The goal
Could a game engine make images you'd mistake for film?
That was the question behind Quixel's Rebirth. Built in Unreal Engine 4 and revealed at GDC 2019, it set out to achieve true photorealism in real time, using Megascans' newly scanned Icelandic library: black lava fields, moss, fog and a brutalist megastructure rising out of the landscape.
I spent the months running up to GDC on it, working on set dressing, environment art, cinematic composition, lighting and visual FX. The aim was a world that held up as film, frame by frame, while running in the engine.
Rebirth2.7Mviews of Quixel's film
Behind Rebirth424Kviews of the 60 fps gameplay demo
EngineUE4rendered in real time
PremiereGDCSan Francisco, 2019