Creating Realistic Landscape Materials in UE5.4: A Guide to Distance Blending

Welcome to the second episode of our series on developing an automatic landscape material in Unreal Engine 5.4. In this tutorial, we will focus on blending the tiling of textures in the foreground and background to achieve a more realistic landscape effect.

Recap of Previous Episode

In the last episode, we set up a basic landscape material with a single layer texture and tiling controls. We encountered an issue where a large tiling size worked well for distant parts of the landscape, while a smaller tiling size was better for close-up views. Today, we will learn how to blend these two tiling sizes effectively.

Setting Up Tiling Parameters

To begin, ensure you have completed the previous episode. We will create separate streams for near and far tiling sizes. Follow these steps:

1. Rename Tiling Size Attribute: Go to the tiling size attribute and rename it to near tiling size.
2. Duplicate and Rename: Duplicate this attribute (using Control + D) and rename it to far tiling size, setting its default value to 40. The near tiling size will have a default value of 4.
3. Create UVS for Landscape Coordinates: Duplicate the divide node, input the landscape coordinates, and connect it to the far tiling size to create near UVS and far UVS.

Organizing Nodes

To keep our workspace tidy, we will use named reroot nodes:

• Create a named reroot node for near UV and another for far UV, assigning them a consistent color for easy identification.
• Detach unnecessary nodes and connect the named reroot nodes to their respective UVS.

Setting Up Texture Nodes

Next, we will set up texture nodes for both foreground and background:

1. Duplicate Base Color Texture: Select the base color texture and duplicate it. Connect the far UV to this new texture node.
2. Duplicate Normal Texture: Similarly, duplicate the normal texture and connect it to the far UV as well.

Blending Foreground and Background

To blend the textures based on camera distance, we will use a mask:

1. Add Camera Depth Fade Node: Right-click and add a camera depth fade node. This node creates a mask that differentiates between elements closer to the camera and those further away.
2. Create Parameters for Mask Control: Duplicate the far tiling size parameter to create two new parameters: blend distance transition and blend distance start. Set their default values appropriately (0 for transition and 2000 cm for start).
3. Set Vertex Shader Efficiency: Change the vertex shader setting to true for better performance.

Testing the Mask

To visualize the mask:

• Connect the output of the mask to the material attributes and observe the landscape. Adjust the blend distance start and blend distance transition to see how they affect the blending.

Using the Lerp Node for Blending

To blend the foreground and background textures:

1. Add Lerp Node: Use the lerp (linear interpolation) node to blend between the two texture inputs based on the depth fade mask.
2. Connect Textures: Connect the near tiling texture to input A and the far tiling texture to input B of the lerp node.
3. Connect Normals: Duplicate the normal texture blending setup using the lerp node for normals as well.

Final Adjustments

After setting up the blending:

• Adjust the blend distance start and blend distance transition parameters to achieve a smooth transition between the foreground and background textures.
• Organize the parameter groups in the material instance for better workflow. Group parameters logically, such as landscape general, to keep your workspace clean.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we successfully blended foreground and background tiling in Unreal Engine 5.4, creating a more realistic landscape material. In the next episode, we will explore creating a four-layer landscape for different elevation levels. Stay tuned for more insights and techniques to enhance your Unreal Engine projects!