# Translucent material no roughness, specular available

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/translucent-material-no-roughness-specular-available/365832>\
**Category:** Rendering\
**Tags:** roughness, unreal-engine, specular, question\
**Created:** [August 1, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/translucent-material-no-roughness-specular-available/365832 "2016-08-01T21:47:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![WixZ](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@WixZ](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/WixZ)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2016, 9:47pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/translucent-material-no-roughness-specular-available/365832/1 "2016-08-01T21:47:16Z")

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Hi,

I’m trying to make a translucent material with roughness. But it is greyed out. In tutorials and other videos i see everyone use translucent material with not greyed out roughness, specular,…

Why is it not possible with me? ☹

 ![100980-cc4547278a57de1bc78ed6b21b1bacd6.png](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/6/d/e/6deedfd3d4452953344e90620cb95712777c5df7.png)

Please help

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**Author:** ![Diego\_Visualma](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Diego\_Visualma](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Diego_Visualma)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2016, 2:39am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/translucent-material-no-roughness-specular-available/365832/2 "2016-08-02T02:39:46Z")

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Hello, WixZ,

On the Translucency tab of your material, there is a “Lighting Mode” selector. Set it to “Surface TranslucencyVolume” and you will see the Metallic, Specular and Roughness pins enabled.

 ![101006-blueprint10.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/7/9/6/796f106ea8054273163855f3771b41c063c9cdcd.jpeg)

Please note that specularity on a translucent material has a lot of limitations and will probably behave different to what you expect, certainly different than what you see on an opaque material. Doing a realistic glass shader, for example, is not as straightforward as it sounds.

All the best.

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**Author:** ![WixZ](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@WixZ](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/WixZ)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2016, 12:55am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/translucent-material-no-roughness-specular-available/365832/3 "2016-08-03T00:55:49Z")

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That fixed it! Thanks a lot! 🙂

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**Author:** ![ACLUND3](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@ACLUND3](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ACLUND3)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2016, 11:57pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/translucent-material-no-roughness-specular-available/365832/4 "2016-11-25T23:57:00Z")

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Worked for me too, thanks!

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_0b1d2447](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_0b1d2447](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_0b1d2447)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2017, 4:43am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/translucent-material-no-roughness-specular-available/365832/5 "2017-03-05T04:43:29Z")

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Great. I had the same problem. Thanks for the solution.

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**Author:** ![MeiE](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@MeiE](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/MeiE)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 8:56am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/translucent-material-no-roughness-specular-available/365832/6 "2019-08-19T08:56:39Z")

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Thanks man,That help a lot,God bless U

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**Author:** ![MeiE](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@MeiE](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/MeiE)\
**Post date:** [August 19, 2019, 8:58am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/translucent-material-no-roughness-specular-available/365832/7 "2019-08-19T08:58:06Z")

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Thanks man,That help a lot,God bless U

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**Author:** ![pOGoMagge](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@pOGoMagge](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/pOGoMagge)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2023, 1:25am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/translucent-material-no-roughness-specular-available/365832/8 "2023-03-06T01:25:06Z")

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So useful, after many attempts of creating the material I needed with translucency and roughness this actually made it work. Thanks a lot!

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**Author:** ![Alkbabic](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Alkbabic](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Alkbabic)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2025, 8:16am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/translucent-material-no-roughness-specular-available/365832/9 "2025-09-09T08:16:34Z")

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But even I set opacity to 1, it steal translucent material like 0.5.

This is UE error?

Surface

Adddictive

Default lit