# Are shadows on translucent material really not possible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rendering\ **Tags:** Water, Shadows, translucent, unreal-engine, transparency, Lighting, question\ **Created:** [March 7, 2017, 11:29am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/are-shadows-on-translucent-material-really-not-possible/387188 "2017-03-07T11:29:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_ca1854a0](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_ca1854a0](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_ca1854a0)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2017, 11:29am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/are-shadows-on-translucent-material-really-not-possible/387188/1 "2017-03-07T11:29:11Z")
I’m talking about RECEIVING shadows, not casting them. I’ve read here and there that a dynamic shadow should work, but my light is set to dynamic and I still have this result: ![128961-noshadow.png](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/3/5/9/35915028044ac24307d34a927feb1d3288dc2c4e.png) None of the Lighting models in the shaders material settings have worked, they just give varying degrees of opacity and specularity (as they should I believe). If there is a way to get dynamic shadows to affect a translucent material, what exactly do I need to do for it? Is it maybe related to a wrong spec or roughness map? If there is no way, could I achieve a shore fade like here with an opaque material as well? or should I just give up and hope nobody notices? ---
**Author:** ![bdogrular](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@bdogrular](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/bdogrular)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2017, 9:11am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/are-shadows-on-translucent-material-really-not-possible/387188/2 "2017-03-09T09:11:24Z")
nice question but i dont have an answer 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jbh3d](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@jbh3d](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/jbh3d)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 2:42am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/are-shadows-on-translucent-material-really-not-possible/387188/3 "2017-04-27T02:42:17Z")
I think I found a solution for you – I was just running into the same problem. - go to your material properties - switch the blend mode to masked - scroll down a bit and look for “dither opacity mask” and check that box - you might also want to play with the “opacity mask clip value” next. the default .3333 works by default, but maybe not so much in every case. right now i’m messing with values between .4 and .6 If I find any more relevant solutions, I’ll let you know. ---
**Author:** ![SebaSopp](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@SebaSopp](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/SebaSopp)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2019, 3:25pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/are-shadows-on-translucent-material-really-not-possible/387188/4 "2019-04-25T15:25:31Z")
Any news to this question? blend mode masked is not working for me… ---
**Author:** ![Haoris](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Haoris](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Haoris)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 1:44am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/are-shadows-on-translucent-material-really-not-possible/387188/5 "2019-05-03T01:44:00Z")
So the solution to get shadows casted on translucent material is to not use translucent material. Ok. ---
**Author:** ![Haoris](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Haoris](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Haoris)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 2:14am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/are-shadows-on-translucent-material-really-not-possible/387188/6 "2019-05-03T02:14:55Z")
This is insane. I’ve read almost all threads about shadow casting on translucent material and all of them never has an answer. How the hell is it so hard to get something that is on by default in every engine on earth ---
**Author:** ![magerbeton](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@magerbeton](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/magerbeton)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2019, 6:46pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/are-shadows-on-translucent-material-really-not-possible/387188/7 "2019-06-15T18:46:58Z")
I fount a solution where shadows work on a translucent material. There is a shadow beneith the water surface and on the water surface… So its quite expensive to use. Looks like that: ![279911-shadowbeniethwater.png](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/d/f/7/df7fb0cb4dd9a37618e88efe02018886ac0deff4.png) And that is the one with the shadow on the water surface ![279912-shadowonandbeneithwater.png](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/c/1/d/c1d2584b0fe3c1fe035ea348ad39a9a1cee93949.png) The key was this tutorial ^^: > **[A new, community-hosted Unreal Engine Wiki](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/a-new-community-hosted-unreal-engine-wiki/141494)** > > After over a year in maintenance mode, the official Unreal Engine Wiki is now permanently offline. These resources now live on a new community-run Unreal Engine Community Wiki — ue4community.wiki! You will be able to find content from the official... Hope this helps… ~magerbeton ---
**Author:** ![SebaSopp](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@SebaSopp](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/SebaSopp)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2019, 9:57am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/are-shadows-on-translucent-material-really-not-possible/387188/8 "2019-06-17T09:57:36Z")
This works indeed and looks very nice… Sadly the oppacity can not be zero or there is nothing visible. So this wont work for a Shadow Catcher - Matte Shadow iam looking for… ---
**Author:** ![kurylo3d](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/kurylo3d/32/1150889_2.png) [@kurylo3d](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/kurylo3d)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2026, 3:05pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/are-shadows-on-translucent-material-really-not-possible/387188/9 "2026-04-21T15:05:55Z")
So wheres the link? This ones broken