Unreal Engine 4: How to Quickly Blend Megascan Assets with the Landscape

[@JonathanWinbush]

Man this is one of the best tutorials of 2020 and something that definitely needed covered thank you so much for this I'm definitely going to share across my network 🤙🏾

[@MR3DDev]

Glad it helped. Stick around for more ;)

[@LucianoGR]

This is very simple and powerful in comparison of another methods for this same effect like virtual textures. Thanks a lot!

[@bridge1444]

Sadly, loosing the cast shadows is a deal breaker in many cases. How to circumvent that?

[@remon563]

I think it works with shadows on, theres just a drawback that if your blend range is too high it will collide with your shadows and give artifacts. So it works with a smaller amount like 10-15. Correct me if im wrong!

[@BirhanDursun]

Use Runtime Virtual Texturing

[@bridge1444]

@@remon563 thx

[@bridge1444]

@@BirhanDursun thank you

[@remon563]

@@bridge1444 yup RVT is the way "D just found out about it as well and it is really a step-up :) TIP* if you cannot get it to work make sure you have 2 RVTVolumes set-up: 1 for the HEIGHT and 1 for the PROPERTIES.

[@maxm.5935]

You have hands down the best Unreal Tutorials for Megascans mate, thank you very much

[@MR3DDev]

Thank you for watching ;)

[@faustoart]

Incredible, I had no clue that this even exist, congratulations!

[@MrWarwold]

Amazing technique. This helped with a big problem I was facing in my project. Thanks you!

[@minaexperiment]

Great timing, i was wondering about this and looking for tutorial on it. This was quick and to the point!

[@MR3DDev]

Glad it helped :)

[@empirestudioz]

I know its been awhile, but this was super helpful , thank you very much

[@mappeof3400]

Thank you! Looking forward to digging in on the RVT stuff. Appreciate your contributions:)

[@MR3DDev]

Hey Glad you liked it, there will be an update on the RVT blending for sure :)

[@alzate_3d]

Some conclusions that I draw from using this methodology, which I thank in advance very much to the author of the video for sharing the knowledge. 1. It seems to me that the mixture between the soil and the rock is done in a very very impeccable way at first glance. 2. I notice that if we have a horizontal camera movement it looks pretty good, but if you do vertical movements with rotation you will see that the mix seems to change depending on the viewing angle. 3. If you are going to illuminate with an HDRI a cloudy sky, I think you will not have many problems with the shadows of the object on itself. However, if you use a Directional Light you will notice that in Raytracing mode the object will not produce shadows on itself. 4. And I think the worst of all details, artifacts on the model can appear, even with values ​​of 5. If to date there is an easy method to solve all this I would greatly appreciate knowing it.

[@freeju2001]

You should be rewarded BRO!

[@aiarch]

thanks for the great tip. what I suggest is to use it on close to view objects so the shadows are not effected much

[@williamlacrosse9389]

A quicker way than RVT. A big thank you

[@giaco89]

Love this TA magic :) Thanks for the video!

[@MR3DDev]

Glad it helped

[@patrykwojtal8506]

Great that you explained it step by step. Thanks :) Btw. Does the next method (more advanced) allows using shadows? - In some cases 'cast shadow' feature is crucial to make scene look realistic.

[@MR3DDev]

Yeah the next method is the RVT which allows casting shadows, is just a bit more complex and hard for those who are not very familiar with UE4 shader nodes ;)

[@g10118]

It should be possible (in theory) to exclude PDO-induced shadowing artifacts by using the 'shadow pass switch' node. Might be worth taking a look to see if you can figure anything out, I can't tell if the current version is bugged or if I'm not implementing it correctly. With fixed shadows, there are several reasons why this would be a handy option vs. RVT and distance field blending IMO.

[@MR3DDev]

That sounds interesting I'll have to look into that

[@nihonjin2]

Great tutorial, simple, concise & to the point. Thank you!

[@MR3DDev]

Thank you for watching, hope you stick around :)

[@pnbt2926]

use runtime virtual textures when blending with terrain created with Landscape system, it doesn't affect shadows

[@skyrixdreamer4802]

Your awesome man!! thanks, this is so useful

[@MR3DDev]

Glad it helped!

[@SkSafowan]

Great video

[@ivailo7]

Hello, can you please create an update video on how to do this but with Unreal Engine 5? Since this great tutorial was made there have been a lot of changes and updates. I see in the comments that other people are confused too. Thank you for making us better game developers!

[@Dieucreateuruniversel]

it's the same thing bro, did you search ?

[@ivailo7]

@@Dieucreateuruniversel I just don't do it. Haven't search for a solution.

[@optic1147]

Not getting the 08 Tessellation for my displacement when i download the assists from Bridge app. I selected Blender option on the mega scan in the unreal engine 4.

[@AlmazovS]

Hello man! Good tutorial but I got stuck at 6:38. Maybe Quixel updated their exporter but I see only MS_DefaultMaterial and I can't see Pixel Depth Offset here. UE4.25

[@MR3DDev]

Quixel did update the materials, there will be a tutorial on that very soon

[@AlmazovS]

@@MR3DDev Cool! Thank you so much! I have some ideas how to re-write their master material or maybe it should be better to create new material (and connect their function files to it). But I will wait for your tutorial ;)

[@danq2656]

Has there been by chance some update on this after all this time so it would work with cast shadows?

[@NiteshKumar-cs4wo]

This is very important tutorial for exterior environment.

[@MR3DDev]

Thanks, stick around to for the second way to do blending ;)

[@NiteshKumar-cs4wo]

@@MR3DDev and that will be more effective

[@MR3DDev]

@@NiteshKumar-cs4wo It depends on your needs, this technique is very easy and quick to setup the other one is more complex and requires better understanding of the shader nodes.

[@NiteshKumar-cs4wo]

@@MR3DDev hope I understand that one but I know you teach well

[@GBTC2011]

There is no node with the pixel depth offset. the texture, metal and normal go into a "MF_ObjAdjustments" node and into "M-MS_Default_Material. Version 5.0.3 "

[@MrMintiX]

have you been able to fix this?

[@yantingye1677]

your vide is really big help,thanks

[@MR3DDev]

Glad it helped

[@waleednabil2583]

Thnk you for ur tutorial but i cant expand my parent material attr. any help ?

[@dispatersdance9691]

Default material node does not show up. What am I doing wrong?

[@broderalias]

I only get instances of megascans. What to do then?

[@lionellaurent108]

Thank you for this video, it's really helpfull for me and my work.

[@MR3DDev]

Always happy to know my videos are helping

[@fredhatespie]

Thanks for a great tutorial. Quick question - when I inspect the instance material and navigate to the masters material within the MS_DefaultMaterial folder, I do not have the same format as yourself. I have a single MS_DefaultMaterial (it appears to be shared across all MegaScan assets) which does not allow me access to the PDO, or any of the standard material nodes. Has this now been locked, or have I downloaded the asset with the incorrect settings? Thanks for your help!

[@MR3DDev]

Not there is no lock, have you activated displacement on the megascan plugin? Just press the green M button on your top toolbar in engine and make sure displacement is checked.

[@fredhatespie]

@@MR3DDev Hey - That fixed it! Awesome. Thanks for that. I must have missed that in the tutes! There's always a checkbox somewhere!

[@MR3DDev]

@@fredhatespie happy it helped

[@dispatersdance9691]

@@MR3DDev Didn't help me

[@broderalias]

@@dispatersdance9691 Worked for me after reimporting the asset

[@zmg1995]

Tnx for explaining what pixel offset does, I was wondering about that. Kinda disappointing it doesn't work with casting shadows, but what can you do. I am wondering how other engines do their blending, for example Witcher 3 has a lot of blended in cliffs.

[@MR3DDev]

I have a video using Runtime Virtual Texfures which is similar to what Dice used to blend assets with the terrain in the later battlefield games

[@zmg1995]

I watched the videos, tnx for explaining that technique. The whole time I was thinking there must be a hacky way of doing this, maybe something with using the pixel depth offset and dither but just as a mask for opacity of an asset...but that would not look right up close in some cases. You do a great job with your tutorials. Suggestion: Do something on advanced trees, recently I got into that and there isn't much tutorials on it.

[@dpredie]

What do you think about blending using Runtime Virtual Textures like quixel’s tutorial? I tried it but not sure how it compares with PDO, cost wise and realism wise, not as savvy as you..

[@MR3DDev]

Is more complicated, I read the blog post they did about that and it was really hard to follow. I had a tech artist friend of mine help me out and is not that bad, is just the steps are not well delineated in the blog post. As for which one is better in terms of quality? Definetly the RVT, but it is also more expensive than the PDO.

[@AscaronFrid]

simple and clear

[@roendpunt]

Simplified tutorial, and a copy of many.. to much of this stuff popping op. There's an advanced way for this that has much more potential. Anyway GL with further exploration.

[@devm3240]

Helpful 🧡

[@Baleur]

It not working with shadows kinda ruins the whole thing.

[@netanel8334]

thank you so much

[@DrekenProductions]

fantastic ive seen this a few times but the dither wasnt explained well.

[@josukuttyfrancis6145]

@ MR3D-Dev thanks for this...! very useful.. :) can you help us on how can we do this without losing shadows?

[@rossfranks9790]

My Master Material looks like this imgur.com/y90jIzK so I unclick "Use Material Attributes" for the "MS_DefaultMaterial" but it then disconnects and looks like this imgur.com/v4X3t2Z , am I missing something? Thanks in advance.

[@saebr]

Buddy, thanks for sharing your knowledge. Quick question if u don't mind. I know brut force kinda hits your performance.. And every body talks about still images vs real time renders. My question is.. What if I am doing a cinematic shot.. It's not a game, so I am not worried about real time performance... Can I just go crazy with the sittings? Will it still render the sequence fine... Or will it show as heavy and cutting off? Thanks in advance

[@MR3DDev]

My answer to that would be yes, however I have not tested the limits of it. When rendering you can setup so the engine renders "as if" it was an offline renderer (like Vray or Cycles) but I am thinking if you have a scene that moves at 5FPS it will be hard to get a good motion render, so it has to be a balancing act. I'll add this to my list of tutorials but I hope this answers your question for now.

[@saebr]

@@MR3DDev thanks for your reply. I just found your channel today, and honestly it's amazing. There are a lot of great tutors out there, but I really love your simplicity. You explain things in 2 mins, that the guys at epic and quixel explain in an hour... Yet 90% of us don't understand what they said. Keep the good and simple tuts coming... And thanks again.

[@CainRae]

Very nice tip. How big is the performance impact of using a material like this?

[@MR3DDev]

Actually from the blending techniques this is one of the cheaper ones.

[@CainRae]

@@MR3DDev Ah, good to hear! Thanks for the quick response 😄

[@hedyxalil9736]

thanks this is a time saver and I have Q, is this work if a object was on another object, for example, something on a rooftop ?

[@MR3DDev]

Yes, this effect will actually be present whenever the asset intersects something else because is on the asset's material. I'd say is of the best things about this technique.

[@hedyxalil9736]

Thanks man this is make your game more realities.

[@Ryan-tn4gk]

Hey, can someone help me? Once I try to go to the master material, it looks completely different than what I am seeing on the screen. I dont know how to attach the dither cause its not there

[@MR3DDev]

Can you please elaborate? What are the differences you are seeing? And the Dither is hooked into the pixel depth offset on the final node of the material.

[@harshitpenamata2682]

@@MR3DDev its in MF_MapAdjustments now

[@lmbits1047]

The shadows will only be self-shadowing but it won't cast shadows on the ground so how can this trade be good at all?

[@MR3DDev]

Depending on how you place it it may no be noticeable at all, notcie there is still some shadows on the object.

[@lmbits1047]

@@MR3DDev I see you have another video using RVT. I guess that would be a better technique?

[@MR3DDev]

@@lmbits1047 I wouldn't say one technique is better over another, is more about using the one that suits your needs

[@lmbits1047]

@@MR3DDev I was referring to the shadow limitation the other one has. Anyway thanks for sharing mate.

[@crzymlk]

I have problem with doing it using the new Megascans Master Materials. If I plug in the Dither Node into the Material Function I get a weird flickering effect on the whole material. Any ideas? Love your tuts btw :)

[@MR3DDev]

did you turn off cast shadows?

[@crzymlk]

@@MR3DDev Yeah I did, I figured out that when I turn the default value of the parameter to 1 the flickering went away, so problem solved :D thx

[@basilsunny6160]

God🥺

[@KristofKuris]

Hallo, I have a question, I wanted use your TUT with my Megascans 3D Asset Icelandic Boulder but when I opened MS_DefaultMaterial_Displacement completely different parameters appeared. Please look at the picture there are no classic parameters that I know, the Pixel Depth Offset parameter is missing, so I don't know how to use Dither Can you please advise me? Thank you....attachment: drive.google.com/file/d/1MKqevRNwL5Dc8BMOywCt0amfBBIJPvL3/view?usp=sharing

[@MR3DDev]

You may be using the new update I'll have to make a tutorial about that

[@KristofKuris]

Jj, using new update, using great vertex blend mat, please do it. I normally know how to use dither, but here I am lost...

[@MR3DDev]

@@KristofKuris Yeah I've been getting tons of comments now that the update has been out for a while that people can't find things anymore so I'll make a video where I dissect the new materials :)

[@KristofKuris]

Ok, it sounds great. Can you pls estimate when it will probably be? Thank you.K

[@mallugamedev4951]

thank you frind

[@petertremblay3725]

Fantastic work but without shadow it's no go for any serious games!

[@MR3DDev]

This technique is actually very common because is so cheap in terms of hardware resources, there are many instances where the player will not see the lack of shadows.

[@petertremblay3725]

@@MR3DDev Thank for the reply but i am watching this video here and he seem to be using a similar technique and he adjust the shadow and the light seam is almost not noticeable : kzbin.info/www/bejne/hl6qc3qendaAjZo

[@getpanda4509]

@@MR3DDev Quick question. If you take a basic spotlight, point it at the blend and toggle off and on you get this weird visual noise/lag. Is there a way to fix it? Thanks

[@khymaaren]

It's easy to go overboard with it, but it's great. If only it didn't mess up how lighting affects the object...

[@MR3DDev]

True, that's why this technique is more for background objects than hero assets

[@AhmedHasan91]

is there a way with such result but with shadows on ?

[@MR3DDev]

The RVT way can have that option, that tutorial is coming soon

[@AhmedHasan91]

@@MR3DDev awesome . looking forward

[@Zvezda1366]

My biggest nightmare is geometry nodes i just can't understand how they work

[@djwosa2000]

thanks

[@MR3DDev]

you are welcome

[@troyhayder6986]

Are people overlooking the fact that a single megascan rock is about 5gbs? Even with instancing you need a lot more than just one rock...how do plan to sell your game? On storage media that doesn't exist? On Internet portals that take years to upload your game to?

[@largerfiend]

there are optimized LODs available for all assets, you dont have to use the highpoly source.

[@troyhayder6986]

@@largerfiend we are not talking about lods... We are talking about the filesize on the hard drive... Unless you export a low poly lód and reimport it as a base mesh... But then what's the point?

[@boopalan.m]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@XomB]

Ello mate, Quixel have changed the master material setup a bit since this video. It looks like this: help.quixel.com/hc/user_images/AQmE8HPwmjUW9rRIBBlYtg.jpeg Where do we plug the PDO into now?

[@BlagoiSpasov]

it is in MF_MapAdjustments

[@harshitpenamata2682]

@@BlagoiSpasov Thank you

[@pixelpapii]

@@harshitpenamata2682 hi, im new to unreal can u guide me on how to plug the PDO to MF_MapAdjustments? im having a hard time trying to figure it out

[@goll4m]

no way it is worth the compromise for losing cast shadows. Nothing looks good without cast shadows. ugh, we'll have to wait for the next upgrade for this.

[@MR3DDev]

You may wanna try using RVT blending then, I have videos about that on the channel ;)

[@mallugamedev4951]

good ......

[@VeeIsDead]

this ditherig doesnt work anymoire with % I guess. The parent material structure is coimpletly different, there's no PIXEL DEPTH OFFSET, can you update this PLEASE I'm losing my fucking mind that something so simple has become complicated?

[@jp3d911]

no shadow ... no way ...

[@ajk7733]

Reminds me of this old cryengine video, i wonder if we could replicate this in UE4... kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2SveGBsaNqNZpI

[@BeenazKitchen]

Thanks i lost my subs 3 days muselsel next day let see

[@dobby_soo]

oh god sorry I accidentally deleted a comment while trying to check replies

[@dobby_soo]

Thanks for your kind explanation! I found another way and solved it I also subscribed and joined Discord.