Unreal 4 River Water and Waterfall 02
Water material and Waterfall created for Unreal 4. River water mesh was created initially using a spline actor which was then exported over to 3D Max where I changed UVs to line up rather than repeating in the same UV-space. Then I created a round pool area with radiating geometry shapes and created a 2nd UV set for it. Once it was brought back into Unreal 4, I set up the material to switch between UV sets based on Vertex Paint colors (alpha for the UV set) then I utilized the remaining 3 vertex paint colors to set which parts of the river were among the following 3 types - central river flow, slower side ripples, edge foam.
This is not a lightweight material setup though by any means.
**This is an update on my original river, now utilizing a sphere reflection capture. On the plus side it does vaguely create a darker area for reflected objects relative to the sphere reflection.
On the downside, it does not remain accurate for the entire length of the river. Additional Sphere Reflection actors either do nothing or completely override the original rather than subtly adding capture detail in different areas. This only applies with Translucency. Doing the exact same setup with an opaque material yields flawless reflections - this is a translucent-specific issue, so if you don't have to make your water partly clear (like ocean) then don't do so until Epic updates the translucent reflection behavior.
I should also mention that the general engine behavior in regards to reflection captures is highly erratic with translucency. I suggest doing "Build" AND "update captures" AND saving your map then using Simulate or Play to actually see the results. The default preview editor window does not always update accurately to the translucent reflection behavior. Also, it appears that placing sphere capture BELOW the water CAN help - but again, it's erratic. Sometimes update of reflection captures will be spot on, other times no. Sometimes it will work in Play, but NOT in Matinee Movie capture.
Node setup large:
http://i.imgur.com/vdJezWe.jpg
Node setup closer up:
http://i.imgur.com/s6IGw51.jpg
That should give a basic idea of how the material is setup. There's obviously a lot that you can't see in those images, but the general premise is pretty obvious.
I am doing some things with camera-distance and position to change opacity and I am using Depthfade to dial down foam as it gets too far from edge areas.