Deferred Decal Compilation Error

Outer_Realm_VR · October 21, 2016, 3:42am

I am getting the compilation error in the attached screenshot when trying to create deferred decals. Steps to recreate:

Create new material
Open new material
Change Material Domain from Surface to Deferred Decal
Press “Apply”
Results in the error:
The current material has compilation errors, so it will not render correctly in feature level SM5. Are you sure you wish to continue?

anonymous_user_0c62419a · October 24, 2016, 8:05pm

In 4.13 a new warning message pops up stating "Material using DefferedDecal domain need to use the Blend Model Translucent (this saves performance). This message should appear in your stats window as soon as you select deferred decal while in an opaque blend mode.

Basically, this isn’t a bug since the intended workflow is to change your blend mode to translucent. If you are concerned with the material not looking opaque setting opacity to a value of 1 will suit your needs.

Cheers,

Ed

Tjekkiman · December 7, 2016, 10:46pm

Hi, I’ve been all over the web about this issue, and no one seems to have encountered it.

I too have this “Material using DefferedDecal domain need to use the Blend Model Translucent (this saves performance)” popup when switching from surface to Deffered Decal.

I find it hard to believe that I now only have Translucent as blending mode.
There must be some way to make an deferred decal with an opaque blending mode?

I’ve been at this for 2 days, and it’s kinda making my hair grey

Cheers

Outer_Realm_VR · December 7, 2016, 11:07pm

This solved it for me: UE4: Solution to Decals Not Rendering/Showing in Indirect Static Lighting Tutorial

anonymous_user_0c62419a · December 8, 2016, 4:40pm

@Tjekkiman There isn’t a need to use the opaque blend mode anymore. Is there a reason you are in need for this setting. A translucent decal with an opacity value of 1 is opaque visually. Also, please note there are plenty of decal blend modes that will suit your needs.

@rhizomelabs Thank you for the input, but the tutorial you showed deals with using DBuffer Decal Translucent Blend modes. This will not allow you to select Opaque as a blend mode as this is no longer available as an option for deferred decals. Still very useful information.

Tjekkiman · December 8, 2016, 5:28pm

I will try the DBuffer Decal if nothing else will get me closer to a result.

It just seems that none of the blending modes available can be chosen without the SM5 error popping up, which just seems really weird to me ( why bother having them as options then? ) .

Basically I’m just starting out making my first decal, and none of the tutorials is doing me any good since they are all using opaque as a turning point.

I do agree with you that it’s logical to just use translucent and turn the opacity to 1, but isn’t there something about not being completely solid although it’s set at 1?

I tried it anyway, and already I had myself a new problem: The closest thing I can find is an “Opacity Mask Clip Value” in my details panel. And it is locked to 0.333.

anonymous_user_0c62419a · December 8, 2016, 7:52pm

The tutorials you are using may be out of date as they were made for earlier versions of the engine. I wouldn’t get too caught up in the fact that they are using the Opaque blend type, if it is a good tutorial and not too old most of the things should still apply.

The decal should render fully opaque if your opacity value is 1. “Opacity Mask Clip Value” is meant for materials using the masked blend mode(you are using translucent). This doesn’t apply to deferred decals in current versions of the engine.

Tutorials made for UE4 will become more out of date as we releases new Engine versions. Usually, we try to keep the documentation up to date but even then some of the information may be a bit out of date.

That’s why when a new version is released it is good to keep track of the release notes and see what was changed for that engine version.

If you encounter difficulty there are many areas you can research or get help from in order to get the result you want. Such as the rendering section of the AnswerHUB, the Unreal Forums, and our documentation.

Please make sure you do these things before claiming something is a bug or a problem with the engine.

anonymous_user_a5c5704e · April 6, 2017, 12:54pm

I struggled on this for hours!!

I tried every bit of advice on this page, including the link and couldn’t solve it.

However, i just managed to figure it out!
if you have problems getting it working, try this:

make sure you set a constant 0 into metallic, specular & roughness
then make sure your texture is plugged into base colour and emissive!
make sure your material is set to decal and that both blend modes are set to translucent!

let me know if this makes someones day!

rafaxf · April 14, 2017, 10:04pm

you make my day

anonymous_user_755021e1 · April 17, 2017, 12:15pm

you also made my day

I_am_Kooky · April 17, 2017, 12:51pm

And mine! Thankyou so much!

anonymous_user_dceb25d5 · June 14, 2017, 2:33pm

, this also worked for me as well. not sure why they are saying to set opacity to 1 when it doesn’t actually do anything and sets the decal to black.

anonymous_user_9cd05e3d · January 3, 2018, 10:50pm

Thankyou wery much!!!

alto_andre · December 28, 2020, 1:43am

Not sure if it is the difference in the engine version, but as of 4.26, changing both blend modes to translucent was enough to fix the error!

DoTroll · April 7, 2021, 2:35am

Thank you so much. it work!