Unreal Engine 5 Shaders and Effects Cookbook

Master Unreal Engine 5's Material Editor by creating any material you can imagine in an efficient, optimized way

Key Features

• Create stunning visual effects for use in both games and virtual productions
• Design efficient shaders for any real-time platform without sacrificing realism
• Master Unreal Engine's rendering pipeline and the innards of the material graph

Book Description

Unreal Engine is here to stay - ever since we launched the first edition of this book, based on the then current Unreal Engine 5 technology, real-time rendering has only increase in popularity. The different fields where this type of expertise is required has grown exponentially over the last few years, and Unreal Engine 5 builds upon that foundation to continue pushing the boundaries of what is achievable in an interactive format.

With that reality as our backdrop, this second edition lunges forward and tackles the new opportunities provided by the newest version of the engine, such as lumen, ray tracing, and Nanite. It also goes back and revisits previously covered techniques, updating and upgrading them according to the current standards, and shining new light on topics like the PBR workflow or the different lighting solutions we explored in the first edition. We will do all of this without losing sight of some of the very important principles that we should consider whenever dealing with real-time graphics: optimization and efficiency!

So, start exploring the many rendering possibilities that Unreal Engine 5 has to offer, and you're sure to be the master of your own creations by the time we wrap up!

What you will learn

• Work with Unreal Engine's 5 most new additions: Lumen and Nanite
• Master the rendering pipeline for developing real-time graphics
• Use the physically based rendering pipeline across multiple scenes
• Explore the Material Editor to build complex materials and textures
• Target multiple platforms using material-optimization techniques
• Understand the nodes and functions needed to create stunning effects

Who This Book Is For

Anyone interested in Unreal Engine, rendering, real time graphics, or simply passionate about creating stunning visuals will be more than capable of following the contents of this book. This will be possible thanks to a gentle learning curve that takes readers from the basics of the rendering pipeline to some of the most advanced techniques in that area. This journey provides a wealth of information that will see you become proficient in this topic, no matter your background knowledge!

Table of Contents

1. Physically Based Rendering
2. Customizing Opaque Materials and Using Textures
3. Making Translucent Objects
4. Working with Ray Tracing, Lumen and other UE5 goodies
5. Advanced Material Techniques
6. Optimizing Materials for Mobile Platforms
7. Going Beyond Traditional Materials
8. Exploring Useful Nodes in UE5
9. Adding Post-Processing Effects