Visualizing a simple glass

In the previous recipe, we had the opportunity to create a basic material that followed the physically based approach that Unreal Engine uses to render elements on the screen. We saw how we could potentially create endless combinations by simply using nodes and expressions that affected the roughness and the metallic attributes of a material, letting us achieve the look of plastics, concrete, metals, or wood.

Those previous examples can be considered simple ones – for they use the same Shading Model to calculate how each element needs to be rendered. Most of the materials that we experience in our daily lives fall into that category, and they can be described using the attributes we studied previously. Despite that, there are always examples that can’t be exactly covered with one unique Shading Model. The way that light behaves when it touches glass, for example, needs to be redefined in those cases.

The same applies to other elements...