Enhancing Atmosphere with Fog and Lighting in Unreal Engine 5

05 February 2025 - 2 mins read time
Tags: EndlessJourney Devlog Unreal Engine

author: Tenshi

1. Adding and Adjusting Fog

I used Exponential Height Fog with the Volumetric Fog option enabled to achieve a realistic fog effect that interacts with light.

Fog Density: Increased to create thick fog, covering the entire map.
Fog Height Falloff: Adjusted to keep the fog dense even near the ground, preventing quick dissipation.
Start Distance: Little increased to see around the player but still maintain a mysterious atmosphere.
Directional Inscattering Exponent: Reduced so that the moonlight disperses through the fog, creating a slightly misty ambiance.
Albedo & Emissive: Adjusted to give the fog a cold and mysterious look.

I uses a Directional Light to simulate the sun. Using Ctrl + L, I rotated the light to give the illusion of a high moon in the sky.

Light Color: Changed to a slightly bluish-white to simulate the cold moonlight.
Intensity: Reduced for a soft lighting effect, avoiding excessive brightness that would break the night effect.
Source Angle: Slightly increased to soften shadows and avoid harsh contrasts.
Volumetric Scattering Intensity: Adjusted so that moonlight penetrates the fog and creates realistic light rays through the trees.

Visible moon rays are an important effect to enhance the immersive ambiance. Here’s how I achieved this effect:

Enabled Volumetric Fog: Allows moonlight to interact with the fog.
Directional Light with Volumetric Scattering: Tweaked intensity so that light passes through objects and creates visible beams.
Strategic tree placement: I tested different angles to maximize the impact of rays passing between branches.

Thanks to these adjustments, I successfully created an immersive nighttime horror environment:

✅ A thick fog covers the entire map, even near the player.
✅ The full moon softly illuminates the scene with a cold and realistic tint.
✅ Moon rays pass through the trees, creating a natural effect while maintaining some visibility.
✅ The thick fog enhances the visual impact of point lights and spotlights, creating dramatic and realistic light beams that pierce through the mist.

I will include some before/after screenshots to show how these settings evolved!

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