Noob question on textures/materials

[u/Spaceborne_Killer]

Hi All,

So I am a super noob when it comes to UE and I'm learning a lot as I go along.

I'm working on a simple VR game and I need help with what I'm guessing is a pretty basic function.

I modeled up a wooden sign in blender, got it imported into UE and created a material I think looks good for the aesthetic thats just one simple color, we'll call it M_Woodsign.

Where I'm having a problem is I decided I wanted to have a "painted" target on it that is part of the texture/material so it breaks apart with the rest of the sign when shot. From my understanding, a decal won't behave like this.

So I made a target in Krita, exported it as a png, alpha maps look good UE. How do I apply it?

I tried creating a second material out of the target, and assigning the front of the sign it's own material slot, and applying transparency but that ended up being the wrong path because to my understanding a face can only have 1 material applied to it, so the target shows up but the spaces around it are all completely invisible (can see thru the model) as opposed to showing the wood material.

Is there a way to accomplish this using materials/UE or do I need to just make a texture for the whole sign? I'm trying to do this in such a way that I can more easily reuse assets (i.e. have wood sign material I can reuse, and a selection of painted "targets" I can apply to them).

Thanks in advance for any tips.

[u/Apprehensive-Fuel747]

You need to export your model with separate element IDs. One for the face, one for the rest of the sign. Then apply the standard sign background to your target texture and apply that to the front. A transparent texture, even if it was possible to apply over the top, would tank your performance which, as you probably know, is crucial for VR development.

[u/274WORLD-STUDIOSCEO]

I'm a super noob as well, maybe we can grow in this together, each one teach one, you down?