Normal Edge Decals Help

Ricky_Bobby

Hi guys, for this current project I'm working on I wanted to use normal edge decals, I've followed this tutorial

I'll explain my set up,

I'm trying to add edge wear to this

Below you can see the deferred decal mesh which isn't applying the normal information correctly to the pillar underneath.

Below you can see in the world normal view what the normal map from the decal is supposed be applying to the pillar.

Here is my material set up for the decal (it looks like the opacity map is blank, but its not, it just musn't have loaded in)

One thing to note is that i sculpted the edge wear on a 90 degree angle, rather than the 45 degree angle of the mesh i'm applying it to, but if that was the cause i'd still expect to see some normal information, albeit a bit wonky, instead of this -

If anyone has any insight as to why this is happening i'd be very grateful!

Ricky_Bobby

Edit:

I've experimented a little bit with a standard cube, and i think the problem has something to do with the brick material, maybe a conflict with the normal maps, because with a standard mat applied to the cube, the decal works correctly

GarethStandfield

have you tried putting the material on in another program too see how it renders there? that should eliminate wether the issue is with the Geo/normal or something going wrong inside Unreal. 

Obscura

That is actually correct. It would overwrite the underlaying normal. If you want both the normal map and the edge damage to show, use half opacity on the edge decal.

JakeGuestArt

I'm actually having the same issue as you and seeing the same results. I can't find an answer to this anywhere either and it's driving me crazy. I'll do another test in the morning, but I'm 90% sure there's a bug with the current version of unreal that's making mesh decals render incorrectly over the top of other normal maps

JakeGuestArt

https://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2747920#Comment_2747920

I think the problem mentioned here is that in the world normal view, its rendering correctly. But in Lit mode, you can see that the normal isn't being applied properly. I'm also seeing the same results in 4.27 where the normals are visible in the visualiser, but are barely noticeable when lit

JakeGuestArt

https://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2747920#Comment_2747920

I've tested this morning with 4.26 and it seems to be the exact same as the OP. The mesh decal itself renders and is visible in the world normal visualiser, but in lit mode, the mesh decal barely holds up at all

You can see the normals from the mesh decal are there, but they aren't rendering the way they're supposed to be

gnoop

Just a guess, I never tried it in Unreal, But based on how it works our engine your decal lacks alpha/ opacity mask and base color and roughness too that would override / block what material is behind it .