About The Challenge

The field of architectural visualisation is a striking blend of both the pursuit of photorealism and the desire to create something artistic, inspiring, and entirely new. This time I propose taking things into what used to be the gaming realm but doesn’t have to be just that anymore.

Along with access to the completely free and powerful Unreal Engine 4 tool-set for all challengers, Epic Games is also contributing the largest cash prize pool in architectural visualisation challenges history, with over $60,000 in prize money including a $25,000 grand prize for group entrants, and a $12,500 grand prize for individual entrants, to be awarded as part of Epic Games’ sponsorship.

By bringing together the two unique industries of game development and architectural visualisation, this realtime Challenge marks the unification of these two fields in a way that hasn’t been seen before, encouraging a deep collaboration that will result in something entirely new for all involved. The Challenge will kick off on Monday, June 15th and run until September 15th, with the winners to be announced at the SOA ACADEMY DAY #6 – “Discovering Technologies” in Venice, Italy on October 2-3.

As you all probably know by now, It was always my aim to host at least one major ArchVIZ challenge per year, But after “The Museum” Dual Challenge I knew the next one had to break new ground (see all past challenges here).

Seeing Epic’s Open World demo and film sparked my imagination and so it happens that the opportunity to bring realtime gaming technology to the world of architectural visualisation, highlights not only the versatility of Unreal Engine, but also opens the door for a new concept of visualisation, where the use of interactive animations and immersive VR will be increasingly relevant.

I encourage all followers of the blog, as well as new comers, to take part in this Challenge. Great prizes aside, this is an amazing opportunity to explore new territory and shape the way ArchVIZ is going to be done in the near future!

The theme of “The Vineyard” Challenge was chosen specifically to take advantage of the power of Unreal Engine 4, namely a blend of high fidelity interior spaces and stunning outdoor vistas. Challengers will be encouraged to think outside the box to interpret a modern winery setting of their own invention, and will be judged on a number of categories such as best lighting, best materials, best design, and best interactivity. The winners will be chosen by a group of expert judges from the Game, Film, and Architectural fields.

The use of Unreal Engine 4 in this brilliant architectural challenge is yet another example of the technology moving outside of its’ original capacity and affecting an entire industry in a way that I don’t think anyone could have predicted.

says Epic Games Lead Technical Artist, Wyeth Johnson.

Our focus on building not just great game development tools… but great tools, period, is what makes this challenge possible. It also highlights a unique aspect of our realtime rendering technology, in that architectural scenes that used to be relegated to the still image are now capable of coming to life in ways that are interactive and responsive to the viewer. We can’t wait to see what people in the community do with that extra layer of capability beyond just a beautifully rendered static scene.

Full Challenge details will be available here and unrealengine.com towards start date on June 15th. The official submissions will take place on the forums as usual, with Epic support at forums.unrealengine.com.

About Unreal Engine

Developed by Epic Games, the award-winning Unreal Engine is known for bringing high-fidelity experiences to PC, console, mobile, Web and VR. Unreal Engine accelerates the creation of games, applications, simulations, visualizations and cinematic content. Download Unreal Engine for free at unrealengine.com, and follow @UnrealEngine for updates.

Stay tuned for more detailed news as we get near start day, June 15th.

Go ahead and join in at The Vineyard