Unreal material editor foundation - how to connect a basic material

Material editor basics
One 、 Introduction to physics based rendering
Four common parameters
Base color Background color
Roughness Roughness
Metallic Metal
Specular highlights :

1. Background color
Define the overall color of the material .
Any surface is made up of ground colors , It can also be called reflectivity .
2. Roughness
Enter to control the roughness or smoothness of the material surface , This determines the blur or sharpness of the reflection
0—— The smoother the surface ;1—— The rougher the surface 、 abrasion
3. Metallicity
More like Boolean . Nonmetal ——0, Metal ——1
Enter the extent to which the control surface " Like metal , first , You may force any material to be completely metallic . Please hold back , Don't do this ！
4. highlights
The default is 0.5.
General objects do not use this function , Except for some translucent objects , Such as ： water 、 ice 、 Quartz, etc . It is best to adjust with roughness .
Editing Nonmetal When the surface material , You may sometimes want to adjust its ability to reflect light , Especially its highlights attribute . For very diffuse materials , You may prefer to set this value to zero . Please hold back , Don't do this ！ All materials Have specular reflection . For very diffuse materials , What you really want to do is Make them rough .

Two 、 Material editor
In the starter content pack ——props—— Add shaders , Use to see the material performance

Create a new material folder —— Create a new material —— Double click to open the material editor

Select the grid body in the content browser mesh, Click the rightmost button , It can be displayed in the material editor

3、 ... and 、 Create the first material
1. Add one constant4Vector Thinking constant , There are four channels R,G,B,A, It is a commonly used basic material node

2. After adjusting the color , Connect the background color .

Tips： Four nodes will form pbr texture of material , Connect at least three nodes ： Background color 、 Metallic color 、 Roughness
3.constant Is a floating point number ,0 or 1, Connect metallic

4. You can also right-click to add scalarparameter Scalar parameter , Connect highlights , The default value is 0.5

5. There is another way to add parameter nodes ： Right click roughness , Click to upgrade to parameter . It will automatically create named parameters . Give one 0-1 The number of

Tips： Right click the function node —— Convert to parameter —— In this way, the parameters can be changed outside , No need to open the material editor

preservation . Click Browse to find materials directly in the content browser

6. Directly drag the object to give material

7. Right click material to create material instances , Material instances cannot use blueprints , But you can modify parameters , See material changes in real time

Check four parameters and modify , You can see feedback in real time , Very convenient

Four 、 The effect of material in shadow
1. Texturing
add to LerpInterpolate Linear interpolation node —— A very powerful node ： First use the first input , Use the second input again , Last use alpha Channels mix
Connect the map alpha, Reuse AB Channel blend texture data

2. add to TextureSample parameter2D node —— Now the RGB The data of the channel is pushed to alpha passageway , Input grayscale data —— Pick any one RGB Channels and Alpha Connect

3. stay AB Right click on the channel to generate parameters , Set the parameters ,Lerp Node connection roughness

4. You can also give the texture base color, Multiply the mixed texture effect
from base color Add a node Multiply—— Texture and multiply Connected to a ——multiply And then output to base color

Tips： Double click the line , You can change the location , Make the connection more organized
5.normal Normal map
Normal mapping is a kind of texture data , It can be applied to any material , Add surface details to the material . It's very powerful
Add another TextureSample parameter2D node , and normal Normal map connection

problem ： If you save it directly at this time , An error will be displayed , This is because the correct type was not selected

Click on the image —— Select the normal map sampler type —— It will give you an error , Never mind —— Check the show engine content option —— Search for Defualt Normal perhaps Default Texture—— The material is more suitable

complete
This is a basic material connection diagram

6. After the save , Corresponding instances will also add corresponding options . Still have good reflection under the shadow