Realistic skin in UE4

General Feedback & Requests
1

Hi Unreal Engine forums. Long time lurker and subscriber here

I’m wondering if and when UE4 will get hybrid forward rendering support, so that developers can start to port over their own shaders? Such as realistic skin and hair shading.

It seems such a shame that UE4 can render such stunning graphics yet realistic skin has been over looked.

Will hybrid forward rendering be getting support? Are Epic working on a realistic skin shader implementation?

2

I think EPIC is working on a skin shader for human skin and non-human.

Here’s what you can currently get: https://forums.unrealengine/showthread.php?30226-Yoda-new-skin-shader

3

Here you can see more examples of what you are currently abel to create: https://forums.unrealengine/showthread.php?3194-Better-skin-shading I think in one of the livestreams someone said that they will improve the skin shader support :slight_smile:

4

Thanks for the replies and links. Some interesting results. It would be great to hear something from Epic on whether forward rendering might be possible, if there is a release date in mind? We’re really looking to try and achieve that waxy feel, micro tiled bump and back scatter effect that’s possible even with Unity, by integrating custom shaders.

uskin.jpg

What with all the recent wonderful archviz examples that are appearing, skin is one of the most important aspects left to integrate.

5

+1 to that! I agree with Infinite!

Forward rendering please Unreal! UE4 really needs a better skin solution. If Unity can do it so should Unreal -

6

4.5 will have all the latest skin shading improvements and we’re figuring out where to fit hair/fur feature work into the schedule now.

7

Only 6 months already going to be 4.5 soon! UE5 by mid of next year?!

Thanks, looking forward to next gen skin shader on UE4. DO not forget to add orthrogonal views in Blueprint Component as well, & better ducumnetaion for us poor souls that are a bit lost from the conversion from Unreal script to C++ (say, what are the equalivant syntax in c++ so we can replace our Unreal script codes).

Cheers.

8

The “.” in 4.5 is not a decimal, it’s a separator so 5 won’t necessarily follow 4.9. More likely we’ll see 4.10 after 4.9, then 4.10.1 if they hotfix it followed by 4.11 for the next patch and so on.
So the first number (in this case 4) is the major release number (UE4), after that comes smaller updates (patches such as 4.5) and lastly hotfixes (such as 4.3.1).
UE5 can be released any time they want, they won’t run out of numbers to use before that. :slight_smile: And I think it’s highly unlikely that they go to UE5 any time soon.

9

We don’t really have issues making realistic skin inside UE4, but nice… skin shading improvements sounds !

10

I am obviously joking, people will go nuts if UE5(if incompatible with UE4 projects) is releasing next year. but its a poor choice of numbering if you ask me. UE4 Release 5, or 4.05, or 4, & 5 ice cream cones would have been better. But its not a big deal when you know it.

11

+1 here. Very much looking forward to better skin SSS. Very glad to hear 4.5 is the target.

12

Has the skin shader been released yet?
If yes someone has a setup or project to share?

Thanks.

13

been out for a few months already
https://docs.unrealengine/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/Materials/HowTo/Human_Skin/index.html

it’s not as advanced as 8Infinite8 suggests (I believe this implementation is only in screen-space, so no depth/backscattering effect), but it’s at least good.
not sure if there’s more improvements to come

14

Thanks chosker… (the same of _UDK Forum? )
I discovered it.