GaGlass for any Weather in Unreal Engine 4
Glass is actually the first material I ever learned to build inside of Unreal Engine 4. It is an incredibly simple material to build …a difficult material to build well.
Fine tuning the shader to work accurately to the environment can be a pretty big hurdle, it’s one thing to just make a clear material it’s an entirely different one to make something that people look at and say “Glass”.
This kit is fantastic in that respect, even without all the bells and whistles involving the shattered, frosted and dirty glass, every piece in here sells the idea of this is glass, this could be in a window or covering some machinery or mechanism.
So let’s dive on in and take a closer look.
You can see the developers video breakdown here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl_gD4vQ0II&feature=youtu.be
The folder hierarchy is a bit of a mess but it is a necessary one I think. Though you COULD condense this down a fair bit I think that it makes far more sense to keep the different master materials and their instances quarantined from each other, just to make exploring them and their effects as you adjust them a bit more reasonable to track.
There are just a ton of different glass materials in this pack, it is pretty fantastic the amount of shaders you get to play with.
If I am being honest, this covers such a broad spectrum of your basic glass needs that you could just download this pack and use it for your glass until something drastic changes in an engine version that causes this setup to become defunct.
Essentially I would use this pack for everyday glass while then using the materials created in here to craft my own specific glass if I have a need that is not already covered here. Incredibly useful especially as it is free.
Frozen, shattered and Wet are just a small taste of what it offers. It also has varying degrees of dirty, clean and some bonus glass bricks like you find on basement or industrial windows.
Master materials build into a bunch of material instances that allow you to have a high degree of control over the end look. Things like color, refraction, Fresnel, etc.
Each variation has its very own master material tailored to its needs, the differences between them can be pretty intense for the more extreme versions.
A nice inclusion is some glass materials with water effects included, not the most difficult thing to create but it can be frustrating and in this case, why reinvent the wheel?
This pack is incredibly valuable, it should honestly be included in any devs personal kit at least as a starting point for any project for urban, household …well anything involving glass and windows.
As a free pack, this one is likely the best one I have covered if only for its broadest baseline utility. It hits all the marks for usefulness and in terms of learning potential just by digging through all the materials.
Go and give it a download and dive in yourself.
Here is some other content by this developer!
Some Pros to force your hand
- Fantastic materials to dive in and see how they tick
- Interesting rain and drip effects
- Everything is well designed and easy to use with little manipulation needed.
Some cons to take away.
- Folder Hierarchy is a bit dense.
Marketplace Link:
