UE5’s approach to visuals and performance is not bad, but its handling of physical materials is far disappointed. I’ve been working on setting up Landscape Layer and RVT physics materials lately, but I’m stuck in every direction.In particular, the handling of physical materials on the material side is full of contradictions and confusion, and gives the impression that it has been left as a temporary solution.
First,Since “Landscape Physical Material Output” overwrites the physical materials of all layers, you cannot change only specific layers or make partial changes using a mask.This means that in Landscape, setting up physical materials forces you to choose between layers or materials.
Also, the “Landscape Physical Material Output” node can set the physical material for a layer, but it cannot obtain physical material information from the “Landscape Layer Sample”. Because of this, you cannot know what is assigned to which layer, so you must decide everything on the material.
A further problem is that the landscape layer cannot be parameterized. This means that the settings for the Physical Material cannot be instanced, and if you need new settings for each layer, you will need a new Material.
Additionally, it does not support assigning information from the RVT, which causes issues with the visual and game experience integration. For example, that no matter how well the RVT blends the snow, it is incredibly difficult to physically distinguish between the snow and the ground.
This has been a long post, but is there progress being made in addressing this issue? Or if anyone has any tips on how to solve this issue at the moment, please share.