Timeline mesh/model/material transparency in Blueprint?

So I am making a horror game in which it will be necessary to smoothly swap the models of an enemy character the closer you get to it. How would I go about achieving this through blueprints? Is there even a value that would allow me to change the alpha, as it were, of the model/mesh?

Hey Bennick -

I am assuming that you are looking for more of an effect and not the LOD system built into the engine, so ultimately something much more smooth in operation. If your model is already translucent in nature, simply plug in a Scalar Parameter Material Parameter Collection which controls the Alpha of the LERP between 0 = A and 1 = B which is plugged into your Opacity.

If you are wanting to do this effect to an opaque material mesh take a look at this setup but you would need to change the material to masked to get this to work, but it would not change your lighting information.

Thank You

Eric Ketchum

That second setup looks like what I would need, but I have some questions:

How do I find that Opacity Control node that is wired into the multiply at the bottom?

Can I set the opacity of this material to be controlled by my distance to the model it’s attached to?

Hey -

The Opacity Control node is just a Scalar Parameter Node that I named Opacity Control. You could hook up a near camera fade system (see following image) and the model will fade based on camera location. You will probably will want to do a little bit more math to make the transition work exactly like you want to.

You can also leave just the Scalar Parameter and use a Blueprint to get camera distance to object and between two sets of distance values adjust the Scalar Parameter. The Material probably be more efficient if you want to do this on multiple objects.

Thank You

Eric Ketchum

Yep -

Remove the One Minus and plug the Spheremask directly into the Multiply.

Eric Ketchum

Thank you so much! you’ve been incredibly helpful Eric! It looks fantastic!