Lor em Elvis Obi B00141956 Aqualis-7 Sands of Salvation 1 In a post-apocalyptic world where water is scarce, you play as a lone survivor separated from your family after an AI-triggered disaster. Your goal is to reach a distant refuge, where you hope to reunite with your partner and child. Water is essential for survival, and you must carefully manage it by finding supplies scattered across the desert. Heat exposure constantly drains your water reserves, adding tension to your journey. Sandstorms threaten to slow you down and wipe out your progress. Along the way, you can interact with AI characters some broken, some still functional who may help or deceive you. Through conversation and exploration, you will uncover pieces of the world’s collapse and your family's fate. Stay hydrated, survive environmental hazards, and follow scattered objectives to guide your way forward. Reach the refuge before your water runs out and discover if Project Statement 2 Lorem ipsum Table Of Contents Title - 1 Project Statment - 2 Table of Contents - 3 Game Synopsis - 4 Research & Inspiration - 5-7 Creating landscape - 8-11 Applying Material - 12-15 UE5 Blueprints - 16-19 Metahuman CC - 21-28 Setting up Mesh - 29-35 Creating and adding Assets - 36-51 SafeZone level - 52-56 Final Level - 57-61 Errors Encountered -62-64 Final Thoughts - 65 3 Game Synopsis In a post-apocalyptic world where water is scarce, you play as a lone survivor separated from your family after an AI-triggered disaster. Your goal is to reach a distant refuge, where you hope to reunite with your partner and child. Water is essential for survival, and you must carefully manage it by finding supplies scattered across the desert. Heat exposure constantly drains your water reserves, adding tension to your journey. Sandstorms threaten to slow you down and wipe out your progress. Along the way, you can interact with AI characters some broken, some still functional who may help or deceive you. Through conversation and exploration, you will uncover pieces of the world’s collapse and your family's fate. Stay hydrated, survive environmental hazards, and follow scattered objectives to guide your way forward. Reach the refuge before your water runs out and discover if there is still hope left to 4 Research & inspiration As part of my research, I explored various world-ending scenarios by examining a range of films and TV shows that depict different types of post-apocalyptic environments and themes. I analyzed titles such as I, Robot, The Book of Eli, Chernobyl, Independence Day, and The Last of Us. Each of these works offers unique perspectives on global collapse, exploring critical themes such as artificial intelligence, societal breakdown, plagues, and environmental disaster. Lorem ipsum dolor sit 5 Research & inspiration - Joy buolamwini At this stage of my project, I decided to narrow my focus to a more specific and timely topic: artificial intelligence. As part of my research, I studied the work of Joy Buolamwini, a Ghanaian-American computer scientist at the MIT Media Lab. While working with facial analysis software, she discovered that the system failed to accurately detect her face. This was due to the algorithm not being trained on a diverse range of skin tones and facial features. Her thesis at MIT revealed that facial recognition technology performed significantly better on lighter-skinned men compared to darker-skinned women, highlighting serious biases in AI systems. 6 Research & inspiration - CNBC During the sprint phase of Semester 1, I also explored a video experiment in which ChatGPT was given two personalities. This raised further questions about the future of AI and the possibility of it evolving beyond human control. In a similar way, I examined an episode of Black Mirror titled “Metalhead,” which features autonomous, AI-powered robotic dogs that relentlessly hunt down humans. Both examples explore the unsettling idea of AI surpassing human oversight and pose deeper questions about technological dominance and our vulnerability in the face of increasingly intelligent machines. 7 Creating the landscape Creating the landscape 8 9 Creating the landscape For my game i started off by creating the landscape of the world for the game. I went into a new level in unreal engine and selected the landscape feature from the drop down menu. After i done this i decided to sculpt the mountains in the landscape by using the sculpt tool in Unreal engine and just dragged the mouse across the grey landscape. 10 To create the landscape, I used the appropriate sculpt and noise tool to carefully extend and blend the terrain across the entire scene. Although this process was time-consuming, it was ultimately worth the effort, as it resulted in the expansive and immersive environment I was aiming for. 11 Applying the Material 12 To texture my landscape, I used materials downloaded from Quixel Bridge (now integrated with Fab.com). These platforms provided a wide range of high-quality PBR (Physically Based Rendering) surface materials, many of which were free to use thanks to their Unreal Engine integration. The process began by browsing and selecting realistic ground textures, including dirt, sand, and cracked earth — which were best suited to the dry, post-apocalyptic environment in my scene. Once downloaded, I imported the materials directly into Unreal Engine using the Quixel Bridge plugin, which simplifies the process by automatically generating material instances and connecting the correct textures (albedo, normal, roughness, etc.). In Unreal, I applied these materials to my landscape using the Landscape Layer system. Each texture was assigned to a different layer so I could paint across the terrain, blending multiple materials together for variation and realism. This gave me full control over where specific textures appeared, such as having dusty soil in walkable areas and darker, cracked surfaces in more eroded regions. Although working with landscape materials can become complex, this workflow was relatively smooth thanks to the built-in tools and high-quality assets provided by Quixel. Applying the Material 13 14 Importing the materials into UE5 After downloading my materials from Quixel Bridge, I imported them directly into Unreal Engine 5. This integration made the process straightforward, as each material came pre-packed with a complete set of maps, including Base Color, Normal, Roughness, and Ambient Occlusion. Once imported, I began setting up a Landscape Material by creating a Material Blend Setup in the Material Editor. This involved using Landscape Layer Blend nodes to allow for multiple materials (like sand, cracked dirt, and dry soil) to be applied to different parts of the terrain. With the material applied to the landscape, I used the Landscape Paint Tool to manually paint different materials across the environment. Each layer represented a different surface type, and I could blend them together seamlessly using the brush tool. This gave me fine control over the look of my terrain allowing, for example, more worn-out, darker soil in valleys and lighter sand on ridges and open spaces. The combination of Quixel materials and Unreal’s landscape painting system made it possible to create a highly detailed and immersive desert environment efficiently. 15 Using Unreal Engine Blueprints. In Unreal Engine 5, Blueprints are a visual scripting system that allows you to create game logic and behavior without writing code. They utilize a node-based interface, where you connect nodes to create complex gameplay elements, events, and functions. This approach makes it easier for designers and those without extensive programming experience to create and iterate on gameplay mechanics. 16 17 Using Unreal Engine Blueprints the water bar mechanic As soon as the game starts, the water begins to drain automatically. This happens because a custom event called Drainwater2_Event is triggered early in the game, and it sets a timer that loops every second. The Event AnyDamage node is connected to the damage system, but in this case, it’s not activated by the T key — instead, it’s part of an older setup that isn’t needed anymore. The actual draining happens through the Drainwater2 function (shown in a later slide), which reduces the Waterbar 2 value every second. The Branch checks if the water has reached 0. If it has, it can trigger a Game Over or warning. This system is useful in survival games where players need to constantly refill their water to stay alive. The timer keeps the challenge going without the player needing to press any buttons. 18 19 20 MetaHuman Character Creator 20