AdamCodd/unreal-engine-5-raw · Datasets at Hugging Face

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The settings for an Ambient Zone define how Sound Actors located inside and outside of its associated Audio Volume are altered by the player's location.

A simple example of how this works is shown below:

In the image above, the gold box around the section marked as "Inside" is an Ambient Zone volume; the two speaker icons are Sound Actors. As you can see, one Sound Actor is located inside the Ambient Zone and the other is located outside the Ambient Zone.

Here is the behavior of the Ambient Zone volume when playing in the level:

You can access the Ambient Zone Settings from the Details panel of an Audio Volume by expanding it as seen below.

Expand the Ambient Zone Settings to reveal its properties:

Create a new Sound Class and in its properties, check Apply Ambient Volumes:

Assign the Sound Class to both the interior and exterior sounds from the Details panel of each sound:

Ambient Zone Settings

Creating An Ambient Zone

Exterior Volume

The final volume of exterior sounds when the player is inside this Ambient Zone.

Exterior Time

Time to fade to the new exterior volume in seconds.

Exterior LPF

Low pass filter multiplier applied to exterior sounds when inside (0.1 to apply the maximum LPF).

Exterior LPFTime

Time to fade to the new low pass filter level in seconds.

Interior Volume

The final volume of interior sounds when outside this Ambient Zone.

Interior Time

Time to fade to the new interior volume in seconds.

Interior LPF

Low pass filter multiplier applied to interior sounds when outside (0.1 to apply the maximum LPF).

Interior LPFTime

Time to fade to the new low pass filter level in seconds.

Remarks

When placing aSound Actorinside of anAmbient Zonevolume, you must rebuild the level's geometry, as this is when the check is performed on theSound Actorto determine its location. After geometry has been rebuilt, allAmbient Zoneparameters can be freely changed in the editor.

Animating UV Coordinates

The ability to add motion to your Materials is a vital skill, as it provides a way to recreate effects such as fire, water, or smoke. A very cheap and effective way to do this is to use the Panner Material Expression node. The Panner node generates UV coordinates that change over time, moving textures in either the U or V direction, or in a combination of both.

Animating UV coordinates or UV panning means to move a texture's UV coordinates either horizontally (in the U direction), or vertically (in the V direction), to give the illusion that complex animation is taking place. In the following example, the T_Fire_Tiled_D texture from the Starter Content is panning in the U direction (horizontally), making the fire look like it is moving.

You can add a Panner Material Expression to the Material Graph by searching for Panner in the Palette or right-click context menu. You can also hold down the P key and left-click anywhere in the Material Graph to insert a Panner at the mouse pointer. The Panner Material Expression takes two inputs — Coordinates and Time.

Use the following steps to create a Material that uses UV panning to animate a texture.

This tutorial uses a texture found in the Unreal Engine Starter Content. If you did not include the Starter Content in your project, look at the Migrating content page for information about how to move content between projects. This way you can add the Starter Content to your project and not have to make a new one.

First create a new Material. Right-click in the Content Browser and select Material in the Create Basic Asset section of the context menu.

Double-click the Material thumbnail in the Content Browser to open it in the Material Editor.

In the Starter Content folder, search for T_Fire. Left-click and drag the texture T_Fire_Tiled_D texture directly into your Material Graph from the Content Browser.

Add a Panner Material Expression to your graph. You can hold down the hotkey (P) and left-click in the Material Graph, or search for "panner" in the Palette. Your graph should look like this.

Connect the output of the Panner to the UVs input on the Texture Sample. Pass the RGB output of the texture into the Base Color input on the Main Material Node.

To make the texure pan, first select the Panner Material Expression and then in the Details panel, set the Speed X parameter to 0.1.

As soon as you change Speed X to 0.1, you should see the Fire Texture begin to move horizontally in the preview window.

Compile and Save the Material so you can apply it to objects in your level.

Using panning in combination with other Material Expressions is a great way to add extra control to how the panning works. In the example below, three Scalar Parameters were added to the Material to control texture Tiling, Speed X, and Speed Y. Because they are parameters, artists can override their values in Material Instances to customize the apearance of the Material.

You can also stack Panner Material Expressions to make the illusion of movement even more complex. Layering numerous texures and panning them at different speeds, or blending them through masks can produce sophisticated results, useful for smoke, water, and visual effects.

In this example, a copy of the all the original Material Expression nodes was created by first selecting all the Material Expression nodes and pressing CTRL + D on the keyboard. The scale, panning direction, and speed of the newly created nodes was changed to give an impression of layered motion. The new cluster of nodes was passed into Emissive Color instead of Base Color to give the Material more of a fiery appearance.

What is Animating UV Coordinates

Panner Node Breakdown

How to Animate UV Coordinates in your Material

Tips and Tricks

Conclusion

The settings for an Ambient Zone define how Sound Actors located inside and outside of its associated Audio Volume are altered by the player's location.

A simple example of how this works is shown below:

In the image above, the gold box around the section marked as "Inside" is an Ambient Zone volume; the two speaker icons are Sound Actors. As you can see, one Sound Actor is located inside the Ambient Zone and the other is located outside the Ambient Zone.

Here is the behavior of the Ambient Zone volume when playing in the level:

You can access the Ambient Zone Settings from the Details panel of an Audio Volume by expanding it as seen below.

Expand the Ambient Zone Settings to reveal its properties:

Create a new Sound Class and in its properties, check Apply Ambient Volumes:

Assign the Sound Class to both the interior and exterior sounds from the Details panel of each sound:

Ambient Zone Settings

Creating An Ambient Zone

Exterior Volume

The final volume of exterior sounds when the player is inside this Ambient Zone.

Exterior Time

Time to fade to the new exterior volume in seconds.

Exterior LPF

Low pass filter multiplier applied to exterior sounds when inside (0.1 to apply the maximum LPF).

Exterior LPFTime

Time to fade to the new low pass filter level in seconds.

Interior Volume

The final volume of interior sounds when outside this Ambient Zone.

Interior Time

Time to fade to the new interior volume in seconds.

Interior LPF

Low pass filter multiplier applied to interior sounds when outside (0.1 to apply the maximum LPF).

Interior LPFTime

Time to fade to the new low pass filter level in seconds.

Remarks

When placing aSound Actorinside of anAmbient Zonevolume, you must rebuild the level's geometry, as this is when the check is performed on theSound Actorto determine its location. After geometry has been rebuilt, allAmbient Zoneparameters can be freely changed in the editor.

Animating UV Coordinates

The ability to add motion to your Materials is a vital skill, as it provides a way to recreate effects such as fire, water, or smoke. A very cheap and effective way to do this is to use the Panner Material Expression node. The Panner node generates UV coordinates that change over time, moving textures in either the U or V direction, or in a combination of both.

Animating UV coordinates or UV panning means to move a texture's UV coordinates either horizontally (in the U direction), or vertically (in the V direction), to give the illusion that complex animation is taking place. In the following example, the T_Fire_Tiled_D texture from the Starter Content is panning in the U direction (horizontally), making the fire look like it is moving.

You can add a Panner Material Expression to the Material Graph by searching for Panner in the Palette or right-click context menu. You can also hold down the P key and left-click anywhere in the Material Graph to insert a Panner at the mouse pointer. The Panner Material Expression takes two inputs — Coordinates and Time.

Use the following steps to create a Material that uses UV panning to animate a texture.

This tutorial uses a texture found in the Unreal Engine Starter Content. If you did not include the Starter Content in your project, look at the Migrating content page for information about how to move content between projects. This way you can add the Starter Content to your project and not have to make a new one.

First create a new Material. Right-click in the Content Browser and select Material in the Create Basic Asset section of the context menu.

Double-click the Material thumbnail in the Content Browser to open it in the Material Editor.

In the Starter Content folder, search for T_Fire. Left-click and drag the texture T_Fire_Tiled_D texture directly into your Material Graph from the Content Browser.

Add a Panner Material Expression to your graph. You can hold down the hotkey (P) and left-click in the Material Graph, or search for "panner" in the Palette. Your graph should look like this.

Connect the output of the Panner to the UVs input on the Texture Sample. Pass the RGB output of the texture into the Base Color input on the Main Material Node.

To make the texure pan, first select the Panner Material Expression and then in the Details panel, set the Speed X parameter to 0.1.

As soon as you change Speed X to 0.1, you should see the Fire Texture begin to move horizontally in the preview window.

Compile and Save the Material so you can apply it to objects in your level.

Using panning in combination with other Material Expressions is a great way to add extra control to how the panning works. In the example below, three Scalar Parameters were added to the Material to control texture Tiling, Speed X, and Speed Y. Because they are parameters, artists can override their values in Material Instances to customize the apearance of the Material.

You can also stack Panner Material Expressions to make the illusion of movement even more complex. Layering numerous texures and panning them at different speeds, or blending them through masks can produce sophisticated results, useful for smoke, water, and visual effects.

In this example, a copy of the all the original Material Expression nodes was created by first selecting all the Material Expression nodes and pressing CTRL + D on the keyboard. The scale, panning direction, and speed of the newly created nodes was changed to give an impression of layered motion. The new cluster of nodes was passed into Emissive Color instead of Base Color to give the Material more of a fiery appearance.

What is Animating UV Coordinates

Panner Node Breakdown

How to Animate UV Coordinates in your Material

Tips and Tricks

Conclusion