Creating realistic landscapes in Unreal Engine with Houdini | GDC 2023

Watch the recording of Epic Games’ talk from GDC 2023, ‘Creating realistic landscapes in Unreal Engine with Houdini’. In this talk, Environment Art Lead Darko Pracic takes you through Embark Studio’s use of Houdini for creating realistic landscapes in Unreal Engine. The first section of the video covers workflows for shaping out the world using LiDAR data and QuadSpinner’s Gaea Bridge tool. Darko compares the studio’s LiDAR processing setup in PDG with previous LiDAR workflows in which artists had to learn complex GIS applications like GlobalMapper. Then, you’ll get a look at Embark’s export/import setup from Houdini to Unreal Engine. Next, Darko goes more in depth and demonstrates the studio’s in-house heightfield utility HDAs, highlighting the benefits of working with landscapes in 3D rather than 2D. You’ll learn about Houdini’s strengths not just as a procedural tool, but also as a tool for non-technical artists to make large landscape changes that are beautiful and realistic—even in a