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Tech

God Damn That's a Good Looking Computer Slug

A tranquil forest created in Unreal Engine is exactly what you need today.

For about three seconds that feel like three meditative hours of this video, we’re given a look at a slug glommed onto a branch in the middle of an idyllic forest.

The slug isn’t real. The forest it’s sliming around in isn’t real, either, but somehow I can almost smell the wet leaves and touch the ferns. It’s all created in Unreal Engine, a popular video game creation tool.

From the man who brought us some goddamn good looking computer rocks, comes the latest in scenic computer-generated videos that make you say, “God damn that looks good.”

Graphic artist Rense de Boer, formerly a technical art director at Battlefield developer DICE, pushes the limits of processing stupid-real scenery. For the rocks, graphic card maker Nvidia provided de Boer two Geforce 1080 Ti graphics cards to get them extra-crispy.

You can see every shade and crusty edge of lichen on the trees. De Boer uses a technique called photogrammetry, which complies a host of images taken from various angles of leaves, ferns, or whatever else he wants to replicate in Unreal Engine, and uses them to create realistic depth.

Because I know readers will wonder, What kind of slug is that, specifically? Please, we must know the name of this absolute unit! The closest guess I have as to this fella’s species is Limax maximus, which literally means “biggest slug.” That rules.