Is it possible to use anisotropy with forward rendering? (UE5)

Development Rendering
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1

Hello,

I have a material that uses the anisotropy and tangent inputs and it is working with the deferred renderer in UE5. I noticed that when switching to forward rendering in my project settings, the anisotropic effect is no longer visible. I tried enabling the options under forward shading in the material like high quality reflections but those don’t help.

I cannot find much documentation on anisotropy in UE5. I would like to keep using the forward renderer, as it has improved my performance and my project is rather stylized.

Is it just not possible to use the built-in anisotropy with forward shading?

I have also tried faking the anisotropic effect but I’m using it in conjunction with dynamic lighting and getting mixed results due to the anisotropic reflections sometimes ending up in the shadows of my character, depending on camera angle.

If there is no way to make anisotropy work with the forward renderer, I might switch back to deferred and look into alternatives for getting some performance back.

Thanks in advance for your time.

2

I noticed this as well and lumen reflections seem to override the anisotropy effect. Also its been awhile, but the first I got anisotropy working was in UE4.26 forward rendering.

3

Care to shed some light on how you achieved that? I haven’t been able to get it working in 4.x forward

4

SAME I cannot use it in 4.27.2 with Forward Shading on!