Hi everyone, this is my first post here, so I hope I’ve posted this in the correct section of the forum. I’m also still at a beginner level when it comes to using UE and making games etc, just so you can keep that in mind.
My problem is that 3D assets / plants I put into my landscape are way, way too bright. To the point that they really stand out in an unnatural way (some of the foliage actually looking like it’s close to glowing!). This is a problem that I need to fix, but for some assets like some of the foliage this is not easily fixed just by adjusting parameters on the material.
At first I thought the problem was just foliage, but it seems that it’s 3D assets in general, like rocks from megascans too. While the project I’m having this issue with currently has a scene with overcast weather, I recall noticing the same problem also back when the scene had the standard sunny weather from the third person template. I’ve had this problem for quite some time now, without being able to find a solution.
Today I made a test to show the issue with comparable and understandable results.
First I quickly made a new project using the third person template, just like the project that I’m having trouble with.
Then I added the following to both projects:
Two packs of foliage:
“Wild Grass” from Megascans/Quixel
The marketplace asset “temperate Vegetation: optimized Grass Library” by Project Nature
A 3D asset from Megascans/Quixel called “Mossy Rocks”.
After that, I painted the foliage on to the landscape and put the 3D asset in the scene of the levels in both projects. The strange thing is that the foliage and 3d asset look completely different in the two projects. I’ll include some screenshots to illustrate:
Thanks for replying. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find a solution
I’ve also posted about this problem on both reddit and on a very popular video about foliage problems on youtube, but have recieved no replies unfortunately. Maybe it’s easier to get help if you’re a well recognized, professional game developer, but as a beginner/novice it’s disheartening to be met with silence (except you of course). There doesn’t seem to be anyone who wants to help. Beginning all over isn’t very tempting to me either, so I haven’t really used UE much recently. Maybe it’s worth trying another game engine?
I believe, just making the base materials darker to tweak this would destroy the asset’s quality;
i have given it a quick test. Also, this approach would be tedious and less reproducable (kind of arbitrary if you implement a previously adjusted material set!).
There should be a more general solution to this, i believe.
I have another hint: in one particular case, i am certain, it was a too-bright LOD material:
Hello,
On the speedtree forum, i read it might be due to the specular map:
Be careful with specular. UE4’s use of specular doesn’t completely jive with the specular maps SpeedTree uses, so sometimes it can make leaves glow in some lighting situations. But other than the that, I am unsure about what could cause the trees to be so bright. Did you build lighting on them?
The color variation per tree is caused by the color variation node in the leaf and billboard materials. The default value should be very low, but you can edit it, or remove that node entirely.
now, this might not entirely fix it for all of you, but i found this quick and dirty work-around:
in the material for some of the tree assets i found “base colour boost”.
[you find it in the base material at the right side infront of the final material node]
I changed this value from 1.0 to 0.1, and it had the desired effect for me for most packs.
One of the tree asset packs still does not work there, and i should mention this has side effects,
like for instance the white birch tree bark becoming gradually grey and finally black.
So, leafes saved, bark ruined, kind of. But for the shrubs and apple trees and spruce etc it worked out fine.
i was using 60fps’ assets, and i am a great fan of these.
Best wishes, success, and keep creating!
(if anyone has another fix, please post it here!)
UPDATE:
i found something that might help us here.
If you have a directional light in your scene (like a sun), there is a “affects world” checkbox.
Disabling it makes the Colors feel natural again, however, the place becomes too dark overall.
Now, i need a way to “reduce” the sunlight effect on the world…
