Writing shaders for UE4; where do I start?

[NilsonLima]

@darkgaze

I’m having a similar problem. I read all tutorials. (let me add this link to this neat new tutorial in 2017-2018 christmas: Unreal Engine 4 Rendering Part 1: Introduction | by Matt Hoffman | Medium Honestly the best I’ve found around.

My problem is that after declaring a new global shader, or even… when you have usf global shaders loaded in the engine… how can you use them, apply them to the whole scene, instead of using a custom node? How do artists use them? are they available in the material editor somehow? When you are a newcomer you only see Tutorials made by people with 0 knowledge of c++ (so using blueprints and custom nodes, or even not hlsl code), or people with lots of c++ knowledge that do all of it by code.

Any info about this? Thanks!

The shader model will be available at the material editor (there is a combobox for shading model). I think that article series covers that, no? Materials which can be applied to the whole scene are postprocess materials, so they are a specific domain (there is a combobox for material domain). So, both Material Domain, Blend Mode and Shading Model leads to a specific material to be assembled inside the Material Editor.

Currently Material Domains: Surface, Decal, Light Function, Volume, Postprocess and User Interface
Shading Models: Lit, Unlit, Subsurface, Skin, Clear Coat, Foliage, Hair, Cloth and Eye
Blend Modes: Opaque, Masked, Translucent, Additive, Modulate and Alpha Composite

So specific nodes can be used within the combination of the 3 elements above, and the pins which will appear as material output attributes will also change.

Currently for Unreal I have only used HLSL on a very specific raymarching material and I have used a regular nodes and one Custom Node for this, I used Domain Surface, Shading Model Unlit and Blend Mode Alpha Composite, so really I have had quite some job made automatically by the engine for me. The resulting material works as it is, without any changes from my part, with deferred and forward render, works with DX11, DX12, Open GL and Vulkan, all handled by the material compiler for me when I change the packaging for the game, so up to now, there is no need for me to use my C++ knowledge, which is good, because I can produce things for people who does not understand C++.

All the remaining materials I have made, I don’t need HLSL and they also works flawless in any combination of the modes above, all handled by the engine for me, for every platform.