All of these tests are material based in UE4. Although I have opened and played in UE5 I haven't checked these tests in there yet. Each test (along with many others like Gerstner waves and flames for VR use) has been done over the years to continue to polish my skills and give me things to teach my students that can be useful in production. Creating highly performant FX in engines can be a challenge. One I really enjoy along with my other practices of sculpting and procedural terrains :)
This is an early test of creating a custom cloud shader in UE4 Late 2019. I tried to keep it robust to create a variety of smoke forms and respond to lighting and even cling to forms while keeping 50-70FPs full screen on a 2011 CPU and a 1060 card.
This was early 2020 working on a waves shader test in UE4, main focus was variation over a long length and getting a wetmap to receed behind the wayve. The wave portion was updated further with a faked Navier stokes.
This test also in UE4 with a focus on faking a Navier Stokes look without the calculations. Using hand painted maps for both displacement and shape. This was advancing the research into the wave crest shader and future fluids based texture FX.
I don't like being told things are impossible. Most opionions on torch fire was that it had to be cards or pre-simulated in houdini. This is just a material on cylinder in this test and runs at 120fps and viewable from all angles. And it was fun to make!