More robust implementation for parameters with “[global]” suffix - Diffuse color tweak [global], Roughness [global], Metalness [global] and so on.
Slightly improved repetition suppression layer settings for all metal materials to make it even less noticeable.
All metal materials now have separate asset package version for UE5 (better showcase scene with different “Metals FAQ” information there, actualized for UE5).
Removed “StarterContent” assets from all packages - it was redundant and cost 500MB+ of package file size. LoL.
With “UV scale [global]” you can perform uniform scaling much faster (previously there was a need to tweak two parameters “UV scale horizontal [global]” & “UV scale vertical [global]” and this was tiresome; note that all those 3 parameters can be used simultaneously without any problems). “Normals [global]” param also is time saver - it affects all normal maps bumpiness on all layers except anti-repetitive layer normal map, so tweaking overall bumpiness will be easier.
Reduced normals bumpiness for MI_Wood_wall_laquered, MI_Wood_wall_painted and MI_Wood_furniture_laquered materials (previously it was way too strong, especially on last one).
[UE5] Fixed broken shading on all metal materials when they were applied on Nanite-enabled meshes. This fix comes with a price - “Anisotropy” option now removed from all UE5 metal materials until this bug is fixed (Case # 00529968).
Fixed inverted R channel in few normal maps (where did THIS came from - no idea, what a shame -__-") so those materials will have correct shading (previously if light comes from left direction it was looking on material like it was from right and vice versa): MI_Concrete, MI_Concrete_aged, MI_Granite_panels, MI_Granite_panels_polished, MI_Paint_old, MI_Rust_orange, MI_Wood_furniture_lacquered, MI_Wood_wall_panel, MI_Zinced_crumpled_dusty.
Slightly better implementation of edge effects - now they will be a bit less prone to spreading over mesh surface with distance. Still far from perfect, though (and prone to jagged artifacts on Nanite-enabled meshes on top of that, but looks way too cool and can be tweaked to reduce visual problems).
Better material UI - now you can turn ON/OFF all edge effects with just one checkbox “Enable edge effects”, turn ON/OFF detail layer via “Enable detail layer” checkbox and turn ON/OFF Repetition suppression layer by “Enable repetition suppression” checkbox.
Documentation/FAQ was updated to reflect new features and discovered problems.
[UE4] All demo maps in play mode will have sharp look thanks to supersampling.
[UE5] All demo maps have bit better lighting setup plus non-metal materials demo now have separate UE5 version to avoid compatibility problems with UE4 lighting setup.
This packages contains 16 random samples from whole Real Materials library and designed to be “try before buy” (well, try for lowest price I can set in Marketplace UI - 4.99$; hope to make it free someday). If you bought this package earlier (it was silently released a month ago) please update it in Unreal Launcher, there are a lot of worthy improvements since then:
Added “UV rotation” feature to all materials in package so textures can be rotated all at ounce. If you own other packages from Real Materials series it’s strongly recommended install them first and on top of them install “Real Materials Samples” package to receive latest (v1.4) material features (I will update rest of my library to v1.4 in a few weeks of course).
All metal materials packages were updated to version 1.41:
Added “UV rotation” option so you can rotate material on the mesh if need be.
All normal maps are in BC7 texture compression format to squeeze bit more quality. In case of a problem (if there is a need to use some of BC7 normal maps in your own materials somewhere) you can simply convert all of them back to BC5/DXT5nm and they still be working just fine with Real Materials shaders, only warning appears about using normal map in linear color slot but this is covered.
Added “RM” branded shield-something-thingey to knight material dummy in demo scenes.
Also, “Real Materials Samples” package was updated to the same v1.41:
Fixed broken “UV rotation” option for UE5 version of metal materials.
When “UV rotation” option is used there will be no texture offset happening out of nowhere.
The only package that is not updated just yet is “Real Materials Complete” - some nice improvements I need to finish in a next week or so before pushing it to most recent v1.41, please wait, it will worth it ).
New material package was released - “Real Materials - Stone Tiles”.
It contains 11 different tiles made from natural stone of various types, well suited for walls and floors and other stuff.
Owners of “Real Materials - Complete” package please be advised that this new material volume will be added to it for free soon (in a couple of weeks).
It has 16 materials in total: 5 brick walls, 5 brick walls patterns, 4 concrete, 2 fresh paint surfaces. Previously it was only available as a bonus inside “Real Materials - Complete” all-in-one package (and it was much less refined).
Added “Real Materials - Stone Tiles” package (11 new materials).
Added updated materials and showcase map from “Real Materials - Samples” pack.
Added updated materials and showcase map from “Real Materials - Brick & Mortar” pack.
Removed several materials (mostly because there are better alternatives in those 3 packages from above), only “MI_Plater_oak_bark” is the real loss here without anything to replace it.
Master materials were updated to v1.41 so “UV rotation” option is available now.
BC7 compression is used for all normal maps now - if this is not optimal for you feel free to convert all normals back to BC5/Dxt5n format, they still will be compatible with my material setup just warning appears in material window.
Yesterday small update was landed - it’s fixing few materials failed to render in Unreal Engine v5.2 with error “[SM6] Shader is using too many Samplers : 17 (only 16 supported)”. This update was issued for affected material packages:
Copper & brass
Rust & grunge
Zinc
Complete
Few materials weren’t able to compile because in Unreal Engine 5.2 there is a new material system called “Substrate” implemented so now 5 from 16 textures slots to be always used for internal engine stuff supporting this new feature/lightmaps/etc.
Dropped support of Unreal Engine 4.x - it’s my time to say farewell to old tech and fully embrace Lumen & Nanite, with all their benefits and flaws.
Reworked material shader - now both metals and dielectrics using one unified shader, some other changes (like all features that are not compatible with Nanite and Variable Rate Shading were moved to extra shader, optional to use).
All materials were tweaked to prioritize best look with Lumen GI & reflecitons out of the box. Some more polishing needed, but mostly they turned out quite good (with upcoming UE5.5 blurriness on smooth & semi-matte metals will be greatly reduced).
All grayscale textures (roughness, heightmaps, masks) now in BC4 compression format (previously it was uncompressed G8), so metal materials now have 1.5x less VRAM consumption (sometimes even more), less for dielectrics.
Added new material pack - patterns. If you bought “Real Materials Complete” package before - just update it, those patterns included in it for free.
Some new materials here and there in metal packages and brick & mortar (colorful ceramic tiles). Summary there are 184 materials now (it was only 118 before this update!).
Renamed package “Paint & grunge” to “Paint & rust”.
Rusty steel materials moved from Steel pack to Paint & rust.
Shorter names for materials and textures
Switching on Lumen lighting & realtime clouds in demo scenes reduces on ~300MB each material pack → faster downloads and less dead weight in your projects. New demo scenes are not that fancy, but they still do their job.
Metalness maps are completely removed (in majority of the cases inverted roughness map with some tweaks can be used or just put metalness map into diffuse alpha where absolutely necessary), so most of packs with metals will be even more lightweight to download and keep.
Better single-fetch triplanar UV implementation (thanks to Visual Tech Art for sharing!) - now all sides have correct texture orientation, while previously half of them were mirrored horizontally.
If you’re already using previous version of Real Materials in your project - please back up it thoroughly before updating on this new version, best way to do that is to COMPLETELY REMOVE “RealMaterials” folder from your project before updating on new one (all materials have same ID so they will be ok after v2.0 packs installed, but everything else - textures and stuff - are not and will produce tons of duplicates and garbage if “RealMaterials” folder content was not removed before update.
Updating “Real Materials - Paint & grunge” package will be more painful because of changes, mentioned above:
Renamed package “Paint & grunge” to “Paint & rust”.
Rusty steel materials moved from Steel pack to Paint & rust.
So there will be physically missing materials of rusty metals in “Real Materials - Steel” package after update, sorry for that! But there are +5 new materials of grungy steel, hope it will be good enough compensation for the loss.
Same applies to owners of “Real Materials - Samples” pack - new one have somewhat different set of materials so there will be few materials missing after update but some new ones to compensate the loss.
Update v2.1 for all Real Materials packs is finished and hope all packages will pass review soon (right now only Complete pack did that).
This update is small & technical - added support for UE 5.5, but more importantly starting from UE 5.4 main material shader has option “Allow variable rate shading” that can be disabled, so material will be excluded from VRS pass and thus it can use all advanced material features, based on derivatives (DDX/DDY nodes) that are not compatible with VRS. So, starting from UE5.4 and up there are following changes:
Main shader (master material) “M_RealMaterials” renamed to “M_RealMaterials_fallback”. It’s still there and it’s still compatible with VRS, so if you need maximum speed or have some issues - it’s a good backup option.
Secondary shader “M_RealMaterials_extra”, with extra features like triplanar UV seams dithering and edge effects, now renamed to “M_RealMaterials” and all materials in all packs now using it by default. It will work fine with VRS, just no speed up in rendering from it.
Edge effects now automatically disabled, when material used on Nanite-enabled mesh, so no need to switch between shaders or create extra copies of same materials, edge effects will be visible only on non-Nanite meshes.
Also, there are some minor changes on demo maps (enabled 2-bounce for reflections and high quality for transparent materials), a couple of brass materials were tweaked, documentation image for UE5.4 was updated.
Hope those tiny technical improvements can make someone’s life a bit easier XD.
