Media Test - De-saturating the Environment

Now that I have decided to have my environment deteriorate throughout the game, I have decided to look into transforming materials and I have been looking at de-saturating them first.

I have spent a long time working on this and been through many tutorials but the one that worked best for me was this one:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/Materials/ParameterCollections/index.html

This involves using a 'master parameter' to adjust the whole environment. First I followed through the tutorial using blank squares to test it out. I managed to get this to work relatively easily:

Here, the coloured squares de-saturated every time I held the right mouse key down. On release, they would return to their original colour. This was very pleasing to see as it had taken me some time to find a relevant tutorial to help me.

After I had done this it was time to apply this technique to my textures. An issue I had was that the coloured squares where instances of each other and so needed no editing, however, my textures would each need to have the required blueprint attached to them.

Finished Result

Once I had figured out how to work it I edited all the material blueprints and manage to get myself a nice effect:

Media Test - De-saturating the Environment

Personal Notes

When it comes to the final piece, I intend to use this feature through a trigger. When a player enters and then leaves a room - the environment will change - right before their eyes. Visually this could be very interesting for the player and provide an effective story telling method. Initial thoughts are having 5 rooms and therefore 5 stages. The next step for this test will be to ensure I can change from one texture to another.