Vertex Lighting Plugin for Unreal Engine 5

Easily integrate vertex lighting into your Unreal Engine projects with just a few clicks. This plugin is written almost entirely in Blueprint, offering a flexible and accessible solution for vertex-based lighting.

A lightweight vertex lighting plugin for Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) designed to deliver per-vertex shading light rendering.

This plugin is perfect for developers aiming to achieve:

• Retro game visuals
• Stylized shading effects
• High performance real-time lighting for distant objects

Tip

View the Documentation

Note

If you want more retro features like N64 texture filtering, PSX vertex snapping and PSX like affine, I suggest you to use RetroFX instead. You can download RetroFX by joining EvilReFlex's discord server. If you just need vertex lighting, with some simple additions, then this project is for you.

How to Download and Install

Download the Plugin

• Get the plugin from the GitHub Releases page or by downloading the source code. Install the Plugin
• Place the plugin folder into your project’s Plugins directory. (Create a Plugins folder if it doesn’t already exist.) Enable the Plugin
• The plugin should be enabled by default. However, double-check that it is enabled in the Plugins menu within Unreal Engine.

How to Use

1. Set Up the Plugin

   • In the Content Browser, navigate to the Vertex Lighting Plugin directory.
   • Drag and drop the VertexLighting_Manager into your level.

2. Configure Materials

   • Locate the VertexLights_MaterialFunction in the Logic folder within the Vertex Lighting Plugin directory.
   • Open the materials you want to use and multiply your base color/texture (Input A) with the VertexLights_MaterialFunction (Input B).
   • Connect the result of the multiplication to the Base Color and/or Emissive Color of your material.

3. Add Lights

   • Place a VertexLighting_Light or VertexLighting_Light_Animated actor into your level to add lights.

Demo Level

The plugin includes a demo level showcasing multiple vertex lighting configurations. Experiment with the light settings to get a feel for their functionality and effects.

Credits

Note

Portions of this project are based and improved upon on the vertex lighting implementation originally created by EvilReFlex, shared via Discord.

These parts are used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Modifications were made to adapt his code into a UE5 plugin and to extend its functionality into a way that fits my needs.