Phantom Road

A publisher demo focused on a procedurally assembled road through Utah-like canyon landscapes. My work covered environment production, in-engine world building, and gameplay systems.

UE5 World Building Procedural Level Assembly Megascans + Custom Scans Blueprint Systems Prop / Equipment System

Role Environment / Technical Art (solo prototype)

Scope Playable demo for a publisher (internal)

Environment sources Megascans + some of my own rock scans

Key systems Road fragment streaming + vehicle equipment crate

Note: Unlike HDC biomes, Phantom Road is not fully photogrammetry-based. Most materials are Megascans, with selected rock assets coming from my personal scans.

What I did

Environment art & in-engine world building: composed and dressed the Utah canyon locations in Unreal Engine, focusing on readability, mood, and performance.
Procedural road fragments: built a system that loads randomized road/terrain segments (tile-based fragments) to create varied routes for the publisher demo.
Scan + Megascans integration: used Megascans for the bulk of the set dressing, and additionally integrated selected rocks/materials from my own scans for authenticity in key areas.
Random event set pieces: authored gameplay-driven incidents such as a car fire, burning shed, rockfall / blocked road, and other roadside hazards to sell unpredictability.
Niagara VFX & interaction: created an interactive foam fire extinguisher in Niagara, including surface response / splash-like behavior for convincing firefighting moments.
Vehicle equipment: implemented a functional trunk / equipment system for storing and using items during the drive.

Gallery

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Road segment — canyonclick to zoom

Procedural tile previewclick to zoom

Roadside set dressingclick to zoom

Fragment transitionclick to zoom

Vehicle equipment crateclick to zoom

Surreal roadside moodclick to zoom

Environment overviewclick to zoom