I'm searching for a good technique that makes lava flow down automatically no matter which way a mesh is positioned, and it speeds up based on the angle of the mesh facing downwards. UVs seem to be the biggest problem with an automated technique.
I know flow maps will work beautifully for a static object, but not a rotated or tilted one. So the object would have to be repeated.
One of the methods I tried is driving the Z value through world aligned textures. Unfortunately, while the results are more than acceptable around the object, the surfaces facing on top will always have UV issues as the texture is either static (like a planar mapped texture from the top), or if it moves, it will overlap the mess underneath and move totally in the wrong direction. And if I make the transition sharper, the textures on the side start stretching.
I also recreated UDK's wet material example in UE4, but that method mapped the distortion to the screen position, so the lava flows very oddly with the screen when you walk around it or change the camera.
It seems the only way to make lava flow down no matter what requires bad UVs in the finished product, or a completely procedural method that would undoubtedly be far more expensive than what I am doing. But if anyone has figured out how to make an automated lava flow material, please let me know.
I know flow maps will work beautifully for a static object, but not a rotated or tilted one. So the object would have to be repeated.
One of the methods I tried is driving the Z value through world aligned textures. Unfortunately, while the results are more than acceptable around the object, the surfaces facing on top will always have UV issues as the texture is either static (like a planar mapped texture from the top), or if it moves, it will overlap the mess underneath and move totally in the wrong direction. And if I make the transition sharper, the textures on the side start stretching.
I also recreated UDK's wet material example in UE4, but that method mapped the distortion to the screen position, so the lava flows very oddly with the screen when you walk around it or change the camera.
It seems the only way to make lava flow down no matter what requires bad UVs in the finished product, or a completely procedural method that would undoubtedly be far more expensive than what I am doing. But if anyone has figured out how to make an automated lava flow material, please let me know.
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