Lets hope 5.5 helps more with this:
Yes Please !
and thanks for posting this
So I found a toon shader on Fab which essentially uses the engine’s distance field shadows system to effectively cast shadows onto unlit materials, so it’s definitely possible to do something like this without a custom shading model. The downside with this method though is that it seemingly doesn’t work with stationary/baked skylights, and it only works with deferred rendering.
https://www.fab.com/listings/dd792978-b257-407b-9416-43d7f421ad82
Definitely still need a way of accessing reflection and point/spot light data from inside of unlit materials though.
It’s quite perplexing that Epic Games isn’t actively developing NPR capabilities, especially considering the evident demand for collaborations between Fortnite and anime IPs. Due to this limitation, Japanese game studios often find themselves modifying the engine to achieve the necessary NPR…
You could say that it’s actually a strength that you can modify the engine, and achieve this!
There are also some NPR looks that can be achieved by using un-lit materials, custom depth-stencil, and calculate the actual pixel color you want for the “emissive” channel.
The worst part its that there is almost no doc on how to do it, no to mention 0 official doc. It would be very helpful to document shading models or vertex factory modifications + without recompiling the engine (Its doable in other engines without much effort).
Unreal has all kind of shading models but somehow a basic toon model is missing even though it has:
eye / clear coat / three SS models (Subsurface + preintegrated skin +subsurface profile)
Why do this models have higher priority than a toon model in a supposed “general purpose” engine? Do most devs really need a clear coat or an eye shading model ? “but you CAN modify the engine right?”
The sad truth is that unreal is not a “general purpose” engine when it comes to visuals, “photorealistic” rendering is THE goal and its probably a design/marketing choice. Anything else has to be an unoptimized workaround within those limitations or engine modifications( with all the problems and costs it implies).
Ironically this is making most UE games look the same. I dont think thats a minor issue.
I’m not trying to come off as passive aggressive but you’re basically saying “pray there’s some hacky workarounds to achieve the look you’re envisioning or pray you have the knowledge, time, and fortitude to wade thru the sea of technical gotchas involved in rebuilding the engine.” That’s borderline flippant.
There just isn’t a good excuse for the lack NPR support that Unreal has. Indie/solo devs are being punished the hardest for it too.
See, to me, that statement reeks of “I should get what I want, for free, without working for it.”
This isn’t an attitude that tends to result in positive outcomes in the long run.
This is not flippant; it’s just reality in the world of business. (I predict you won’t see it that way, though.)
If you were paying millions of dollars as a licensee, I can see how you could expect to get some help to add custom graphics support added to the engine in return, but it looks to me like that’s not the boat you’re in.
Nobody is dragging you to prison and “punishing” you for using Unreal Engine.
The world doesn’t owe you smooth sailing or a life without hardship.
Feel free to use one of the other reasonable engines out there! Godot, Unity, C4, there’s plenty to choose from, if you think the particular trade-offs made in the Unreal Engine isn’t for you.
Nobody is dragging you to prison and “punishing” you for using Unreal Engine.
It’s the industry standard engine & I would say the general consensus for unreal is not very good. From a marketing standpoint you are punished for using it, and from a 3rd party support standpoint your are punished if your not using it. Industry standard means easier hiring & more 3rd party support.
This isn’t an attitude that tends to result in positive outcomes in the long run.
Wrong. I know this for first hand experience. Proper accountability turns to world.
See, to me, that statement reeks of “I should get what I want, for free, without working for it.”
Billions of consumer money are sent Epic’s way yet we’re still stuck with incompetent baseline graphic models in unreal yet Unity has a far bigger graphics market because it’s accommodating. Unity is not the industry standard, fortnite engine is.
First Unreal engine is free only for non comercial purposes. So your statement about being free in this context is false.
Second that’s a very deliberate business strategy to effectively make it the default 3D engine in the industry.
Third, wanting for improving clearly flaws in the tool you are using its just common sense, and that feedback is why this forum exists in the first place.
Here’s the difference I’m trying to articulate:
Saying “this gets in the way of my workflow, and I’m working on (some kind of project) with (some kind of scope)” is great!
Telling yourself “I can’t possibly finish (my project) because (some flaw in Unreal Engine)” and then also expressing that thought publicly, is defeatist learned helplessness, and will not lead to shipping games or other projects.
If you don’t think this difference is meaningful, then there’s nothing else I can provide in this thread.
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