Mesh Fade in UE5

2026-01-21 15:56 UTC gpt-5-2-thinking Open in ChatGPT ↗

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in UE5 what’s the best way to make a mesh fade away? I want to do this on the material

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If you want the fade to be driven in the material (best for smooth fades, works on any mesh), the usual “best” approach in UE5 is:

Option A (most common): Dithered fade on an Opaque material (no true translucency)

This keeps the material Opaque (so you keep good lighting/shadows and avoid most translucent sorting issues), but visually fades out using a screen-door/dither pattern.

Material setup

1. Keep Blend Mode = Opaque.
2. In the material, add a Scalar Parameter called Fade (0 = invisible, 1 = fully visible).
3. Plug it into DitherTemporalAA:
   • Add node DitherTemporalAA
   • Connect Fade → Alpha Threshold (or equivalent input)
   • Connect the node’s output to Opacity Mask
4. Set Material → Opacity Mask Clip Value around 0.2–0.5 (taste; lower is “softer” but noisier).

Drive it at runtime

• Create a Dynamic Material Instance and set Fade over time (Timeline/Curve).
• Or use Per-Instance Custom Data / Custom Primitive Data if you’re fading many instances efficiently.

Why this is often “best”

• Looks like a fade, but material stays Opaque (better performance + fewer artifacts than Translucent).
• Great for characters/props disappearing.

Gotchas

• Requires TAA/TSR to look smooth (dither resolves over frames). Without TAA it can look speckly.

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Option B: True fade with Translucent blend (real opacity)

If you need a real smooth alpha (glass-like fade), use Translucent.

Material setup

1. Set Blend Mode = Translucent.
2. Fade scalar parameter (0–1).
3. Multiply your existing opacity (or 1) by Fade, plug into Opacity.

Tradeoffs

• More expensive, can have sorting issues, different lighting behavior, shadows can be limited/odd.

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Option C: Masked fade (no TAA) with animated cutoff (stylized)

If you don’t want dithering/TAA dependence:

• Blend Mode = Masked
• Use a noise texture + Fade to move a threshold:
  • OpacityMask = step( Noise, Fade ) (or Noise < Fade) This makes a “dissolve” rather than a smooth fade, but it’s stable and cheap.

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Quick recommendation

• Want the cleanest general-purpose “fade away” on solid meshes? → Option A: Opaque + DitherTemporalAA
• Need physically smooth alpha? → Option B: Translucent
• Want dissolve / stylized / stable without TAA? → Option C: Masked dissolve

If you tell me whether your material is currently Opaque/Masked/Translucent and whether you’re using Nanite (and if you care about shadows during the fade), I can suggest the exact settings to avoid the common artifacts.