Water Caustics - UE4 Materials 101 - Episode 27

In this week's Unreal Engine Material Editor Tutorial, we create the caustic patterns created by the ripples on the surface of the water and projected down onto the rocks under the water. To create the caustics, we're using a Deferred Decal object with a shader that projects the textures from the top, front, and sides in world space.

Reference footage is from this YouTube video:

Basic Decal Tutorials:

Textures used in this video:

Software for creating caustic textures:

If you haven't already seen them, be sure to watch the other videos in this series:

Shader Book Recommendations
------------------------------

Learn to write shaders in HLSL:

------------------------------

Theme Music
Peace in the Circuitry - TeknoAXE

Background Music
Sappheiros & Almaa - Dreams

[ag]

thank you Ben your shader tutorials are the best and most thorough out there!

[jaumecoll]

Thank you so much Ben, I'm very thankful I found your channel!

[arturrosa]

I've watched many UE tutorials on YT and I must say you are the one that better explains everything. I leave your tutorials with a feeling I really learned something, I didn't just copy what you were doing, and I learned all there was to learn about the topic. Also the fact that you share your files, like in this case, is priceless. You are the best, hands down. Thank you very much.

[mrzd]

You sir have just gained a new subscriber, your videos are very well explained and really easy to follow, thank you!

[piperhillman]

This is so great. I've been looking for something just like this for months

[SenEmChannel]

Wow, i never see decals can project 3 dimensions before. Thankyou for your knowledges

[jesseg.]

Thank you so much!! Thank you for providing the textures as well!!

[reliquary]

I've tried implementing this effect using many methods: Multiple spotlights, various blueprints, other light actors. I noticed a harsh performance hit using those methods and the effect was always hard to scale and hard to get a realistic look. This method is much more lightweight and easily scalable. Thanks for the tutorial!

[_Man_Media]

I already had caustics decal and post process affects from other water stuff, make with the foam man. :) am j/k this was a great watch to learn how to create the caustics myself, loving your shader tuts man I hope your channel catches fire and you start cranking out tutorials for us. Thank you and I look forward to whatever you do next.

[lamlam]

what a excellent tutorial!! good job!!

[saraklein]

Thank You Ben, Your tutorial is so cool!!!

[dimitriskoutris]

Shaders make things look so pretty if u know what you're doing..ty for all this

[wqfrusc]

Thank You Ben！Your tutorial is cool and helped me a lot！

[Christina-spke]

Amazing Tutorial! Thank you so much <3

[compadrelucas]

this 5:30 to 5:36 emissive option is no longer available in UE5. I cant get the decal to work

[moragna]

Wonderful job. Was wondering how to get all the angles covered :) Thanks! Any chance we can address how this will be projected under the Gerstner wave from the last tut?

[DeathWrench]

You can apply this affect to the surface of the water as well, and if you plug in from the node plugged into the emissive, instead into refraction, it gives a cool effect of warping the stuff inside of the water. Just thought I'd share. The water needs to be surface translucent, and instead of the scene color, you use the mask RG from earlier in the video (16:49).

[animruk]

Hi Ben, great tutorial series. Thanks. I'm wondering, do you have a solution for projecting decals in all axis when not using World Position? I'm thinking for decals such as bullet decals or scorch marks (grenade explosions etc) or blood splats. For these types of decals, I always get stretching so looking for a solution if you have one? Thanks

[Wertandrew]

Would love to know if this material can be made in UE5 as well. Settings have changed and blend modes are no longer supported. If anyone knows how to do it with the new nodes (DBufferA?) would love to know

[harlangraves]

I got through everything up to foam but had trouble getting the patterns right with the normal mapping the ocean seems to be smooth except in certain areas intersecting the normals show up.