The Modern Sponza rendered in Unreal Engine 5 with Lumen

The original Sponza scene is a classic in the field of computer graphics research. Originally created by Crytek for use in CRYENGINE for testing rendering features it was quickly adopted by the community making appearances in several academic papers and CG experiments. The original scene can still be downloading from the CRYENGINE Marketplace and, to this day, it is an amazing piece of graphics to look at.

With the shift to Physically Based Rendering (PBR) in pretty much all modern games engine, Sponza went a little bit in under the radar but those days are over.

Intel Graphics Research recently released an updated version of Sponza, complete with PBR materials, extra props and an animated knight in a shinny armour great for testing reflections.

The model comes in different formats and its split into Base Scene and Add-on Packages

Download the new Sponza Scene From Intel Graphics Research here

I took the FBX version of the model and loaded it in Unreal Engine 5. Importing it was not the easiest thing in the world as the materials were not created correctly. Using Datasmith is supposed to make the importing experience much better but I decided to stick with FBX to use Unreal Engine 5 as vanilla as possible.

so after tweaking the materials and setting the light this is my result. Its not perfect by any means but it shows how good realtime is nowadays. Enjoy!