[Community Project] WIP Weather & Water Shader

any update on for the 4.8?

I posted a link to the re-compiled version of the plugin and TK’s branch with the recompiled pluigin with TK’s fix a few posts back. Its not a gaurenteed fix but it seems fine for me; I dont use destructable buoyant objects though.

Epic has, yet again, depreciated a ton of code that needs fixing up to be ā€œproperā€ and changed the way some things work in PhysX apparently, as much as I can pull from TK’s post, the forum, and seeing the code warnings.

Subsurface Scattering Problems

Hi, I’m really new to UE4 and game development in general. So, I apologize if is a really stupid question or it’s already been answered.

I’m having trouble with the subsurface scattering. With the default color and any color I put into it, it’s always white opaque color. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong because it works fine in the demo project itself. UE4 ver. 4.7.6 Any help is appreciated.

Could you give us some more details about what you mean by SSS. Are you implementing your own version, are you editing the SSS in the material etc.

No, I haven’t edited the materials at all. I migrated the blueprints/materials over to the project I was working on and that was the result. I’m just trying to get the system in my project. I’m not sure if I’m missing a few files, I’ll double check. Going through the blueprint’s settings, SSS was the only thing that was causing some change in those white textures. for example, if I bring the color of the sss to full black, it will change to that (unfortunately it makes my scene look terrible as well). But, any other slight change in the color brings it back to that white color. I’ve tried several different combos of of colors, but it doesn’t change from that white color. It doesn’t make sense to me.

You need to add the BP_Skydome into your level or the SSS won’t get the sun’s rotation.
If you want to use your own sky then you will have to set it up manually or you can set the SSS intensity to zero.

I plan to make it easier to be able to use another sky but for now it is what it is :stuck_out_tongue:


Current status of the 4.8 release:

Unfortunately I’m having an with the sample count… the 4.8 SSR increases the sample count which end up giving me an exceed texture sample limit (16) error on compile.
So basically if I enable SSR then I have to disable the new foam that I have added… also I want to add an extra set of ā€œfar distanceā€ normals but the sample limit isn’t going to let me do that it seems.

Do any of you guys know why happens? I thought the texture limit was increased to 128 since 4.6.

Also I’m working on the ā€œinfiniteā€ plane system, it works pretty good so far but I will need to find a solution for the sample count problem and add an extra set of normals or it won’t look good at distance.

Thanks! That works perfectly! :slight_smile:

I heard it was supposed to be raised to 32. Maybe we will see it around DX12 implementation?

will changing texture samplers to ā€˜shared wrap’ work? thats how i get away with more than 16 textures in a landscape material.

If that’s true then what did they mean by ā€œup to 128 unique texturesā€ in the 4.6 release notes? I’m confused :stuck_out_tongue:

All the texture samples are already set to shared wrap but that only seems to let me use a couple more textures at the most (or it doesn’t make any difference at all).
I’m really hoping is some kind of bug and not an actual material limitation… I will make an answerhub post about later.

I made a post about in the yesterday but so far no reply (can any of you guys give it a bump to get more attention?)
https://.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?72639-Too-many-texture-samples-Also-how-to-SubUV_Function-with-tiling

So anyways… until I find out a solution for the sample count I can at least enable SSR if I disable the foam.

I have successfully implemented far normal blending which basically blends to another set of normals at distance.
greatly improves the look when the camera is far and it also works perfectly with the ā€œinfiniteā€ plane system.

I have also adjusted the detail normals, it looks way better now in my opinion. It actually starts looking like water now :stuck_out_tongue:

Here are some comparison screens between the old shader of the new shader.

Old Shader (ugly tiling pattern at distance)
http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/1936/ts3kql28b5ebqjgzg.jpg?size_id=7
(Click for original size)

New Shader (far normals blend)
http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/a6ef/0gqb2flld54mx8azg.jpg?size_id=7
(Click for original size)

Old Shader Closeup
http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/c662/5nyptrh7ax5yxghzg.jpg?size_id=7
(Click for original size)

New Shader Closeup (detail normals + SSR)
http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/aab9/5b8fs75kdol6amlzg.jpg?size_id=7
(Click for original size)

There are some things I need to cleanup, expose some variables, and make the infinite plane system configurable so it will take me a little bit more time before I release … but ā€œsoonā€ :p… it’s coming.

Also for those interested, thanks to we now know how to increase the SSR quality! I will post some comparison screens sometime later.

I think the ā€œup to 128 unique texturesā€ is meant for DirectX/Windows, as far as I read there is still an 16 texture limit for and . questions/232852/openglbug-shared-texture-samples-do-not-work-in-op.html
I hope is what you meant ^^

But I’m using DirectX/Windows :stuck_out_tongue: so I don’t get it…

Hmm, was the only thing I could think of, maybe ask on AnswerHub? Maybe it’s a bug or something shrug

Okay I finally figured out what the problem was… I was using the function Motion_4WayChaos to pan the normals/foam etc. which apparently included texture samples without ā€œShared Wrapā€ so I made a custom version of the function and now it seems I can use as many textures as I like :stuck_out_tongue: (yay).

Also because of change the non-SSR version has now dropped to 12 samples so hopefully it will also work with/openGL.

Apparently for opengl3 and its stuck at 16 samples total until updates their drivers but for opengl4 on windows(I think) and apparently is a bug, questions/232852/openglbug-shared-texture-samples-do-not-work-in-op.html

hopefully you fixes will make it work. and thanks for .

I was also wondering when were you going to push your changes?

Sorry it takes so long :stuck_out_tongue: I’m trying to nail down the infinite plane system and fix the destructibles atm but I could upload an early version later tonight.

@ - I could really use the 4.8 early-version myself, as I have a project that uses it I’m trying to put a move on. Don’t need infinite plane for particular thing.

same here :smiley: