These ugly trees here were made by scratch inside of blender, poly by poly.
Couldn’t get mtree to work.
Anyways, I don’t think they would look that bad if the leaves interacted with the light a bit more. They cast shadows, but have no subsurface transparency. I feel like the leaves towards the edge of the density would have more subsurface.
Anyway to enable subsurface scattering on these leaves for a more believable look?
I could start arranging more branches and stuff then
It is a material feature > Using Subsurface Scattering in Your Materials | Unreal Engine 4.27 Documentation
Just check if your target hardware supports it. Probably it does but a quick google doesn’t hurt 
Alright I changed the default lit to subsurface, but I wouldn’t say it’s an improvement.
I mean more like this^
Is it in the way I made the tree? Here’s a snippit of it inside of blender:
what you see there on the real looking tree is a bunch of techniques combined. Subsurface scattering is not a magic solution to make it look real :).
For realistic results you need to know how to make textures for all channels (albedo, specular, normal etc.) and then apply subsurface scattering.
Best is to follow a ton of tree tutorials on youtube.
Side note, Your tree branch model is also flat. You should enable two-sided material for it and create a custom normal model in the shape of the tree (spherical) to make it look fluffy, else it will look very 2006 anyways.
Standard normals:
spherical normals (fluffy look):
I appreciate that you’re trying to help but 90% of what you just said I already understood. I know that my materials are double sided - they already are. I know normals need to be facing the correct direction - they already are. I know that materials sometimes take more or less nodes. The naming conventions in Blender are only a bit different than Unreal, for example to make the transparency work, I need two images, not just one in blender. I needed an opacity mask, a term that I had to learn.
I just don’t see how this answer is relevant to my question, if you don’t know how to answer it, maybe just admit that. I already know my trees don’t look triple A, I don’t need you to gaslight them. I already know that I could be studying documentation.
Like why are you here lol? Wasting my time. First you say “Just tick subsurf” then you start saying in a roundabout - passive aggressive way - “You’re stupid, just be less stupid.”, yeah, thanks.
Good luck with that. I provided documentation to a broad question, an exact answer and extra for your “believable look”. That is no way to thank someone for spending time on you.
Thanks! I did have good luck! None of your advice or reading documentation helped me accomplish this:
Don’t be mad at beginners because you’re not ready to give advice. You never know when they’ll pass you up.
And it’s visible 
enjoy the learning process
Unreal Engine offers a special shading model called Subsurface that is used specifically for materials that need this interaction, such as skin or wax. The Subsurface shading model can be enabled in Unreal Engine materials by following the instructions provided in the Unreal Engine documentation.
For more detailed information on using subsurface scattering in Unreal Engine materials, you can refer to the official Unreal Engine documentation. There are also tutorials available that walk you through the process of setting up subsurface scattering in your materials.
Please note that subsurface scattering can be implemented differently in different versions of Unreal Engine. If you are using a specific version, it is recommended to consult the documentation for that version.
Let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with!
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