiful experience.
Dune: Awakening Shows off Some Amazing Visuals and Set Pieces
Epic Games’ State of Unreal 2024 showcase provided some new information regarding the future of the computer graphics tool. We got a first look at Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra and how new technology is going to change the Fortnite we know. During the live stream, we also got to see how Dune: Awakening is utilizing the engine to create its world.
The Awakening section starts at the 45:00 mark, with creative director Joel Bylos taking the stage to speak about Funcom’s open-world survival MMO. Despite being a live-service game, the studio is looking to recreate the world faithfully, a challenge that Bylos admits made him “a little nervous.”
He shares how the team had the chance to be on set for the movies and draw inspiration from there to implement in the game. It’s a coming together of gaming and film, a phenomenon that Australian cinematographer Greig Fraser feels will shape the future of both industries.
Various Components of the Unreal Engine Are Working Together to Create Awakening
Bylos then explains how Unreal Engine has played a pivotal role in bringing the vision for Awakening to life. The world-leading renderer results in some amazing visuals, and Nanite enables high-poly models at all distances to ensure the world of Dune stretches as far as the player’s field of view can see.
He states that the team is using a variety of plug-ins with Unreal Engine to create the world of Arrakis. Houdini allows the developer to generate landscapes with a nondestructive workflow, so level designers can shape the land without causing issues with the rest of the layout.
With sand going to be the major aspect of Arrakis’ topography, the developer utilized the Fluid Ninja plug-in to offer stunning sand physics when a player walks or runs on its surface. Lumen provides a lighting system to combine global illumination and bounce lighting to make sure both exterior and interior locations are lit in a uniform and dynamic manner.
After the technical explanations, the showcase presented a trailer for the upcoming game that reflects all the efforts the team invested in using Unreal Engine 5. While trailers should not be taken as a benchmark for games, what was shown is truly beautiful, and we hope the end product is just as gorgeous.
What are you most excited about for Awakening? Drop us a comment below to let us know!
