materials - 4.25 preview - New thin translucency - Howto?

Development Rendering
1

Hi,

originally this question was asked in the announcements 4.25. preview

but thought it would get lost so making a dedicated post as I have found no example of usage of this new exciting feature.

Unreal Engine 4.25 Preview - Announcements and Releases - Unreal Engine Forums

Content of original post>>

A @DamirH posted:

“Thin Transparency. We have a new Shading Model for Thin Transparency that enables you to achieve PBR tinted and colored transparent objects, such as tinted glass. Use the Thin Transparency shading model and the Thin Transparency expression in the Material graph to set up and use this type of material.”

So i asked
"can ou expand on how to set this kind of material up please? Managed to find the ‘Thin Translucent Material’ from the palette but have no further idea how to integrate this into my existing material?
it has an input for a transmittance colour but not sure what goes into what here;)
it is for a glass headlight.

EDIT** found the shading model ‘thin translucent’ option on my material node. but not sure on how to go about integrating this into my exisitng material for my headlight. any help woul be appreciated." <<

So does anyone know how to utilise this with an existing material such as if i wanted a film on top of a glass headlight?
thanks
Dan

2

I don’t actually know how it works as I haven’t had time to try it, I just saw it in the patch notes.

3

just put a Color same as in BaseColor into the new Color node and here you go. And Maybe try it on a clean material without manipulating specualar or Metallic.

4

ok thanks…was happy to see it as a new feature…just trying to figure out how to use it.:wink:

5

Hi And thanks for your reply but i don’t understand;)

putting a colour node or in my case a texture sample node with a texture plugged into it directly into the ‘Thin Translucent Material’ Node has no affect…
and even with my newly created material ‘M_thin_trans’ set to Trasnlucent/Thin Translucent… as it is not connected in anyway to the Thin Translucent Material I can’t see how this can be a. firstly assigned as a material to a mesh and 2. have any affect. Especially when I can’t directly apply the ‘ThinTranslucent Material’ ‘directly’ to a mesh or other asset?

With other render engines [offline ones] a thin film can be added to the material [in my case calle 'M-thin_trans] itself so to have an affect…

could you provide a visual example of how you propose this is to work so I can better understand what you suggest?

many thanks
Dan

6

the Thin Translucent Material node is used by the material even tho it isnt connected to the main node afaik, so create and assign your material like normal and then connect a color to the Thin Translucent Material and it should work like any other material

7

thanks…have managed to get it working now with an example given over in here:
https://forums.unrealengine.com/unreal-engine/announcements-and-releases/1728453-unreal-engine-4-25-preview/page15

hopefully someone else will find it useful.