Can someone help me make a neon glow material that affects the environment?

[anonymous_user_2c547cbd]

You state :

Now you want to select the Main Material Node and go under Details and expand the Material tab then at the bottom of the Material tab there is a little icon that looks like a downward pointing Eject Symbol, click that to get advanced settings and then check the option for Use Emissive for Dynamic Lighting area - You can also just type Emissive into the details search box to get there faster

I’m not clear what I am clicking on to find these options. Am I clicking on the ball first or the texture I used or the material? Thanks

[darthviper107]

You would open the material from the content browser, then when it’s open you have the material properties part of the window, scroll down and there’s the option to enable Emissive for Dynamic Lighting

Remember though that only works when you use LPV and the results are poor.
You can also use emissive for static baked lighting by selecting the object in your level that has the emissive material and then there’s an option in the actor properties that allows you to enable emissive lighting for lightmass.

[anonymous_user_ad683205]

@CharlestonS;1972

Hey N0M4D, everything Black Master said is incorrect

To create your neon sign so it glows and illuminates the world you would create a new material with the a ThreeVector tied to your Emissive input, you would then mask this ThreeVector by multiplying it by a texture mask (this would separate your bulbs from the rest of the mesh so you don’t have to use multiple materials, you could also utilize the new Material Layers features if you like)

The higher you make the numbers in your ThreeVector adjusts the amount of glow (123 = RGB) given off by the material, usually somewhere between 50 and 100 for each color is good for a neon sign

Now you want to select the Main Material Node and go under **Details **and expand the **Material **tab then at the bottom of the Material tab there is a little icon that looks like a downward pointing Eject Symbol, click that to get advanced settings and then check the option for Use Emissive for Dynamic Lighting area - You can also just type **Emissive **into the details search box to get there faster

Now your emissive material should glow and illuminate the world as well - You will end up with something like the below

http://s27.postimg.org/y2hc8jo77/Neon.jpg

Okay what?!! Is there a video for this???

[anonymous_user_67c9efea]

Ok once and for all these are the steps to produce emissive static lighting in UE4. It is available in version 4.10
which I am using at the moment running on nvidia GTX970.

Material Setup. You don’t need the unlit material shader model which was shown
on a youtube video. Just use default will work.

Select the object that have the material applied. Go to it’s detail panel > lighting
> and open the Light mass setting.

Turn on Use Emissive for static lighting. Hit Build button to regenerate your lightmap.
Your emissive object should now cast light into the environment as shown in my viewport.

It’s frustrating how easy steps are often not shown with a few images
and mixed posts with conflicting solutions … or false solutions and time
wasting comments.

Side Notes:
The dynamic emissive type (LPV) is still a test model, it has lots of artifacts and typically not
useful for production pipeline … not unless you are a programmer / developer looking to
improve it.

[drummerof13]

Hawkenfox, I really appreciate your response to this. I tried setting mine up identically to yours, but it refuses to glow. It also loses all color once I raise the strength past 1. Any suggestions of what to check for?

[ryan20fun]

Do you have a post processing volume?, It could be interfering with the material.
Have you tried setting the engine scalability to Epic to make sure?
Have you tried using the material in a dark (part) of a map?

HTH

[drummerof13]

ryan20fun, those are all great questions, and thank you so much for the quick reply. I know next to nothing about the second thing you mentioned, and I’m pretty sure there isn’t a post processing volume, but I will look into it and see what I can find.

[drummerof13]

Ok, I verified that there is no post process volume, and Engine Scalability is set to Epic. However my map is 2D (paper sprite) and doesn’t contain any dark parts. To be honest, I’m completely new to lighting, so I’m not even sure if/how I could make a dark spot on my 2D map.

[ryan20fun]

You can look at this for the scalability.

I created a default map with floor and two lights on the side for reference, That left a very dark environment for testing emmisive materials and bloom.

What you could do is just push the emmissive multiplier right up till you see results, Then you can see how much you want.

HTH

[drummerof13]

After some more testing, it looks like it’s just anything I create in that one project. I created a new material in another project, and the emissive glow worked just fine. Then I went back to the original project and created a brand new material. It refuses to glow, even in the material editor preview. I also followed your suggestion of a dark environment to test in. I set that up, but anything I add the material to is either white or some shade of color (no glow), depending on how much emissive power I add.

[ryan20fun]

Have you tried going through your project settings Rendering tab and resetting the values to defaults?
Have you tried using a profiling/debugging tool to see if there is any obvious reason there, There is a documentation page here somewhere.

HTH

[drummerof13]

ryan20fun, you are the man! I compared the settings to another project that I got the emissive working in, and I found 2 required settings that were unchecked (probably because this is a project for mobile): Glow and Mobile HDR. After checking both boxes and restarting Unreal, the glow worked! Thanks so much!

[ryan20fun]

That is good!
I am always glad to be of help
Good luck with your project!

[alto_andre]

Thanks for the tip! I was having the same problem and it was solved after turning on the “Bloom” setting in the Project Settings!

[anonymous_user_49f55d06]

Hi,
Can you suggest a video for this?

Thanks in advance.