://i.imgur/LeDpjQm.jpg
Here is my first ever game art plant attempt. Feel free to critique all you want, however what I really would like to ask the Unreal community for is advice on how to better render such an asset. I believe I have learned that Unreal does not support spec on translucent masks but only cut-out masks (which looks less natural). I’m doing research now but would like any and all help on the matter as I’m new to this area of game art development.
Take a look at this thread: There you can find many tricks how to create a good vegetation material (take a look at the post from ) 
Thanks. Let me say this … how does one even begin to learn shader nodes of that caliber? You can learn the meaning of each node easily, but the posts showing those material nodes are insane. I’ve never really seen a middle ground in my research that seems to say, “here’s how you get from point A to Z”. How does one learn the logic?
As for my plant, it seems that I should change the concept to a more thick/solid plant type that doesn’t frilly edges.
You can learn how to create materials by doing it
It looks terrifying to begin with when you look at advanced materials like that, but once you break them down into sections and recognise what each node is doing you’ll be fine.
I was the same with UDK, but once I went through them to see what was happening it all became easier. My dissertation was working with blended normal maps and SSS, I hadn’t done anything as complex as that previously but once I understood what was happening it was all fairly simple!
This nature transluent shaders should be optimized for grass instance when you paint them on the level. I hope Epic will integrate that in the engine soon.