With the appearance of light channels I wonder if Epic is interessted in integrating ‘Effect’ Lights.
Sébastien Lagarde implemented it in UE4: Weathering and aging effects in the hand of artists | Sébastien Lagarde
I think this could improve the iteration of materials and scenes by making overlaying effects like snow or rain dynamic. Small teams would especially benefit from this improved workflow.
It could be new Emitters Types or Templates in Cascade Particle Editor.
Specific Emiters like: Rain/RainDrop-Emitter; Snow-Emitter; Lightining-Emitter; Debris-Emitter (Imposter Sprites and Static Meshs); Twist-Emitter…
I’m not sure how this is any different from light functions and/or decals?
@jonimake:
As far as I know light functions are only capable to change the intensity of a light source. They can’t actually change a surface properities e.g. let a surface appear less bright and more specular. Decals on the other hand are not depth aware, which means that they can’t be blocked my static meshes. This means you have to carefully place your decals e.g. on top of the roof of a hut so they don’t influence the floor.
These ‘effect’ lights have direct access to the g-buffer and can modulate the materials which they are cast on. And because they work similar to a lightsource they don’t affect the surfaces that are in the shadow of the ‘effect’ light. They offer a easy way to make the scene more dynamic and enable less manual work over decals or scene setup.
@lunyBunny:
I’m not sure, but in the implementation I linked they are used like normal light actors (directional, spot, point).
Could be an image Mapped in Spot Light?
A SpotLight light source like linked in Material Editor using volumetric capabilities and projecting an animated image in any surface?
Top down directional light(gbuffer modification) with only static shadows would be so much needed for my rain and snow effect. Currently I just have global snowiness and all materials has to use special material modification function. This is pain, slow and does mess every indoor.