Sands of Odin - Retro Style Environment

DISCLAIMER: As with all the environments and projects in my portfolio, I created everything from the ground up—models, textures, materials, etc. Everything you see in the renders and videos was made entirely by me.

It was always a dream of mine to create my own space station.
Yet easier said then done as it was a real challenge in terms of modularity.
That said I am very satisfied with the result as everything is modular meaning you can create giant space stations which was my ultimate goal.
I really underestimated how much different versions of each modular asset had to be made in order to maker it all modular on the 50 grid space.

Style wise I wanted to make an sci-fi environment. That said I am not the biggest fan of the widely used sci-fi style of the industry.
I did some digging and instantly fell in love with the 'retro space' (retro futuristic) style! Without a second thought this is what I went with.
It was difficult to still make it as detailed as I wanted, because most of the reference I found had big white panels and relied more on its unique shapes rather then being full of small details like pipes and wires.
I spend a lot of time on the design aspect meaning I went with unique shaped rather then dense detail for this project.
The screens on the vending machines, terminals, air lock and the elevator touch-pad are turned off (black material). This is a pack to be sold and used by different people so I decided to leave them black (like they are turned off) so the user can add their own interface to it.

My main inspiration came from the Lego Classic Space sets.
I've always loved the designs of those sets and the incredible space stations people built with them. That got me thinking, could I recreate that in 3D and make it modular like real Lego?
That idea became the heart of this project: to create endlessly unique space stations that are easy to build by simply snapping the assets into place by using the 50 grid.

Modular Lego in 3D!

Also I didn't just want to make another environment, I wanted to make a playable game level which truly felt different then just a house in a grass field from the front without any interior or 360 rotation view of how the land around it would look.
This is the exact reason why I am super proud of this piece and it feels like a big step up from my other environments.
A true Gameplay-ready environment.

Almost every asset, whether static or modular, includes a material instance with customizable color options. This means you can change the colors of nearly every part of the space station, including interior props.
Creating something this large and modular is exciting, but it should also feel unique to each user. That’s why I focused heavily on material instances, so every buyer has full control over the look and feel of both the exterior and interior of their own space station.

I made use of the build-in path tracer in Unreal 'lumen' meaning everything's raytraced.
For the terrain I went with a heightmap and nanite which did the job way better than the tessellation solution used in EU4.
For this project I wanted to go for a 'movie like' style so for the renders I played around with the FOV which was super fun and I am very pleased with the results.

While making the environment I got very sick and still am, spend 10 weeks 24/7 in a hospital and couldn't work for 2 years on the project, recently its getting a bit better so I was able to finish it and there for I wanted to include a little poem I wrote while being sick.
I don't know if I will ever fully recover so I am at least happy to have made this dream environment come true <3

I really hope everyone enjoys this project as much as I enjoyed making it and hope to see a lot of different space stations out there!

See you in space! 🚀

Download playable version here! https://drive.google.com/file/d/12y-lNkUKFL8qLCuYOr4cBPDvT15VBcyp/view?usp=sharing

Decal sheet I made for the environment: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ZlXo30

Buy the environment here: https://www.fab.com/listings/4f64f5d7-02c9-4fb4-82f2-001a9ff17a01

Contact: daanhesterman@gmail.com