I bumped into this NVidia article recently and found it very interesting, Fur Shells And Fins!!!
Website:
http://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/10/direct3d/screenshots/samples/FurShellsAndFins.html
Article:
Video demonstrating:
Unreal Engine 4 could integrate this feature into material editor?
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You should be able to get that effect with a bit of work in the material editor, might require making the shells beforehand but I don’t think it needs anything special.
Hey @lunyBunny - Check out neofur they are getting really close to release apparently.
It is a 3rd party product but it does what you want 
https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?62491-Neo-Fur-WIP-Fur-Solution&highlight=neo+fur
**I will use the POM and Bump Offset as a means of comparison.
**
You remember Cobblestone Pebble Material from the starter content. How they have solved the parallax problem slightly changing parameters in multiple Bump Offset nodes?:
And it is now possible to recreate the effect [SIZE=3]using only one node:
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[FONT=Arial Black]Suggestion! [COLOR=“#006400”]Develop a build-in node to create Fur Shells And Fins within the Unreal Material Editor![/COLOR]
@HeadClot
I already have seen it. But it is an external plugin!
NVidia has the SDK source code and sample binary file for testing. That could be easily integrated into the engine’s code. Nvidia has very interesting things!!!.
Source Code and compiled example
http://developer.download.nvidia.com/SDK/10.5/Samples/FurShellsAndFins.zip
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Have you checked out 4.11?
I think that is the version that has Gameworks VR integrated into Unreal. Could be wrong
Hi @HeadClot
Sorry, I have not tested it yet. I don’t know if exist any exposed build-in Fur Shells And Fins function node in material editor that could be used to turn any linked texture or mask into fur shells with configurable parameters using NVidia Gameworks resources. I’m not a C++ programmer, but I would love provide such integrated alternative. But as I said I am not a programmer. But I intend to specialize me later in C++ after finishing my demo and start my next project.
**lunyツ **
I’d also love this feature. using just parallax mapping or bumpoffset falls short because of the opacity behind it.
for true fur shells to be possible Unreal would need to support multipass rendering (something I’ve missed since forever in UE3). with multipass rendering we’d be able to have the regular mesh as a first pass and then a second pass where we offset the mesh outwards with WPO and use the parallax/bumpoffset into that second pass of the mesh. or the really expensive method of more multiple passes for multiple shells
The plugin mentioned above is already being developed, and UE4 already has a hair material in 4.11 that, along with some other tricks, already looks better and covers a wider range than fins/shells without the odd artifacts you get from that. There’s also been talk of a dedicated (native) individual strand renderer ala Tress Fx/Hairworks EG:
Which, considering this is what Hollywood does, would preclude the need for a hackier solution for fur and etc. While I’m sure a few people would love a fins/shells implementation that’s native and thus free, all together it seems the use case for this is and/or will be well covered within the near(ish) future.
Fur and shells is not material but geometry technique. So it can’t be just added to material editor.
[FONT=Arial Black]PS2/PS3 [FONT=Arial Black]Shadow of the Colossus: [FONT=Arial Black]Climbing BARBA (Did you notice any similarities in the technique)
[FONT=Arial Black]Shadow of the Colossus HD - Sixth Colossus - Barba - YouTube
](Shadow of the Colossus HD - Sixth Colossus - Barba - YouTube)
[FONT=Arial Black]From the same authors
[FONT=Arial Black]PS4 - [FONT=Arial Black] The Last Guardian Griffon
About Material Editor and Geometry interaction / Probably an improved technique using phisics in the each griffon feather.
[FONT=Arial Black]Like [FONT=Arial Black]WorldPositionOffset](World Position Offset Material Functions in Unreal Engine | Unreal Engine 5.2 Documentation)
[FONT=Arial Black]The Last Guardian - E3 2015 Trailer | PS4 (official)](The Last Guardian - E3 2015 Trailer | PS4 - YouTube)
[FONT=Arial Black]The Last Guardian - E3 2015 Trailer | PS4 - YouTube
](The Last Guardian - E3 2015 Trailer | PS4 - YouTube)
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it depends. Fins is extra (different) geometry but shells is just a duplicate(s) of the original mesh pushed outwards and with a different material. this would be achievable with multipass.
and with some really sophisticated shader trickery (like the beard in the samaritan demo) I’d say Fins might be achievable as well. but again, this needs a second pass with a different material, so multipass.
Hi @
thanks for the comment
Multipass in Material Editor!!! Such thing would be very interesting!
If it has not yet been incorporated by Epic!!!
It’s about different material layers in a same instantiated polygon pushed outwards using something like a spline control (SplineThicken like function) and scattered over the geometry using the geometry vertex, normals or UV as a spawning references. It could be animated yet using WorldPositionOffset Function, Wind function or standard math nodes already existents in Material Editor!
This could be useful also for volumetric layered effects using Material Editor exclusively using POM function node, BumpOffset, Normals… In a zombie game could create decomposition or destruction effect in the zombie’s bodies or skin. Create things like fur, grass… . Dynamic and volumetric layered destruction effect in a particular object ( Wall) or character. Used as a Decal material…
PS.: And I saw SplineThicken function already integrated by Epic. And this could also be very useful.
**Hi, again 
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Someone already has tried** the SplineThicken feature or any other World Position Offset technique in the mateial editor (World Position Offset Material Functions in Unreal Engine | Unreal Engine 5.2 Documentation) as one way to creating anything like guides for modeling, controlling and animating long fur, hair, ponytail, foliage generated using Parallax Occlusion Mapping techiniques (A new, community-hosted Unreal Engine Wiki - Announcements - Epic Developer Community Forums)?
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