Trying to understand UE4's translucency once and for all

[muchcharles]

Take a look at the 4.14 changelog, they have made it possible to use translucency with features much closer to parity:

NEW: IMPROVED PER-PIXEL TRANSLUCENT LIGHTING

In the deferred renderer, the new forward shading functionality can now be used on translucent surfaces to get specular highlights from multiple lights and image-based reflections from parallax-corrected reflection captures!

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/images/Support/Builds/ReleaseNotes/2016/4_14/image_16.gif