Insomniac Games has revealed how extensively it scanned real-world locations in Japan while building environments for Marvel’s Wolverine. The studio says one of its location-research trips produced more than 600 scans across four biomes, 5.6TB of captured data and 189,589 photographs, all intended to help ground the game’s locations in real materials, architecture and cultural details.
Principal technical artist Nathaniel Bell detailed the trip through PlayStation Blog, explaining that the Japan expedition was part of a broader series of scanning missions carried out during development. Insomniac’s environment team first blocked out levels and created detailed requests for the types of assets and biomes it needed, after which the scanning team planned a route with assistance from Sony Interactive Entertainment staff in Japan.
That route took the group from Tokyo to Joetsu, through Tsumago-juku and Magome-juku, on to Kyoto and eventually back to Tokyo. Insomniac said the trip involved considerably more travel than its previous scanning missions because the environments it wanted to document were spread across distinct regions. By the end of the trip, the team had walked more than 100 miles, often while carrying roughly 20 pounds of scanning equipment.
The locations themselves covered very different environments. Insomniac scanned snow-covered mountainous areas, bamboo forests, urban streets and underground transit spaces, capturing surfaces ranging from bark, snow and stone to pavement, metal, walls and public infrastructure. Remote temples and other culturally specific structures were also documented to provide references that could later be transformed into reusable game assets.
According to Bell, the purpose of the process goes beyond creating high-resolution textures. The team also studied how buildings were constructed, how materials had weathered and how culturally specific objects and design choices appeared naturally within their surroundings. Even when Marvel’s Wolverine uses fictional locations, Insomniac says those observations give its artists a stronger foundation than relying on generic asset libraries.
The scale of the data collected reflects that approach. Insomniac recorded more than 600 separate scans across four biomes, captured 5.6TB of data and took 189,589 photographs, not including additional reference photography. The team also documented everything from major landscape features to small details such as a bamboo gutter system, which could influence the visual language of environments rather than simply being reproduced directly.
The trip was not without practical problems. Insomniac says three pieces of equipment were damaged during the expedition, including two cables and a plastic case, while one phone suffered a shattered glass back. Those setbacks came alongside the logistical challenge of constantly moving between scanning locations while backing up large amounts of captured material.
Japan is especially relevant to Marvel’s Wolverine because Tokyo is one of the locations already confirmed for Logan’s journey. Insomniac previously said the game will send Wolverine through several regions, including Madripoor, Canada and Tokyo, as part of an original story built specifically for the character. Recent hands-on coverage has also shown that the game will include both more linear missions and explorable areas where players can search for collectibles and optional activities.
The scanning work therefore feeds into a broader effort to make each location feel distinct. Insomniac has emphasized that Marvel’s Wolverine is not attempting to reproduce every place literally, but rather to use real-world references as the basis for believable fictional environments. The Japan trip gave the team a library of materials, shapes and architectural details that can be adapted across the game.
Insomniac says similar scanning trips were carried out elsewhere in the world, although the studio describes Japan as its most ambitious mission of this type so far. The combination of photogrammetry, traditional photography and firsthand observation is being used to add specificity to environments while preserving the stylized direction required for a Marvel game.
Marvel’s Wolverine launches for PlayStation 5 on September 15, 2026. With development nearing release, Insomniac’s latest breakdown offers a rare look at the amount of real-world research behind the game’s environments, including hundreds of scans and nearly 190,000 photographs collected from Japan alone.
