How do I have a complete opaque, but still specular material?

Development Rendering
1

Hello Unreal community!

So I have a question for you guys. I’m an absolute complete noob to Unreal, so it’s pretty simple: how do I get a clear looking mesh that still reflects light? In Maya, as long as specular is above zero, it will automatically reflect light regardless of the transparency value. But in Unreal, it seems on the material settings I have played around with, specularity will share a relationship with opacity by default. I’m creating a sort of man-made waterfall that spews a very thin layer of water. This is what I have so far:

But the water needs to be completely opaque to get a very-thin-layer-of-water feel. So in summary: I can’t figure out how to make the colour completely transparent while keeping any of the original specularity. Help?

2

specular highlights on translucent materials are tricky business in this engine.

have you tried enabling forward lighting and using perPixel shading for the translucent material?

3

You are using word opaque in direct opposite sense.
If you want that opacity and lighting does not have direct link then just use Alpha Composite blend mode. This way you have to premultiply base color or specular by yourself if you want to fade out diffuse/specular contribution.

4

You could look at faking translucency with “screen door” masked material.

5

No need for faking. Alpha composite is the answer.