I downloaded some surfaces from quixel bridge to use for a garden mockup I want to do. I need to adjust the scale and coloring of the material instances, but can’t figure it out. I haven’t been able to find anything on the internet to help and the texture files it included don’t work for a new master material. I only have an idea of what I’m doing, so any help is appreciated!
Can only upload 1 pic so:
([top left] parent material, material instance, new master material, current project)
The ground material showed up as much darker on the Bridge preview.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!
To make a material instance from that material that quixel supplies, right click it in the content browser and then the topmost option will be “make material instance.”
If the tiling or textures are not exposed as paramters, you can just right click them in the material graph and choose “convert to parameter”. then you will be able to change them in the instance.
Quixel provides the instance for the surface, not the material. The “find parent material” option locates a generic material that I can’t figure out how to use (Top left image I posted).
I am not sure what you mean exactly.
You can create an instance from that master material. Are you wanting to add some additional parameters to the master material? Like parameterized tiling and tint?
If so, you can duplicate the material, add your new logic to it, and then create an instance from that.
The main problem I have is that I can’t edit (scaling, color, etc.) the instances I already have. I need help figuring out how to do that with the quixel bridge files.
From what you said, it sounds like I need to duplicate the material and add new logic. I don’t understand what or how to add the logic.
I’ll show you some material graph code you can use for reference, but it will be most helpful to look through a few tutorials so that you can see how to create new parameters and all those little steps that would take millions of words to enumerate here.
Add tiling parameters:
Add a tint parameter:
Example tutorial (there is a lot for these subjects so search around if one author doesn’t make sense):
Thank’s so much! I will try to get back to you if I need anything else!
I’ve got the material set up the way the video and your image says, but none of the parameters show up in the instance.
that is odd. Can you confirm that the instance is indeed derived from that material? And also ensure that you have clicked “apply” in the main material (this is like Compile in blueprint)
I had just created the instance. I made a few changes (which I reverted), applying all of them, but nothing changed. Also, I don’t know if this is related, but you can see the material preview for the master material is not correct at all.
yeah the reflection seems weird for not having anything plugged into the spec or roughness.
Not sure what else to look at - I’d probably just retry from the start again, make a new material, redo those nodes, apply it all and then create an instance.
The original material that you duplicated from is looking correct though?
The one from Quixel? It’s just a default material and should be fine. This is what that looks like:
if you unplug the normal what does it look like?
and also go into that material function in the quixel master material and see what happens with the normal map. If it is packed in some way that has to be unpacked and processed, that could be cause of strange shading, though I didn’t think quixel did that by default.
The setup you have ought to work fine though.
This is my new material without the normal:
Not sure what you mean with the quixel master, but I did try a different file for “color” on my material to see if that fixed anything, but nothing changed.
This is something I’ve noticed before; technology works fine until I start using it. Then a bunch of strange stuff starts happening that nobody’s ever seen before. I can’t explain it.
have you clicked Apply in the material?
Top left in tool bar
try setting Coordinate Index to 0 in the TexCoord node (and then click apply)
i expect that might make the color texture display coorectly
(i’m just comparing what I can see on yours compared to mine that is working)
Beyond that, I’d suggest to find any material in the project, drag into scene and ensure it is working correctly. Use that as comparison for your new material.
Can duplicate a working material, add the nodes for tiling and tint, and test that.
yeah i tested on my end too and actually thats not relevant.
I cant guess why a basic material is not displaying correctly I’ve never seen anything like that.
The step I would go to from here is to find a working material in the project and try to apply the new behavior to it.
As a beginner it is very possible that just by accident something somewhere was clicked and it causes out of the ordinary behavior.
Where would I find another material? Everything I could easily find was the default stuff from quixel.
Also, I have restarted Engine several times already.
