Translucent material shading problem

Development Asset Creation
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1

Hello everybody!
I have a bit of a problem with a translucent material. Is there a way to make a translucent material with 1.0 translucency properly lit?

Here’s my current translucent material:

34521-problemmaterial.png
34521-problemmaterial.png437×1043 99.6 KB

And here’s a material I would like it to look like.

34522-material.png
34522-material.png438×1041 96.6 KB

I still need the translucency for fading the material(with a changing parameter). Is it possible to do this with a translucent material or do I have to use a masked material with a changing parameter( I haven’t gotten it to work though)?

2

I changed the translucency lighting mode to make it a bit better but it still isn’t a full fix.

3

Try changing the blend mode to masked, and the Shading Model to Subsurface. Then give the opacity a value of 1 (or 1.1 to make sure its 100% not translucent)

A thing to take note of is that even in translucent shading, when the opacity value is set to 1, it is still slightly translucent. This is because a translucent object in the real world can not be opaque.

To do the “Fading” effect there are two ways:

  1. This is a cheap looking, but really easy to understand. First create a simple Gaussian of your desired blur For example:

35294-circle+gausian.png
35294-circle+gausian.png512×512 23.5 KB

Then plug it into the opacity mask (and/or Opacity, it changes the effect slightly)

  1. This one is a little odd, but works, First open up your material,
    then add a Fresnal under the Utility. Plug the Gaussian into the ExponentIn. Then plug the whole thing into the alpha of a Lerp. Plug your favored Scaler Params into A and B. Then plug the Lerp Output, into the opacity.

Now for the Colors. Plug two colors into a lerp (A and B). Then plug the Fresnal Output into the Alpha. Then finish off and plug them into The base color.

Here is an example of #1

35305-glass+1.png
35305-glass+1.png1920×1080 382 KB

Here is an example of #2

35307-glass02.png
35307-glass02.png1920×1080 386 KB

And Here is an example of Both on a tiled plane

35309-glasstut.png
35309-glasstut.png1194×531 285 KB

4

Thanks for answering! Actually by fading i meant fading the object invisible over time. And i have gotten this to work with the translucent dynamic material by controlling the opacity parameter in blueprints with a timeline that takes it from 1 to 0 over time. However i do experience the lighting issue. And i tried doing almost the same thing with a masked texture by lerping but it seems to only render it fully invisible or fully opaque(by changing the alpha). So do you happen to know anything about that?:smiley:

5

35579-glass3.png
35579-glass3.png370×971 42.7 KB

Try Playing with the Translucency Lighting settings. (If you haven’t already…)
Then adjust the Spec and Rough areas along with your opacity.

This probably won’t help, but I usually add a subtle normal map, and multiply (By use of a TexCoord) it by…like…12…

6

Playing with the settings doesn’t seem to do much but i guess it really isn’t possible to get it shaded exactly like the opaque material:P thanks!

7

You need per-pixel lit translucency, which is currently a super super alpha feature that doesn’t support a lot of stuff and is really buggy. I last found it in Epic’s latest build around late February (it still exists, but I don’t know which build it’s in now). If you were to grab their latest build off github, you’d find it in the material editor under TRANSLUCENCY. The dropdown menu (which in 4.7 has the TLM Volumetric Non Directional/TLM Volumetric Directional/ TLM Surface) would have this like per pixel lighting selection.

It’s what you need, but I think you’ll be sorely disappointed with it.

8

Okay thanks! I guess ill just have to wait for that then:P