# specular highlights on translucent material

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/specular-highlights-on-translucent-material/325179>\
**Category:** Rendering\
**Tags:** translucent, unreal-engine, specular, Lighting, question\
**Created:** [July 14, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/specular-highlights-on-translucent-material/325179 "2015-07-14T05:28:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Razorfield](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Razorfield](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Razorfield)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/specular-highlights-on-translucent-material/325179/1 "2015-07-14T05:28:31Z")

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so i was looking for a way of having specular highlight on a cornea material of an eye, and it seems like no one asked this since 4.8 was out, but i still can’t make any progress

what is the propper setup for that?

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_cc69b907](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_cc69b907](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_cc69b907)\
**Post date:** [July 14, 2015, 2:05pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/specular-highlights-on-translucent-material/325179/2 "2015-07-14T14:05:54Z")

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Hey Razorfield,

UE4 4.8 now has an experimental feature that will create specular highlights on Translucent materials.

Steps to Recreate:

1.) Create a new Material  
2.) Add a base color that will show specularity well, IE a saturated blue.  
3.) Plug in a Constant value of say, .5 into specular.  
4.) You can add a normal which usually works best, nothing too noise just enough to reflect the specular map.  
5.) Change your material Blend mode to Translucent  
6.) Scroll down under your Details \> Translucency options and click the box for Screen Space Reflection  
7.) Under that same Panel Change Lighting Mode to Surface PerPixel, this feature is experimental.  
8.) Lastly by pressing the ~ key enter the command r.ForwardLighting 1

This will allow for specularity on the surface of a translucent material.

Enjoy,

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_301548ef](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_301548ef](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_301548ef)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 11:00am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/specular-highlights-on-translucent-material/325179/3 "2015-12-16T11:00:07Z")

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Hi ,

I did the exact same steps you described, but it didn’t work.  
My translucent material still stays the same as it was, merely see-through without any specular reflection whatsoever.  
Am I missing something still?  
FYI I’m using v4.9.1.

Regards,  
.

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_cc69b907](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_cc69b907](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_cc69b907)\
**Post date:** [December 16, 2015, 2:47pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/specular-highlights-on-translucent-material/325179/4 "2015-12-16T14:47:22Z")

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Hello ,

Are you sure you entered r.ForwardLighting 1. You will only see a black material before you do.

 ![70854-before_command.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/9/2/4/924d823057c7069553acce5120c0ba73229f7d29.jpeg)

 ![70855-aftercommand.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/6/a/b/6ab39d1b18cb2f2c90030d093d8ae1e80a844a0e.jpeg)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_301548ef](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_301548ef](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_301548ef)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2015, 2:11am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/specular-highlights-on-translucent-material/325179/5 "2015-12-17T02:11:35Z")

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Hi ,

Well yes I did.  
Anyway I finally managed to enable it.  
Apparently temporal AA needs to be enabled too.

Cheers 🙂

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**Author:** ![BrunoCrkvnk](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@BrunoCrkvnk](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/BrunoCrkvnk)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2023, 7:21am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/specular-highlights-on-translucent-material/325179/6 "2023-12-11T07:21:35Z")

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In Unreal Engine 5 you can add specular to your translucent material by going to the Lighting Mode and change it to “Surface Forward Shading”.