Tools: Unreal Engine (3d environment build), DaVinci Resolve (video editing)
Music credits:

Key Insights

This realistic 3D design of the Viking-era cabin and its lakeside environment leverages a variety of procedurally-generated elements to create an immersive and dynamic scene. The cabin itself features detailed wooden textures and varied structural elements, giving each plank and beam a unique appearance consistent with historical Viking construction techniques.

Surrounding the cabin, the terrain is generated using procedural heightmaps and erosion algorithms, resulting in natural lakeside cliffs and gentle slopes that integrate seamlessly with the body of water. Foliage such as trees, bushes, and grasses are populated through procedural scattering systems that take into account environmental factors like slope, altitude, and sunlight direction, ensuring realistic distribution and biodiversity.

The sky system uses a procedural skybox that simulates realistic atmospheric scattering, dynamic cloud formations, and time-of-day lighting changes, enhancing the mood and immersion. Bird flocks are managed with particle systems and behavior trees, allowing them to react naturally to the environment and player actions, further bringing the scene to life.

One of the standout features is the waterfall, created using node-based procedural water textures within Unreal Engine. These textures simulate water flow and turbulence via layered noise functions and flow maps, while caustics are generated using dynamic light interactions and shader effects that produce realistic light patterns on submerged surfaces. This combination results in a strikingly realistic waterfall that responds dynamically to lighting and environmental conditions, making the lakeside setting truly captivating.