Check out these super realistic fan-made 3D renders of World of Warcraft's coolest city

World of Warcraft art by Aleksandr Timoshenko
(Image credit: Aleksandr Timoshenko)

World of Warcraft's capital cities are all iconic, but the best one (for the Horde) has always been Thunder Bluff. Built on a series of towering mountains jutting out over the pastoral plains of Mulgore and connected by rope bridges, Thunder Bluff is simply breathtaking. Or, rather, it was when I first started playing the game over a decade ago. Nowadays, Thunder Bluff—while still majestic—is showing its age along with most of World of Warcraft's oldest zones. So it's cool to see 3D artist Aleksandr Timoshenko give Thunder Bluff a realistic makeover in Unreal Engine.

You can see Timoshenko's work in full HD on their portfolio, but I've included several of the screenshots below. The whole thing was made using Unreal Engine with Quixel's Megascans plugin. It's a pretty cool tool that gives artists access to a ton of ultra HD photos that can be used as textures in materials for 3D environments. It's often used by big-budget studios, but it's neat to see how solo artists can leverage it too. The scene, Timmoshenko explains, even has dynamic lighting—though the screenshots he shared are all set at nearly the same time of day. Would love to see a nice Thunder Bluff sunset, though.

It's some pretty amazing modeling work, especially when looking at the side-by-side comparisons of Timoshenko's work with what Thunder Bluff actually looks like in-game. While everything is mostly in the right place, the lack of color and harsher contrast gives Timoshenko's version of Thunder Bluff a decidedly bleak vibe. That's definitely a big difference from how colorful and vibrant the city is in World of Warcraft. I'm honestly not quite sure how I feel about it, but it's always cool to see someone reinterpret a setting I've spent hundreds of hours in over the years.

If you want to check out more of Timoshenko's stuff, you can see their portfolio here

Steven Messner

With over 7 years of experience with in-depth feature reporting, Steven's mission is to chronicle the fascinating ways that games intersect our lives. Whether it's colossal in-game wars in an MMO, or long-haul truckers who turn to games to protect them from the loneliness of the open road, Steven tries to unearth PC gaming's greatest untold stories. His love of PC gaming started extremely early. Without money to spend, he spent an entire day watching the progress bar on a 25mb download of the Heroes of Might and Magic 2 demo that he then played for at least a hundred hours. It was a good demo.

Read more
A mug that reads home sweet home sitting on a wooden table in front of a fireplace in World of Warcraft
'No lotteries, and no onerous upkeep': World of Warcraft takes a cheeky potshot at Final Fantasy 14's egregious housing system as it readies up to unleash its own
Concept art of WoW's upcoming player housing system, showing a warm homestead with a welcoming figure in shade.
WoW flexes its MMO player housing system in a new blog post, and it really might just beat FF14's dated furniture placement into the dirt
World of Warcraft The War Within screenshots
Dragonflight got WoW back on its feet, now we get to see if Blizzard can make the Worldsoul Saga run
Three goblins from the goblin cartels smile confidently in WoW: The War Within's Undermine(d) patch.
WoW's new Undermine(d) patch had a live jazz ensemble recording its big-band bangers, and they got to improvise: 'Usually those were the takes that ended up in the final version'
A mug that reads home sweet home sitting on a wooden table in front of a fireplace in World of Warcraft
Dataminers turn up potential details on WoW's upcoming player housing feature—from the Cataclysm Classic PTR, of all places
World of Warcraft's most recent patch soars with fun additions that last just long enough
Latest in World of Warcraft
A goblin with sharp teeth, wearing goggles, lets out a mischievous cackle in WoW's latest patch: Undermine(d).
World of Warcraft's started swiping good ideas from one of its most popular user-made UI addons, and it's honestly about time
Several adventurers in World of Warcraft Classic's hardcore server crying over the death of a fallen comrade.
Blizzard plans to revive WoW Classic Hardcore characters 'at our sole discretion', after DDOS attack puts major streamer guild OnlyFangs in the ground
WoW Classic: Season of Discovery
World of Warcraft Classic’s Season of Discovery may be teasing a legendary weapon that players have speculated is in the game for two decades
Gallywix wears an uneasy smile as he's confronted by Xal'atath in WoW: The War Within.
After 12 days and 100s of wipes, World of Warcraft's latest world first raid ends in anticlimax: 'That's the boss?!?'
A goblin with sharp teeth, wearing goggles, lets out a mischievous cackle in WoW's latest patch: Undermine(d).
The hooligan hacker guild that tore up WoW's newest raid (twice) just posted video evidence of the whole thing, and it's got me feeling weirdly nostalgic
Concept art of WoW's upcoming player housing system, showing a warm homestead with a welcoming figure in shade.
WoW flexes its MMO player housing system in a new blog post, and it really might just beat FF14's dated furniture placement into the dirt
Latest in News
A screenshot from SaGa Frontier 2, showing one of the protagonists wandering through a quaint fantasy village
One of Square Enix' most underrated PlayStation-era JRPGs just shadow dropped on Steam
The titular character from Princess Mononoke is depicted riding the wolf goddess Moro and carrying a spear.
Studio Ghibli AI image trend floods social media, cheered on by OpenAI and denounced by critics as an insult to Hayao Miyazaki
Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine
Marvel Rivals director says a future patch will reduce the shooter's insatiable hunger for RAM: 'It's a very big problem'
Hogwarts Legacy potions professor holding a potion
An unannounced Hogwarts Legacy expansion and 'definitive edition' have reportedly been cancelled
Story of Seasons - A cahacter in a purple tuxedo stands outside in a town square talking to the player
Story of Seasons is doing another Harvest Moon remake and it might be the best the series has ever looked
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
Assassin's Creed Shadows puts up the 'second highest day-one sales revenue in Assassin's Creed franchise history'