# Foliage instance position in Material editor **URL:** \ **Category:** Rendering\ **Tags:** position, unreal-engine, Foliage, UE4, question\ **Created:** [September 8, 2016, 10:42am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/foliage-instance-position-in-material-editor/369781 "2016-09-08T10:42:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![akaPrometh](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@akaPrometh](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/akaPrometh)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 10:42am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/foliage-instance-position-in-material-editor/369781/1 "2016-09-08T10:42:47Z")
Hi there šŸ™‚ I want to obtain the **global position of an instanced mesh from a Procedural Foliage Volume** in the material editor. This is already possible with a hand dropped mesh using the ā€œObjectPositionā€ node, but not with a PFV as it returns the PFVā€™s position instead of the meshā€™s. Question is: How can I achieve this, or perhaps cheat it around, or even just know if itā€™ll be implemented some day. Thanks! There already are many similar threads about this since UE4.9 in 2015 but none seem to get any love or attention :ā€™( If youā€™re interested in this, you may follow these other threads as well as upvote (the UP arrow to the left of the question). > **[Get foliage instance mesh position](https://forums.unrealengine.com/questions/384539/get-foliage-instance-mesh-position.html)** > > Is there a way to get position of foliage instance in material editor? There are per instance data in the HLSL shader, but I can't find a way to use them in the material editor. > **[Instance Foliage Mesh Position](https://forums.unrealengine.com/questions/192240/instance-foliage-mesh-position.html)** > > So, I am trying to make a material that changes depending on the world position of the mesh. I can do this with individual meshes, but when I use the Foliage Editor and add in Instance Meshes to my scene, the Actor Position in the material gets the... > **[Foliage Instance Position](https://forums.unrealengine.com/questions/449701/foliage-instance-position.html)** > > ObjectPosition and ObjectOrientation only give results for the foliage actor that manages the instances. How do i get the position of an instance of foliage in the material editor? PerInstanceFade and PerInstanceRandom are already there and pull... > **[How can i get the properties of instance in Foliage?](https://forums.unrealengine.com/questions/321400/how-can-i-get-the-properties-of-instance-in-foliag.html)** > > I want get location of the instance member in Foliage. This is what I selected foliage in viewport and launch my function then return the instance's location. this is my code: AActor\* TargetActor = NULL; AInstancedFoliageActor\* CurrentIFA = NULL;... To give an idea, Iā€™m trying to achieve this effect on all instances of a PFV. Basically im trying to cheat lighting depth on tree leaves using the distance of the texel from the meshā€™s origin.You can notice it works well on hand placed meshes but not on the PFVs placed behind. ![106151-awesome_fake_depth_lighting_effect.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/6/5/b/65b4908fd1e39eb6e19d1350b21233a4e9b80a00.jpeg) If I scale up the values in my SphereMask node it gives this: (the trees way behind are lods with a different material) ![106153-when+applied+on+instances+of+a+pfv+with+increased+values.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/6/a/e/6ae026a29112a0725dfb5df444374b8692e6a604.jpeg) And this the basic node operations to get the distance ![106154-blueprint+base.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/3/9/4/394602c08f2c7e827a1d0459cad3f6a5e96185f5.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Deathrey](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Deathrey](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Deathrey)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:37pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/foliage-instance-position-in-material-editor/369781/2 "2016-09-08T15:37:40Z")
Try passing object position through custom UVs. It should return per-instance position that way If iā€™m not mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![RVillani](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/rvillani/32/1194572_2.png) [@RVillani](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/RVillani)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2017, 11:20am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/foliage-instance-position-in-material-editor/369781/3 "2017-09-16T11:20:25Z")
It works! Thanks! Unfortunately not for ObjectBounds neither ObjectOrientation, though. ā˜¹ ---
**Author:** ![Deathrey](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Deathrey](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Deathrey)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2017, 5:41pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/foliage-instance-position-in-material-editor/369781/4 "2017-09-16T17:41:44Z")
For Object Orientation is just a vector, that is constant through the whole instance. You can just transform (1,0,0) from local to world to get Instance X axis in world space. In case of object bound, it is not really applicable to individual instances. ---
**Author:** ![gstyczen](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@gstyczen](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/gstyczen)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2018, 4:08am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/foliage-instance-position-in-material-editor/369781/5 "2018-01-06T04:08:47Z")
I love you Deathrey! ---
**Author:** ![BOBtheROSS](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@BOBtheROSS](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/BOBtheROSS)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 5:06pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/foliage-instance-position-in-material-editor/369781/6 "2019-01-05T17:06:39Z")
I came across this problem recently and didnā€™t quite get what you meant because UVs are only 2-dimensinal, so I only had the X and Y position. But after I set the ā€œNum custom UVsā€ to 2 (in the Material settings) I was able to get the Z axis as well. ![264239-instanceposition.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/d/c/d/dcd454823fff6d1436890fc46f8ec4bf7c959e1c.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Deathrey](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Deathrey](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Deathrey)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 6:54pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/foliage-instance-position-in-material-editor/369781/7 "2019-01-05T18:54:35Z")
You can use vertex interpolator material expression in newer versions. ---
**Author:** ![BOBtheROSS](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@BOBtheROSS](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/BOBtheROSS)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2019, 3:38pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/foliage-instance-position-in-material-editor/369781/8 "2019-01-13T15:38:28Z")
Oh youā€™re right. I never heard of that node before. This way itā€™s cheaper and no UVs will be harmed during the process, thx šŸ˜‰ ![265251-instancevertexposition.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/1/8/8/18893da4d3b3397f1e490d8d21206b82003f9f44.jpeg) Iā€™ll leave a txt file for easier copy-paste [link text][2] Edit: Just to make clear how the setup would be for the sphere mask ![265255-instancespheremask.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/9/8/1/98133fdb4ac038993d8b9b0fd2873b5c9d5c8d25.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![pakinmaksim](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@pakinmaksim](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/pakinmaksim)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2024, 3:36pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/foliage-instance-position-in-material-editor/369781/9 "2024-02-15T15:36:53Z")
Best!