UE5 Waterfront

Level Designer

May 13

Written By Mitchell Grossbach

I explored Unreal Engine 5’s landscaping, foliage, greyboxing, materials, mesh editing, and water tools to recreate my childhood summer camp’s waterfront (Camp Bauercrest, Lake Attitash, MA).
- Replicated an environment from real life into Unreal Engine 5 during a 25-hour solo project
- Sculpted the ground geometry and painted landscape with created surface material consisting of multiple textures
- Painted and positioned foliage
- Constructed boathouse using only primitive shapes
- Imported free assets, manipulated their materials, as well as placed them appropriately
- Blocked out utility shed using Cube Grid and mesh editing tools
- Employed the water tool to implement the lake
- Documented progress, reached out to camp friends for feedback, and iterated based on suggestions

Final Result Side by Side

UE5

IRL

UE5 Replication

Landscape and "Greyboxing"

Curved road and retaining wall, bleachers, early boathouse, early foliage, kayaks and canoes, sloped beach.

Finished Boathouse

Including the weird giant window, floor to ceiling door, shingled balcony, and missing shutters.

Foliage and Docks

Trees, weeds, and tall grass to make up the boundaries, “E” docks, and sand texture for the beach.

Camp Friend Feedback

They’re very articulate. “That’s very good,” “Missing the sailboats,” “That’s sick,” “Problem is the lake looks clean.” In response, I added the sailboat rack but couldn’t find good sunfish or motorboat models compatible with UE5. I tinted the lake to be a bit greener but decided to keep it looking clean.

Final adjustments included changes to the foliage, construction of the utility shed, dusk lighting, and low fidelity placement of buildings and hills on the other sides of the lake.

Video Demo

Reference Photos

The Boathouse

The staple of the waterfront. Notice, next to it, the retaining wall and what’s left of decades-old bleachers. The road in front of the building winds to the left and up the sloped hill.

Boathouse Front

That bottom right window is actually more of a sliding door even though the “balcony” is just a shingled roof. The door to the bottom floor goes all the way up to that roof. Wacky stuff.

The Docks

These metal floating docks are home to two motorboats (when they aren’t undergoing maintenance) and a small whaler. We are in Massachusetts and the far side of the lake is in New Hampshire.

Kayaks, Canoes, and Sunfish

A nice mothers’ day greeting shows the small range of personal boats available on the sloped beach. It is particularly grassy/weedy in this picture, but in the summer it is much more sandy.