Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18
Right click the texture asset in the content browser and choose Create Material.
Create a richly colored metallic surface in UE4
Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18
One of the optical properties of many metallic surfaces is changing it’s color slightly as the surface viewing angle changes.
This effect can be simply created using a Fresnel node and a color-ramp texture.
- Create a metallic material (metallic value of 1.0).
- Use an image editing software to create a linear color ramp texture (gradient) of the color change per viewing angle from left to right. like this example for a golden metal, and import it to your project.
- Add the ramp texture to the material Blueprint, and connect it to the material Base Color Input.
- Create a Fresnel node and set its Exponent value to 1.0 and its Base Reflect Fraction to a value of 0.0 so it will provide a linear angle blend value.
- Connect the Fresnel node’s output to the UVs input of the ramp texture node.
* the reason the Fresnel node can be providing both the X and Y texture coordinates is that the texture’s Y dimension provides the same color for all values anyway.
Note:
When the Metallic property of an Unreal Engine material is set to 1.0, the material automatically simulates the metal’s color fading to white at parallel surface viewing angle (the sides) like it should.
So using a Color Ramp Texture like in this example creates an amplified effect.
* Simply put: You don’t have to have the Color Ramp fade to white on the right side of the texture..
UE4 – Material Fresnel Node
Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18
The UE4 Fresnel node is actually a “Facing Ratio” node (aka Perpendicular / Parallel) with some extra control.
It basically allows controlling material effects according to the incident angle the surface is viewed at, which is a hugely important feature for designing advanced material effects.
Exponent:
The steepness of the value / angle curve.
Base Reflect Fraction:
The value at perpendicular angle.
Normal:
An option to connect World Space surface normals input to affect the output of the Fresnel node.
* Tangent Space normals must be converted to World Space by using a Transform Vector node.
Note:
A value of 1.0 for the Exponent parameter, and a value of 0.0 for the Base Reflect Fraction will produce a linear “Facing Ratio” (“Perpendicular / Parallel”) falloff blend.
Examples of different values:
More info:
https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/Materials/HowTo/Fresnel/
Related posts:
UE4 – Material Transform Vector Node
Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18
The Transform Vector material node transform the supplied vector between different geometrical spaces according to your choice:
Note:
This is useful in order to convert surface normals from Tangent Space to World Space to connect them as input to a Fresnel Node.
Basic architectural glazing material in UE4
Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18
- Create a new material, and double click it to edit it.
- In the Details panel, under Material, set Blend Mode to Translucent.
- In the Details panel, under Translucency, set Lighting Mode to Surface Translucency Volume.
- Set Base Color to White.
- Set Metallic to 1.
- Set Roughness to 0.
- Create a Fresnel node and connect it to the Opacity input.
- In the Fresnel node, set Base Reflect Fraction to control reflection amount in perpendicular surface viewing angle (front).
* Note that its connected to Opacity, but since the material is basically a flat mirror, when it’s not purely transparent it will be reflective. - In the Fresnel node, set Exponent to control the reflection amount falloff curve from perpendicular surface viewing angle (front) to parallel surface viewing angle (sides).
* Higher values will create a steep falloff curve, resulting in less reflection in most viewing angles.
Related:
Material Parameters and Instances in UE4
Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18
Material Parameters and Material instances allow you to create a customizable material template that can be easily reused with variations across the project.
In the Parent Material, you define the parameters that will be exposed for tweaking in the Material Instances.
Changing the Parent Material will affect all its instances.
Defining customizable parameters in the Parent Material:
- Create 3Vector Constant. (press 3 and left click the blueprint background)
* Parameters can also be created with other types of data like a Constant or a Texture Sample and more. - Right click the 3Vector node you created and choose Convert to Parameter.
- In the Details Panel, name the parameter.
Creating the Material Instance:
- Right click the Parent Material and choose Create Material Instance.
- Name the Material Instance.
- Double click the Material Instance to edit it.
- In the Details panel, under Parameter Groups you will be able to edit the exposed parameters and create a variation of the material.
Related:
Material Functions
Blending Materials
Vector Parameters in the UE4 Material Blueprint
Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18
UE4 Material Blueprint Numerical Vector Parameters / Constants and Colors are one and the same, which makes perfects sense, since in computer graphics colors are in fact 3D vectors, RGB quantities being equivalent to XYZ spatial dimensions (4D with an Alpha channel)
But take note that when setting the Vector values in the color picker you can’t set negative values, and when doing so through the Details window in Default Value you can.
* You can create 3D Vector Constants by clicking the background while pressing 3
UE4 – Create a Billboard (Sprite)
Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18
- Create a new Blueprint Actor.
- Enter the Actor Editor and add a‘Billboard’ component to it.
- In the Billboard’s Details panel, under ‘Sprite’, select the Billboard texture.
- In the Billboard’s Details panel, under ‘Rendering’, Uncheck ‘Hidden In Game’.
