I’m trying to build instanced static mesh billboards for my project, but am having trouble getting the lighting and opacity masking correct. The billboards should just represent spheres, so I wanted to apply a sphere mask to each instance, but when I use the mask, it seems like only one is showing up in the game (as opposed to one per instance). The closest post I found that relates to my issue is this one: https://answers.unrealengine.com/questions/484539/foliage-instance-position-in-material-editor.html.
But I don’t quite understand how to implement the response.
Thanks! I tried to implement what’s in the picture you provided and I managed to get the sphere mask to appear, however it only shows up at the origin (where my instanced mesh actor is located). Is there a way to get the sphere mask to apply to every instance of that mesh?
Wait…realized what I did wrong. Changed my TexCoord[2] and TexCoord[3] to TextCoord[0] and TexCoord[1] (to match the customized UVs). As you can tell, I don’t quite know how custom UVs work -_-. Thanks so much for your help!
My next issue is that the sphere mask is centered at the bottom center of the billboard. I would like to either place it at the billboard’s center, or shift the billboard down by half its height. Does anyone know how I can do that?
Thanks! I tried shifting it along the z-axis by the half-width of the billboard. Now the full sphere shows up, but only if I’m looking at it straight on (from the same height). If I change the angle from above/below that I view the billboard, the sphere shrinks. I think this is because the billboard is still pivoting around its bottom center, while the sphere mask just floats (0,0,half-width) above the pivot point in world space. Here are some images to better explain what I’m getting:
Do you know how I could fix this? I think I either need to have the sphere mask follow the center of the billboard, or change the pivot point of the billboard.