UE5 Landscape Puddles
I struggled finding sources on how to make puddles in landscape materials when I was working on my material months ago. There are guides but for some reason google/Youtube doesn't show them or they are hidden in 5+ year old AutoLandscape Material Content. So here is the best way I found to make them.
This is the result of just painting down puddle layers.
Pro Tip: Make sure to use a alpha brush & adjust the tool strength to paint down puddles. It'll give you more control on how wet the area will end up & where the puddle will be.
Puddle Material gives a natural wetness/Puddle to all landscape textures applied to. You can height lerp it but if you want that level of puddles. But you are better off using Puddle Decals as they have opacity, colour & ripple options.
Side Note:Adam Funari Puddle material is worth looking into for pure cinematic scenes. Use an Alpha Brush for extra control. But I'd personally use puddle decals for cinematic for the same reasons. https://axton.artstation.com/projects/nYeAJe
Adam Funari Material
- A lesser Puddle material
- Noise Mask makes nice puddle shapes.
If you take time to read the documentation you will find handy tips like this one everyone overlooks because it doesn't seem useful. But in this case it is! If Height Blending Make a Alpha Blend Layer (DoNotUse) which will fix the blending issues with UE.
Updated: New Material
BEST: New Puddle Material
Update 1: Small overall improvement. Better off actually using a constant & setting it to 0.
Update 2: Improvement to blending with Rock textures. Grass textures e.t.c. Require less tool strength.