Building Open World Landscapes with Unreal Engine 5: Create stunning open world environments with foliage, lighting, and materials in UE5

Creating expansive open worlds in Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) can be daunting, especially if you’re just starting out. In this practical guide, the authors leverage their vast experience to break down the essential tools and workflows needed to design immersive environments with ease.

The book guides you step by step through sculpting landscapes, painting foliage, setting up lighting, and applying post-processing effects to elevate your outdoor scenes. The chapters will walk you through the UE5 interface and core tools such as Landscape Mode, Foliage Mode, and related features. You’ll also sculpt terrain that evokes emotion in practical projects, design materials that bring surfaces to life, and create lush foliage to transform your landscapes into vibrant ecosystems. You’ll explore level design techniques, world composition, and World Partition for seamless integration of large environments. You’ll enhance visual fidelity with real-time lighting and post-processing techniques and gain the skills to optimize your creations for smooth performance.

By the end of this UE5 book, you’ll have the confidence and technical foundation to create stylized and realistic outdoor environments and continue refining your UE5 skills.

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© 2025 Packt Publishing (Ebook): 9781835081365

Release date

Ebook: 28 November 2025