How to create a PS1 rendering style shader in UE4

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Introduction

In the past, PSX games exhibited a shaky and wobbly vertex effect, an unintended consequence of the absence of floating-point precision.

psx_shaky_vertices_example

The PSX’s hardware only allow fixed point calculation so when the camera is moving or an object is moving, any given vertex stays in its position until it’s close to the next position and suddenly snap to it, nowadays graphics hardware can interpolate vertices between two positions smoothly thanks to more floating-point precision that is available.

We assume you have already created a clean project ready to test the shader or you already have a project that you want to change its graphic style. At the very least, you should have a mesh with a material applied to it.

Preview

You can download the complete project at the end of this tutorial so you can check it at your own pace, you will find everything documented.


Step 1: Create a material parameter collections

Material parameter collections is an asset that store global parameters (a set of scalar and vector parameters) that you can reference in any material. For example wind direction and strength can be referenced by all foliage’s materials. To read more, check this link.

To create a new material parameter collections asset, in content browser right click and go to Materials & Textures > Material Parameter Collection.

Next add two scalar parameters, Global_PSXEffect_3dGridCellSize & Global_PSXEffect_PixelizationAmount

Hit save and close the window.


Step 2: Create material function

The function PSXEffect_Function returns a vertex offset data; we use it to offset vertices to get the shaky effect. The function also pixelates UV data, we plug the return value in Texture Sample node to have a pixelated texture.

PSXEffect_Function

Notice that we used the parameters we created previously in material parameter collections.

To understand how we shake the vertices, imagine a 3D grid around your mesh, and vertices snaps the closest points in that grid.

Changing the imaginary cell size


Step 3: Add PSXEffect_Function to you materials

It’s easy to add a function to a material. You can add it by left click in the material editor and type the name of the function.

Source File

That’s all folks! Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, drop a comment here or join me on Discord.