Unreal Engine: Cliff and Rock Shader with Tileable Textures

Learn how to create a game-ready shader for use with rock meshes inside of Unreal Engine. With a full breakdown and follow-along style tutorial, create your own shader to use in games and personal projects. Follow along in real-time with full explanations to help understand how the shader is being put together. This tutorial is created using Unreal 4.27, but all information is still applicable for use in Unreal Engine 5.

Skill Level:

This tutorial can be used at any skill level, but assumes a basic understanding of 3D content creation and how to navigate software. The techniques discussed in this tutorial are used in many studios throughout the games industry and can be useful at any skill level.


This tutorial covers:

- Setting up base materials in Unreal Engine

- Object scaling

- How to use tileable textures for large assets

- Blending between multiple materials using masks

- Setting up a flexible and user-friendly shader

- Practical use of Material Functions inside of Unreal

- Creating and packing masks in Substance Painter

Software used:

- Unreal Engine 4 (4.27)

- Photoshop

- Substance Painter

- Quixel Bridge

(Although the software above in some cases requires purchasing, all the instructions in this video can be achieved with free software. Channel packing (in Photoshop and Substance Painter can be achieved with gimp and Quixel bridge, and asset masking can be created with Quixel Mixer)