How to alter transparency based on distance to camera - Unreal Engine

[@astropolski]

This is all i wanted to do, super quick and simple. TY!

[@thereanimator6072]

Thank you! I think this will work nicely with my Niagara rain system so the player won't see raindrops until they are almost under them. However, I'm unable to find the 'InvertAlpha' node in 4.25. Can you help with this?

[@sphangman]

Thanks ! This has really got me out of a jam with my project.

[@ty_teynium]

Invert Alpha function is missing.

[@nixies78]

Sorry don't understand where is it missing?

[@ty_teynium]

@@nixies78 when you paste it after copying the function invert Alpha is just the tab. Nothing else??? Everything else is there except for that. I'm beginning to think it's a custom made function. Or it's only for 4.26?

[@nixies78]

@@ty_teynium You are right. Thanks. you can use a oneminus node instead. I have updated the link to the code. Not sure where the reverse alpha node came from.

[@ty_teynium]

@@nixies78 Okay. I will try it out. Thank you!

[@TALON80s]

Is there a way to make this camera specific? meaning, is there a way to reference the camera you want this to work with and only apply the effect when looking through that camera?

[@nixies78]

You could have a parameter vector value that you you replace camera location with then you can make a dynamic material instance and control it by updating that value on tick.

[@waqar_asgar__r7294]

Is there any benefits to this technique over dithering? Is dithering more expensive or this?

[@SophiaZ3D]

How would incorporate this effect with something that already uses an alpha texture in the opacity channel?

[@nixies78]

Just multiply the opacity channel by the clamp output.

[@mironmalejki838]

Thank you for this

[@SakoresDark]

Is there a way to do this so its instead based on whether the object is between the player and the camera?

[@nixies78]

The problem is you somehow need tell the object that it's between the character and camera. This is difficult to do in the material alone. You could do this with an actor and a dynamic material.

[@michaelsparkson]

There a free plug in called Advanced Fade that does that.

[@oisinoconnell1380]

Im having a small issue where it works fine on the built in shapes but on my custom meshes it defaults to untextured? Did i miss something importing my mesh im using UE5.2

[@nixies78]

It's hard to tell, sounds like you don't have the material applied. Maybe you have multiple material slots.

[@oisinoconnell1380]

It's all good now I figured it out unreal 5.2 seems to have some issue with transparent materials and nanite or something like that so turning nanite off on the asset fixed it. Thanyou for the response and grate tutorial by the way straight to the point 😁

[@HiddenRealm]

Curious if I can reverse the effect, and make things close to the camera transparent so that I can use it to see through walls or things that are blocking the view of the screen/character.

[@nixies78]

Sure no problem, if you put a one minus node after the clamp you would completely reverse the effect.

[@riuthamus]

@@nixies78 I am using 5.1 and dont see an InvertAlpha. If... what you are saying is correct, I could just put a one minus before the clamp and get the same effect as "invertAlpha" correct?

[@omri1324]

Does this help actually cull objects behind it from distance or only a visual tweak?

[@nixies78]

This uses transparency so it doesn't do any culling, actually even if it was completely transparent it would still cost in the scene. Actually it would cost a lot. If you are looking for optimisation i would set the object to be drawn at all at a certain distance use max draw distance in settings and when close and would be at 100% opacity i would use a different material that was opacey. I would do this with the closest LOD. Transparency is expensive.