Issues with developing a Pixelated lighting

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I’m working in unreal 5.1.1 on a 2.5D top down game in a pseudo 2D style (benefits of 3D lighting, Looks 2D ala Stardew Valley). I’m happy with how my assets look in game, however with the lighting I would like to have a more pixelated look. I current have a simple cell shaded post process setup which is a step in the right direction, however the smooth curving edges are at odds with the look I’m hoping to achieve.

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I made a post process pixel material that worked okay, however it is applying to everything and takes away the crispness from the pixel art.

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I attempted to stencil the character out of the post process using custom depths, however it does not exclude them the way the tutorials said they would. Please see the code I have currently for it.

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I’ve tried several ways to achieve this effect with very little success. If anyone has a good idea of how I can go about fixing my post process I’d be incredibly grateful, or if you have a different and better way to go about this I’m happy to hear about it!

Bonus example of the effect I’m looking for (I know he uses normal maps, I’m getting there, but I wanted the base look first)

Thanks everyone!

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Can’t offer a solution directly but I believe what you should be looking for is per texel lighting.

Someone implemented this in Unreal (here) and if you need further info you can check the original Unity thread on the topic (here)

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That is beyond helpful @Arkiras! That is exactly the look I’m trying to achieve. My biggest challenge on this project thus far is learning the terms and names for the things I’m trying to accomplish.

It looks like he posted a good chunk of it, however not the finished product, which means I’m going to be putting in some work on learning how Gbuffer and the graphic side of things work. I’ll also need to start learning C++.

Thank you so much for the links and direction. I’ll update this post with my inevitable failures and hopefully with my final success!

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