Creating glass material in UT3

Mazvix · Feb 2009

Hey guys,

I made a lantern, and I put an alpha for the glass part, but unreal cannot detect anything there. So I ended up putting reflection material but that applies to the whole mesh not the glass.

So can anyone lend a hand on how to show glass/ reflectivity on my lantern?

Thanks!

00Zero · Feb 2009

you have to change the material to translucent if you want transparency and connect the opacity texture to the opacity node, not the opacity mask one.

also, you should seperate your model with different material IDs for the glass and the rest. then in unreal make 2 materials. one normal mat for your metal and one for the glass and apply them to the correct material ID.

Neox · Feb 2009

also specular won't be possible as translucent shaders are unlit, but you can add a cubemap to fake some lighting on the glass

Talbot · Feb 2009

There is a base static mesh glass that they give you. I don't know which package it is in but I don't think it would be too hard to find. You could probably take that and change it a little... like change the skybox.

Mazvix · Feb 2009

Thank you very much guys.

So for the cubemap, is there a specific tutorial for objects in unreal? or any tutorial for 'cubemaps' works just as well?

snake85027 · Feb 2009

for the alpha id suggest adding a MULTIPLY NODE and connect it to a MASK and the texture and then put that where ever.

Okt · Feb 2009

You might be able to achieve something neat with the Transmission mask and colour.

Mazvix · Feb 2009

We will see how it turns out.

Mazvix · Feb 2009

Here is what I got, for some reason the tutorial to creating cube maps is not working for the spec. So if someone has something that works please do not hold back

http://

Ott · Feb 2009

There is no spec, because the material is not receiving light. The highlight on the glass comes from the cubemap, which gives it a fakey rolloff from the cubemap.

The amount of transparency is controlled from the amount of white that you give it in the mask. Right now yours is very transparent. Think of the mask as controlling just how see-through or grimey you want the glass to be and adjust your black and white values accordingly.

Lastly, you physically need geometry on both sides of your surface for the glass to have some sort of depth. Right now it doesn't look like you have faces on both sides of the glass. Think of a fishbowl. There is a glass surface on the outside, as well as on the inside. Your glass should be the same. You can try to use a double-sided material, but that doesn't always give you the sort of depth you want for some objects.

This is old Unreal, but the basics are still the same for a simple cubemap:
http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/Legacy:Cubemap
http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/MaterialsEnvironmentMaps.html

commander_keen · Feb 2009

use modulate instead of translucent. This will allow you to brighten and darken the image(1 = no change) and I think it may let you use specular. You can use fresnel to mask reflection and combine fresnel with whatever distortion map you have to create large distortion based on the shape of the glass model.

00Zero · Feb 2009

ive managed to get a good looking glass shader (with some help from a friend) that even does distortion. ill do some more testing and post it up tonight!

00Zero · Feb 2009

heres what ive been able to get.

of course youd have to tweak it a bit depending on your cubemap.

Mazvix · Feb 2009

Wow...that looks amazing man! Thank you guys for taking the time to do this, means a lot.

I will be honest I am having trouble finding 'vector transform' like I get lost with all those because they are not there on the side in my UT3, could it be a different name or different version? /shrug

If you can clarify a bit more would be very thankful. Thanks!

Mazvix · Feb 2009

Lol, I just found it >< sorry for the trouble!

00Zero · Feb 2009

ah, yea sorry. its called transform i think.

Mazvix · Feb 2009

Woot it worked! I owe it to everyone who has helped me through the pain of teaching someone something new

Sorry if I was a burden.

here it is:

hobodactyl · Feb 2009

Cool, very helpful, I'll be doing something like this soon

ImSlightlyBored · Feb 2009

nice glass material, nice and simple too! (in a good way!)

Mazvix · Feb 2009

Was definitely worth asking and knowing.

Mazvix · Feb 2009

For some reason everything else works except my cube map no reflection is showing. so I right-clicked the gray area in the 'General Browser': NewCubeMap.

I entered 5-6 images in the slots, closed it. Used TextureSampleParameterCube in the material editor and entered it like the diagram shows, but still not showing up.

I played around with Blend mode/ lighting mode but seems translucent is what fits best, so I know for sure it is my cubemap.

Am I creating a cubemap wrong? Please let me know, maybe I am not seeing something.

Thanks!

Ott · Feb 2009

Screenshots of the shader node and textures you are using would help...

Mazvix · Feb 2009

Here it is.

Mazvix · Feb 2009

The properties of the textures are in the window.

Creating glass material in UT3

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