Nature Environment in UE4

Development Asset Creation
1

UPDATE
New shading model for foliage has been added in 4.7 version of Unreal Engine, so complaints in original post are no more valid.
Foliage shading model is , check out Koola work for example

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My thread in feedback is ignored, but I think issure should be addressed.
It’s not some minor :frowning:
Due to the absence of proper lighting model for 2-sided foliage it’s [FONT=Arial Black]impossible to create good foliage, grass or whatever, no matter how you will setup your material.
The current workaround - using diffuse texture wired with sunlight parameter connected to emissive light output plus ss lighting model, but is so NOT next-gen =_=
I can’t understand how so basic thing keep being ignored :frowning:
Few examples from UE3 and UE4 for you to feel the difference:
Unreal Engine 3

3c07572408054c6470a7e527db775c4f196d8469.jpeg
3c07572408054c6470a7e527db775c4f196d8469.jpeg1440×810 259 KB
77b18dceccbef0a0f605d6c698cc5023d3db0658.jpeg
77b18dceccbef0a0f605d6c698cc5023d3db0658.jpeg1280×568 356 KB

Unreal Engine 4 from Epic Demos
foliage_.jpg
foliage_.jpg1440×810 96 KB

Maybe I’m not aware of some super duper way to shade your grass, maybe I overlooked something - that’s why I’m posting in Content Creation and not in feedback

2

It’s well known. There are some “workarounds” but don’t expect they will provide you with plausible results.

First you can use emissive to uniformly lit you grass.

https://answers.unrealengine/questions/11949/request-foliage-lighting.html

Here are also some work arounds.

In other words, you are absolutely right. We just need proper forward rendering path, to properly lit foliage. On stream about rendering, they said they will be evaluating various forward rendering techniques over next few months, to add to engine. So we can just wait for now.

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Pic 3 is a real photo I think…

4

Hah, well, maybe I’m overcritizing then :smiley: But still, I think idea is pretty clear

5

I use edit normals + sss(distance blending) + fresnel shading for my foliage

final grass shader:
https://www.dropbox/s/fvu7e1mb7rkuttv/grass_lighting.jpg

360° lighting
https://www.dropbox/s/l3vebdyg6ocqpig/grass_shading1.jpg

6

Man, is AMAZING!!! Such a beautiful grass!

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Wow. That’s beautiful work. Have you considered adding tutorials to your blog for UE4?

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Looks fantastic!, great work.

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Indeed it is. ://www.forwallpaper/wallpaper/mountain-valley-544948.html

Not sure why it was claimed to be from Unreal 4?

10

Bravo, sir! Looks excellent!
How do you utilize fresnel?

Someone posted photo, claiming UE4 and my perverted brain said something like: HM, GRASS LOOKS BAD. IN OTHER DEMO GRASS LOOKS BAD TOO. NOTHING ELSE DOESN’T MATTER!

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@: Would be lovely if you could share the shader setup for the grass - it does look very good!

Cheers,
Michael

12

That looks amazing! As others have asked, is it possible to have you share your magic?

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@_@ would love to see the shader setup or maybe a tutorial on how you made grass… looks really nice and I am trying to make a foliage map as well

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thx guys :slight_smile:

here a short break down(is from ue4 beta):

  1. Use Edit normals to create custom normals for your mesh.
    ://wiki.polycount/VertexNormal

  2. When u import the texture with alpha mask, check the “DitherMipMapAlpha” is true.

  3. Here the basic MatTree():
    https://www.dropbox/s/mndlu7w6dshayen/grass_shader_setup_base.jpg
    Blend Mode: Masked
    Lighting Model: Subsurface
    Two Sided: true

For the gradient textures use a simple TexCoordinate with ComponentMask.

I use in my shader alpha mask distance filling. The mask is no pixelated and flickering in the distance.
Here my MatTree:
https://www.dropbox/s/nfnjtskpbz2tia8/mat_tree_multi.jpg

The SSS is very hardware hungry i use the distance blending for better performance.
://oliverm-h.blogspot.de/2012/06/distance-based-texture-blending-ue3udk.html

Use the Opacity Slot for SSS transparently.

  1. Create a custom Wind Shader with high z vector offset.
    Here my custom wind shader(i use it for all(weather, trees, ocean, flaggs etc.)):
    https://www.dropbox/s/zkonxpg08farbmd/Wind_Shader.mov
    Here the animate texture:
    https://www.dropbox/s/pm8bmddke2n8aqy/dynamic_wind.mp4
    the final texture has 32px x 32px resolution

Hope was helpful, sry for my bad english. :stuck_out_tongue:

greeting,

1 Like
15

Thank you a lot for sharing will try later (and your English is just fine). :slight_smile:

16

, Thank you for the information, will help a lot. Distance blending is a really good idea for terrain and foliage!

17

Thanks for the specifics. Your work with Unreal materials is so good I’m surprised Epic hasn’t snatched you up yet!

Cheers,
-D

18

Wow that is beautiful. The wind effect is incredible. The darkening and lightening as the random wind waves move the grass. Wonderful.

Is there a tutorial for UE4 on how to make custom wind shaders like yours? How to make the animate texture?

Thank you for sharing. That is better than any grass I have ever seen in any game. I mean it. The wind effect is glorious.

19

, you are my new favourite person ever.

Love your work.

20

, how exactly do you use the Edit Normals modifier to average the normals? Is there an automatic way to do it?