Surface Forge 1.0 Quick Look

Download the DEMO

Surface Forge is a cinematic-grade environment surfacing framework for Unreal Engine 5, designed to deliver exceptional visual fidelity, advanced material blending, and production-ready workflows for modern environment creation.

Built around Nanite displacement and high-detail surface rendering, Surface Forge allows artists to rapidly create rich, layered materials across architecture, landscapes, roads, rocks, hero assets, and organic environments with complete artistic control.

The system combines advanced texture blending, procedural environmental effects, and flexible projection workflows into a unified pipeline engineered for both cinematic rendering and high-end real-time applications.

With support for six fully blendable material layers, artists can seamlessly combine surfaces using vertex painting or mesh painting while preserving natural transitions through height-based edge blending and advanced masking systems.

Surface Forge also introduces a fully integrated environmental detailing workflow, featuring procedural puddles, drips, droplets, ripples, snow accumulation, and advanced decal projection systems designed to add realism and depth to any scene.

The shader architecture has been developed from the ground up to fully support Nanite displacement workflows, enabling an unprecedented level of geometric detail while maintaining a streamlined and highly customizable material pipeline.

Whether you are creating large-scale worlds, cinematic close-ups, or highly detailed hero environments, Surface Forge provides a powerful and scalable solution for modern Unreal Engine environment production.

Core FeaturesAdvanced Surface Blending

• 6 Fully Blendable Material Layers
• Height-Based Edge Transitions
• Slope Layer
• Curvature Layer
• Snow Accumulation Layer
• Vertex Paint & Mesh Paint Support
• Paintable Height / Displacement Suppression

Nanite & Displacement Workflow

• Full Nanite Displacement Support
• High Fidelity Surface Detailing
• Height-Based Surface Projection
• POM Silhouette Support
• Self Shadowing POM
• Displacement Edge Masking

Environmental Effects System

• Advanced Puddle Framework
• Surface Ripples
• Drips & Droplets
• Dynamic Wetness Effects
• Landscape Puddle Support

Projection & Mapping Systems

• Triplanar Projection
• World Aligned Texture Projection (WAT)
• Local Projection Modes
• UV Breakup System
• Texture Rotation & Axis Scaling
• Correct Normal Rotation Handling Across All Projection Modes

Decal Forge Integration

Includes Decal Forge 1.2 Procedural Decal System:

• Procedural Decal Placement
• POM Decals
• Shadow Casting POM
• Automatic Surface Alignment
• Precision Projection Controls
• Decal Puddles, Ripples, Drips & Droplets

Technical Highlights

• Nanite-First Shader Architecture
• Optimized Material Instruction Count
• Megascans Friendly Workflow
• ORDp Texture Support
• Modular Material Instances
• Fully Customizable Layer Controls
• Cinematic Quality Surface Rendering
• Production-Ready Workflow Design

Recommended Usage

Surface Forge is primarily designed for cinematic rendering, high-fidelity environment work, and advanced Unreal Engine workflows.

While the system can be used in real-time applications, responsible optimization practices are strongly recommended when working with displacement, POM, and advanced layered effects.

Requirements

• Unreal Engine 5.3 – 5.7
• Mesh Paint Plugin required for Mesh Painting workflows
• Virtual Texture Support required for Mesh Painting functionality
• Vertex Painting enabled by default
• Modelling Tools recommended for bevel refinement and displacement preparation

Ecosystem

Enhance your environments further with:

🔗 Cloud Forge — Cinematic VDB Cloud Framework

🔗 World Forge — Advanced Landscape Auto Material System

Surface Forge 1.1 Update

Surface Forge 1.1 introduces major workflow refinements, expanded material functionality, shader optimizations, and improved Unreal Engine compatibility.

Key Improvements

• Fixed Snow Height Blend functionality
• Improved Snow and Puddle slope masking with full paint workflow integration
• Fixed POM support when Displacement is disabled
• Fixed Displacement-only workflow issues and corrected sampler configuration requirements
• Updated Height and Metallic texture workflows to BC7 / non-sRGB standards where required
• Added fallback support for non-displacement workflows
• Added Emissive support
• Improved color tinting system with new adjustment workflow and material functions
• Added Color Tint adjustment switches for greater material control
• Improved layered material blending stability and painting reliability
• Converted multiple systems to the new Triplanar / WAT workflow
• Removed legacy WAT XY/Z functionality
• Improved texture sampling consistency and shared wrap optimization across material functions
• Added new MF_Weight_Remap utility function
• Fixed subsurface color inconsistencies and improved shader organization
• Updated HDR, Curvature, Alpha, and mask texture workflows
• Improved Virtual Texture and Render Target handling for curvature-based systems
• Added UE5.3 Modelling Tools compatibility
• Added improved Virtual Texture setup support for UE5.3
• Removed outdated interface elements and cleaned internal shader structure

Additional Improvements

• Improved shader consistency and internal material organization
• Refined triplanar and blending workflows
• Expanded compatibility across supported UE5 versions
• General optimization, cleanup, and stability improvements

Supported Versions:
Unreal Engine 5.3 - 5.7

Surface Forge 1.0

Surface Forge 1.0 represents a major evolution of the framework, significantly expanding both its rendering capabilities and environment detailing systems.

This update introduces a complete multi-layer surfacing workflow featuring six blendable material layers, advanced environmental effects, expanded projection systems, and major improvements to displacement and decal rendering.

New Systems & Features

• 6-Layer Material Blending Framework
• Slope-Based Surface Layer
• Curvature-Based Surface Layer
• Dedicated Snow Accumulation Layer
• Advanced Puddle System
• Surface Drips, Droplets & Ripples
• RVT Blending Support
• Enhanced Triplanar Projection
• World Aligned Texture Projection
• Local Projection Workflow
• Edge-Controlled Layer Blending
• Advanced UV Breakup System
• POM Silhouette Rendering
• Paintable Displacement & POM Masking
• Correct Normal Rotation Across All Projection Modes

Decal Forge 1.2 Integration

• Enhanced Parallax Projection
• Procedural Puddle Decals
• Ripple Decals
• Drip & Droplet Decals
• Improved UV Breakup
• Reduced Tiling Repetition
• Shadow Casting POM Improvements

Performance & Workflow Improvements

• Lower Overall Instruction Count
• Improved Layer Blending Stability
• Enhanced Height Transition Quality
• Improved Projection Accuracy
• Better Edge Handling for Displacement Workflows
  
  
  

• Surface Forge 0.7

  Surface Forge 0.7 introduced major improvements to projection workflows and decal rendering systems while expanding compatibility across Unreal Engine versions.

  Features Added

  • Triplanar Projection Support
  • Triplanar Angle Fade Controls
  • Independent Texture Rotation Controls
  • Decal Forge 1.1 Integration
  • Improved Projection Flexibility

  Optimizations

  • Approximately 10% Performance Improvement
  • Reduced Projection Artifacts
  • Improved Texture Alignment Stability

  Engine Support

  • Unreal Engine 5.3
  • Unreal Engine 5.4
  • Unreal Engine 5.5
  • Unreal Engine 5.6
  • Unreal Engine 5.7

  Painting Workflow

  • Vertex Painting enabled by default
  • Mesh Paint support available in Unreal Engine 5.5+