If you want lit translucency for like an ocean, I was able to get the same Phong specular shading model from UDK in the shader for the ocean, with a basic light vector blueprint/material parameter collection trick. If I ever need a specular highlight for a translucent object, I can just drop the material function in any material I want, plug in the light vector, and add the result to the opacity and emissive, and now I have a specular highlight wherever I need to. Seeing the old Phong model again actually made me very happy, because it is very fast (7 instructions), and looks absolutely perfect for water!
But you can use whatever specular model makes you happy: Blinn, Cook-Toor, or even GGX. The only problem with this method is it doesn’t have access to the shadow environment, or any sort of GI whatsoever. You can set a color, and across the whole ocean it will light up in glorious specular highlights… even in areas that should be shadowed. But if you’re not worried about that, seriously, it’s easy to set up, 7 instructions, and you can have an awesome specular highlight!
