Unreal Engine 5: An Extensive Guide to Post-Processing and Camera Features for Game Developers

Most of the terms and concepts that we’ll discuss here today are not specific to Unreal Engine, but are foundational elements used in photography and cinema. However, my advice will be geared more towards game development. This guide will not make you an expert on the subject, but should provide enough fundamental information to build upon. After this tutorial, I suggest checking lighting setups or finding images of scenes you enjoy from movies you like, and try to understand what kind of settings might have been used in these scenes. You can also visit cinematography forums and ask for other people’s opinions on exposure and other settings to gain a better grasp. Some terminology found in ‘PostProcessVolume’ is quite repetitive, so I won’t be explaining the same thing over and over again if I’ve already covered it. (For example, what ‘midtones’ means. You can find this term mentioned several times under the different options). So, with that being said, if you’re ready, without further ado, let’s get started!

Bloom

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Description: Used to enhance the brightness and glow around light sources. When used, it makes the light sources appear softer, and more radiant. So in other words, when activated, your light sources would be shining more or glowing brightly.

    Where/when to use?:

  • Can be used to create a dreamy or ethereal look or to add a sense of warmth and atmosphere, especially when capturing scenes with light sources like the sun, street lamps, or candles.
  • Can be effective in scenes where you want to convey a soft, magical, or romantic mood.

    Adjustable Parameters:

  • Method (Standard vs Convolution Standard): Default way of how UE5 handles bloom execution vs a more complex method involving combining two functions to create a third to be used to apply effects or filters to renders.
  • Intensity: Self-explanatory.
  • Threshold: A lower threshold includes more pixels, resulting in a stronger and more widespread bloom effect, while a higher threshold limits the effect to only the brightest areas of the image.
  • Convolution Scatter Dispersion: A higher dispersion value creates a softer and more diffused bloom, whereas a lower value confines the bloom more tightly around the brightest areas.
  • Convolution Kernel: Is employed in the process of creating the glow effect associated with bright areas in an image. Can be used to blur the image, emphasizing the bright areas and creating a halo-like effect around them.

Exposure

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Description: Exposure is one of the key factors deciding how light or dark an image will appear in the render.

  • “Higher exposure” => “More light can enter the lens” => “Brighter images.”
  • “Lower exposure” => “Less light in the camera lens” => “Darker images.”
  • If a render is too bright, it means the scene is overexposed. If a scene is too dark, it means it’s underexposed.

    Adjustable Parameters:

  • Metering Mode (Auto vs Manual): Auto mode adjusts exposure automatically using Unreal Engine but sacrifices some finer control options available under the ‘Camera’ settings. Manual mode grants access to features like shutter speed, ISO, etc., found in the ‘Camera’ settings, so you have a finer control over your image.
  • Exposure Compensation: Allows you to manually override the camera’s calculated exposure. For example, if you use ‘Auto Exposure Histogram’ in auto mode and find that Unreal makes the scene brighter than you prefer, you can decrease the exposure compensation value to make it darker, and vice versa.
  • MinEV100 and MaxEV100: These features refer to the minimum and maximum exposure values measured in EV100 units. A lower MinEV100 value means the camera can handle lower light levels while still producing a usable image without being underexposed. Suppose you’re interested in creating a night scene or your renders take place in dimly lit environments. You would look for a camera with a lower MinEV100 value (e.g., around -4 EV) because it indicates the camera’s capability to handle low-light conditions without significant underexposure. A camera with a higher MinEV100 value (e.g., -2 EV) might struggle to capture clear images in very dark settings. A higher MaxEV100 value indicates that the camera can work well in brighter conditions (such as sunny open skies) without losing detail due to overexposure. A camera with a higher MaxEV100 value (e.g., +16 EV) can handle bright highlights, preserving details in both bright and shadowed areas. Contrariwise, a camera with a lower MaxEV100 value (e.g., +12 EV) might lose detail in very bright areas of the scene.

Chromatic Aberration

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Description: Chromatic aberration is an optical phenomenon that occurs when a lens or optical system fails to focus different wavelengths (colors) of light to the same convergence point. This results in color fringing or blurring around the edges of objects, especially noticeable in high-contrast areas of an image.

    Where/when to use?:

  • If you are after a vintage or artistic look in your games, this feature can evoke a sense of nostalgia or mimic the characteristics of older lenses.
  • Also a good fit for gritty or immersive looks.

    Adjustable Parameters:

  • Start Offset: This setting determines where the chromatic aberration effect begins to take effect relative to the center of the screen. For example, setting the Start Offset to a positive value will delay the start of the chromatic aberration effect from the center towards the edges of the screen. Conversely, a negative Start Offset value will shift the beginning of the effect towards the center of the screen.
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Dirt Mask

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Description: Self-explanatory.

Camera

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Important note: Some of these options are only accessible when the exposure is set to manual under the ‘Exposure’ settings, as mentioned above.

Before we even begin to dive into what the terms below do, it’s very important to grasp that Shutter Speed, ISO, and Aperture (F-stop) all affect the brightness of the image. They are not independent of each other, and that’s very important to keep in mind.

  • Shutter Speed: Is basically the value that decides how long a camera spends taking a photo. Long shutter speed = camera sensor gets a lot of light thus bright images, vica versa. Another thing to note is, a faster shutter speed (like 1/500 or higher — a shutter speed of 1/500 seconds, ( We would just enter “500” as the value in the Unreal Engine camera settings) freezes motion (to capture fast-moving subjects without blur, commonly used in racing games, etc.) for example to capture the crispness of water droplets in motion, while a slower one can create motion blur. Employing slow shutter speeds (like 1/30 (Just 30, in UE5) or slower) to intentionally create blur in moving subjects, conveying a sense of motion or fluidity, often used in artistic or night photography or to capture light trails from moving cars. In low-light situations, use a slower shutter speed to allow more light into the camera, but be aware of potential motion blur unless the camera is not moving in the scene.
  • ISO: Defines how sensitive the camera’s sensor is. Lower ISO settings are used in brighter conditions for clearer, smoother images while higher ISO settings are better for low light conditions but be aware, this can introduce noise or graininess in the photos. The higher the ISO speed, the more light-sensitive it is.
  • Aperture(F-stop): Refers to the opening in a camera lens that controls the amount of light entering the camera. A smaller F-stop number corresponds to a larger aperture opening, allowing more light to enter, and and vice versa. Additionally, aperture affects depth of field (The distance range that looks clear/sharp in a photo).
  • Number of diaphragm blades: Blades influences the shape and appearance of out-of-focus areas in photographs (also known as Bokeh). Higher number of blades produce rounder and smoother bokeh, especially when the aperture is wide open/aperture value is low. (For example; shooting at a low F-stop like f/1.8).) More diaphragm blades generally lead to more pleasing and natural-looking bokeh, with smoother transitions between in-focus and out-of-focus areas.

Some Reference Values (Not set in stone! These values can vary based on specific lighting conditions, desired effects, and the type of camera and lens. Experimenting with these settings will help you understand how they impact the appearance of your renders!):

  • Bright Sunny Day Landscape:
  • Shutter Speed: 1/250s
  • ISO: 100
  • Aperture: f/11
  • Explanation: A fast shutter speed (1/250s) to capture detail without motion blur, low ISO (100) for minimal noise in bright conditions, and a narrower aperture (f/11) for a sharper focus across the landscape.
  • Indoor Portraits:
  • Shutter Speed: 1/125s
  • ISO: 400
  • Aperture: f/2.8
  • Explanation: Slightly slower shutter speed (1/125s) to allow more light for indoor settings, higher ISO (400) to compensate for lower light levels without introducing too much noise, and a wider aperture (f/2.8) for a soft background blur while keeping the subject in focus.
  • Nighttime Cityscape:
  • Shutter Speed: 2s
  • ISO: 800
  • Aperture: f/4
  • Explanation: Longer exposure (2s) to capture light in low-light conditions, moderate ISO (800) for sensitivity without excessive noise, and a moderate aperture (f/4) to balance depth of field and light intake.
  • Sports or Action Photography:
  • Shutter Speed: 1/1000s or faster
  • ISO: 800–1600
  • Aperture: f/4 or wider
  • Explanation: Very fast shutter speed (1/1000s or faster) to freeze motion, higher ISO (800–1600) for sufficient exposure in fast-action scenes, and a wider aperture (f/4 or wider) to allow more light and maintain a fast shutter speed.

Local Exposure

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    Adjustable Parameters:

  • Highlight Contrast Scale: How intense the contrast (difference between light and dark areas) is in the brightest parts of an image or scene should be. Increasing this scale makes the bright areas stand out more.
  • Shadow Contrast Scale: Same thing to ‘Highlight Contrast Scale’ but for dark areas. Adjusting this scale affects how distinct the darker details appear.
  • Detail Strength: How pronounced the fine details are in an image. Increasing detail strength enhances the visibility of textures and small elements, making them more noticeable.
  • Blurred Luminance Blend: How different light levels (luminance) are blended together, especially in areas that are intentionally blurred. It affects how smoothly the light transitions between different parts of the image.
  • Blurred Luminance Kernel Size Percent: This setting controls the size of the area used for blurring light transitions. A higher percentage means a larger area is considered when applying the blur effect, impacting how soft or subtle the light transitions appear.
  • Middle Grey Bias: This is about adjusting the perceived brightness level of the mid-tones (neither too bright nor too dark) in an image. Changing this bias can make the middle areas of the image appear lighter or darker overall.

Lens flares

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    Adjustable Parameters:

  • Bokeh Size: Refers to the size or scale of these blurred shapes. Bokeh (appearance of out-of-focus areas in photographs) is the aesthetic quality of the out-of-focus areas in a photograph or image. To underline it again, it’s often characterized by soft, blurred circles or shapes. When adjusting bokeh size, you’re essentially controlling how large or small these blurry circles or shapes appear in the background or foreground of your scene. Larger bokeh size means bigger, more prominent blurred shapes, while smaller bokeh size means smaller, subtler shapes.
  • Bokeh Shape: Bokeh shape refers to the form or style of the out-of-focus areas created by lens effects. In traditional photography, bokeh shapes can vary based on the lens design (such as circular, hexagonal, or other polygonal shapes). In UE5, adjusting bokeh shape allows you to customize the appearance of these blurred elements. You might be able to choose different shapes for the bokeh, influencing whether the out-of-focus highlights or lights in your scene appear as circles, polygons, or other defined shapes, adding a unique visual style to your graphics.

Depth of Field

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Description: Depth of field refers to the range of distance in a photograph where objects appear acceptably sharp. It’s a key concept in photography and is determined by Aperture, Focal Length (Underneath the ‘Camera’ Settings), and Distance to Subject.

Using a shallow depth of field can isolate a subject from its background, making it stand out prominently. On the other hand, a deep depth of field can be used to ensure that both foreground and background are in focus, useful for landscapes or architectural photography.

    Adjustable Parameters:

  • Sensor Width (mm): The size of the virtual camera sensor in millimeters. A larger sensor size generally allows for more pronounced background blur (bokeh).
  • Squeeze Factor: Relates to anamorphic lens effects. Anamorphic lenses squeeze the image horizontally before it’s recorded. The squeeze factor adjusts how much this image is squeezed, impacting the final look of the scene — often used for cinematic effects like lens flares and distortion.
  • Focal Distance: The distance from the camera where objects are in sharp focus. Objects nearer or farther from this distance become progressively more blurred.
  • Depth Blur km for 50%: Controls the depth of field blur’s intensity based on distance. It specifies the distance in kilometers where objects start to become noticeably blurred. The ‘50%’ indicates how much blur is applied at that specific distance.
  • Depth Blur Radius: Determines the size of the blur effect applied to objects that are out of focus. A larger radius means more blur, creating a softer transition between what’s in focus and what’s not in focus in your scene.

Color Grading

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Description: The process of adjusting and enhancing the color of a video or image. It involves modifying the colors, contrast, saturation, and brightness to achieve a desired look or mood. This process can correct color imbalances, create a specific atmosphere, and ensure visual consistency across scenes.

    Adjustable Parameters:

  • Temperature Type (White balance vs Color temperature): This setting directly controls how colors are represented in your renders by adjusting the overall color balance to make whites appear neutral, thus more realistic results. Cameras and our eyes can be tricked by different light sources. For example, sunlight and indoor lighting can give off different tints. White balance corrects for this to make sure colors in your renders look natural. Temperature option specifically refers to adjusting the color temperature of the light in your photos, usually measured in degrees Kelvin (K). Lower temperatures (e.g., 2000K-4000K) produce warmer tones (more yellow/red), while higher temperatures (e.g., 5000K-7000K) produce cooler tones (more blue). Mostly use the adjust the mood of the scene.

    Examples:

  • Warm (Low Color Temperature): Use lower color temperatures (around 2000K-4000K) to create a warm, cozy atmosphere. This is great for sunset scenes or indoor shots with incandescent lighting.
  • Neutral (Mid-range Color Temperature): Use medium color temperatures (around 4000K-5500K) for a neutral, natural look. This is suitable for most daylight conditions.
  • Cool (High Color Temperature): Use higher color temperatures (above 5500K) to create a cool, bluish atmosphere. This is useful for capturing scenes in shade or on cloudy days, as well as for achieving a “cool” effect in your photos.
  • Tint: The balance between green and magenta tones in your renders. It’s a fine-tuning setting that allows you to correct any unwanted color casts or to creatively adjust the overall color balance of your images.

    Examples:

  • Green to Magenta Balance: The tint adjustment slider typically ranges from a green tint (-100) to a magenta tint (+100).
  • Green Tint (-100): Moving the slider towards the green side adds more green to the image, shifting colors towards a cooler tone.
  • Magenta Tint (+100): Moving the slider towards the magenta side adds more magenta to the image, shifting colors towards a warmer tone.
  • Correcting Color Casts: Use the tint adjustment to correct any unwanted color casts (unintended color shifts in a photograph or image that give it an unnatural or tinted appearance.) in your photos. If your render appears too green due to fluorescent lighting, you can adjust the tint towards magenta to neutralize the green tint. If your render has a magenta hue under certain lighting conditions, you can adjust the tint towards green to balance out the color.

Global

    Adjustable Parameters:

  • Saturation: Self-explanatory.
  • Contrast: How intense the contrast (difference between light and dark areas) should be.
  • Gamma: Gamma correction is a technique applied to images to adjust the overall luminance and color balance, primarily affecting midtones (the areas of an image that are neither very dark (shadows) nor very bright (highlights)) while preserving highlights and shadows.
  • Gain: Refers to the overall brightness or intensity of the colors in the image. Increasing the gain makes the image brighter and more vibrant, while decreasing it makes the colors darker and less intense.
  • Offset: Offset controls the balance of the colors in the image. It shifts all the colors uniformly towards a particular tone or hue. For example, adjusting the offset towards blue will make the overall image appear cooler, while shifting it towards red will give a warmer tone.)

Shadows

    Adjustable Parameters:

  • ShadowsMax: This setting helps control how far shadows are cast from objects and influences the overall quality and performance of shadow rendering in a scene.
  • Midtones: They typically encompass the areas of an image that are neither very dark (shadows) nor very bright (highlights). Midtones contribute to the overall exposure and contrast of an image, affecting its perceived brightness and detail.
  • Highlights: Highlights are the brightest parts of an image, containing the areas where the most light is reflected or emitted. They often represent light sources, specular reflections, or bright surfaces. Properly exposing highlights is crucial to avoid overexposure or “blown out” areas in an image.

Misc

    Adjustable Parameters:

  • Blue Correction: Adjusts how the color blue is captured or displayed in an image. Sometimes, cameras can pick up more or less blue than what is natural to the scene. This setting allows you to fine-tune or correct the blue color to make it look more accurate or appealing.
  • Expand Gamut: Gamut refers to the range of colors that a camera can capture or display. When you “expand gamut” in a camera setting, it means you’re adjusting the range of colors that the camera can handle. This can be useful for capturing more vibrant or wider ranges of colors, especially in scenes with a lot of color variation.
  • Tone Curve Amount: The tone curve is a tool used to adjust the brightness and contrast levels of an image. By changing the “tone curve amount,” you’re essentially controlling how strong or subtle the effect of this adjustment is. Increasing the amount will make the changes more pronounced, while decreasing it will make them more subtle.

Note: You can also implement a color grading LUT here. (LUT stands for Look-Up Table, which is basically a mathematical formula used to map one set of colors to another, transforming the colors of an image or video to achieve a desired look.) I am planning to make a separate tutorial about it since it’s not as simple to implement as in other video editing softwares; therefore, I won’t dive into that here.

Film

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    Adjustable Parameters:

  • Slope: Adjusts the color and brightness of the shadows and highlights. When you adjust the slope, you’re controlling how smoothly or abruptly the colors change from shadows to highlights.
  • Toe: Controls how dark the darkest parts of your image can get. It’s like setting the limit for how deep your shadows can go before losing detail.
  • Shoulder: Adjusts how bright the brightest parts of your image can be. It sets the upper limit for how much light your highlights can have before they start to lose detail.
  • Black Clip: This determines the darkest point in your image. Anything darker than this value will be pure black.
  • White Clip: This sets the brightest point in your image. Anything brighter than this value will be pure white.

Global Illumination

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Description: Global Illumination refers to the indirect lighting (light that doesn’t come directly from a light source but instead bounces off surfaces before reaching the subject. For example, sunlight entering a room and reflecting off walls to illuminate objects indirectly.) in a scene that comes from bounced light (This refers to light that hits a surface and then reflects or “bounces” onto another surface or subject.). Global Illumination simulates how light bounces off surfaces and affects the overall lighting of a scene, making the environment feel more realistic by capturing subtle lighting interactions.

    Adjustable Parameters:

  • Method (Lumen vs Screen Space): Dynamic reflections that use advanced techniques like ray tracing to accurately simulate how light reflects off surfaces in real-time. Lumen reflections are high-quality and physically accurate, but they can be computationally expensive.
  • Screen Space Reflections (SSR): This method calculates reflections based on what is visible on the screen. SSR is efficient but has limitations, such as missing reflections for objects not currently visible on screen or in certain angles.

    Lumen Global Illumination Menu Options:

  • Lumen Scene Lighting Quality: Adjusts the overall quality of the global illumination solution. Higher quality settings result in more accurate and detailed indirect lighting but may impact performance.
  • Lumen Scene Detail: Controls the level of detail in the indirect lighting calculations. Increasing this setting can enhance fine details in indirect lighting but may also increase computational cost.
  • Lumen Scene View Distance: Determines how far Lumen’s global illumination is computed and visible in the scene.
  • Final Gather Quality: Refers to the quality of the final gather process, which contributes to the accuracy of indirect lighting.
  • Max Trace Distance: Sets the maximum distance that rays are traced for global illumination. Rays beyond this distance will not contribute to the indirect lighting.
  • Scene Capture Cache Resolution Scale: This setting controls the level of detail (resolution) used for storing and recalling indirect lighting information in a scene. Increasing this scale improves the quality of indirect lighting effects but may also require more computing resources. Decreasing it reduces the quality but can be more performance-friendly.

Reflections

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Description: Global Illumination refers to the indirect lighting (light that doesn’t come directly from a light source but instead bounces off surfaces before reaching the subject. For example, sunlight entering a room and reflecting off walls to illuminate objects indirectly.) in a scene that comes from bounced light (This refers to light that hits a surface and then reflects or “bounces” onto another surface or subject.). Global Illumination simulates how light bounces off surfaces and affects the overall lighting of a scene, making the environment feel more realistic by capturing subtle lighting interactions.

  • Methods: Lumen vs Screen Space
  • Adjustable Parameters: Maximum number of times that a ray of light can bounce off surfaces and reflect before it stops being traced in a 3D rendering or ray tracing process. Increasing the number of reflection bounces allows for more complex and realistic lighting effects, especially with reflective surfaces like mirrors or shiny materials. However, higher bounce limits can increase computational demands and rendering times.

Rendering Features

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Description: Global Illumination refers to the indirect lighting (light that doesn’t come directly from a light source but instead bounces off surfaces before reaching the subject. For example, sunlight entering a room and reflecting off walls to illuminate objects indirectly.) in a scene that comes from bounced light (This refers to light that hits a surface and then reflects or “bounces” onto another surface or subject.). Global Illumination simulates how light bounces off surfaces and affects the overall lighting of a scene, making the environment feel more realistic by capturing subtle lighting interactions.

  • Adjustable Parameters:
  • Post Process Materials: Self-explanatory.
  • Ambient Cubemap: This setting allows us using a precomputed cubemap texture. By using an ambient cubemap, you can add subtle environmental reflections and lighting variations to surfaces in the scene, improving overall visual quality and depth. To understand what this option actually does, first, we should know what ambient lighting does. Ambient lighting represents the general, indirect illumination that fills a scene. It includes light that has bounced off surfaces and is not directly coming from a specific light source. A cubemap is a special type of texture that captures the environment from all directions (like a cube surrounding the scene). It contains pre-rendered images of the surrounding environment. In Unreal Engine, setting an “Ambient Cubemap” allows you to specify a cubemap texture that will contribute to the ambient lighting of the scene. This texture is used to simulate the reflection and bounce of light from the environment onto surfaces, enhancing the realism of indirect lighting.
  • Ambient Occlusion: (AO) is a shading technique used in computer graphics and rendering to simulate how ambient light is blocked or occluded by nearby objects and surfaces. It can simulate the soft shadows and shading that occur in areas where objects are close together or surfaces are enclosed. AO also does darkening, where objects meet or where surfaces are close together, to enhance the perception of depth and realism in a rendered scene.
  • Ray Tracing AO: Simulates the effect of indirect lighting by tracing rays of light to determine areas that should be darker due to reduced ambient light, resulting in more realistic shadows and shading in a scene.
  • Motion Blur: Self-explanatory
  • Translucency (Raster vs Raytracing): In raster (traditional) rendering, translucency is approximated using various techniques like alpha blending, which can result in less realistic light transmission through semi-transparent surfaces. With ray tracing, translucency is calculated more accurately by tracing rays of light through semi-transparent objects, resulting in more realistic light refraction and absorption effects.
  • Ray Tracing Translucency: Refers to the simulation of light transmission through translucent materials using ray tracing techniques, which accurately calculate how light interacts with and penetrates semi-transparent surfaces, producing more realistic visual results compared to traditional raster methods.

Film Grain

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  • Adjustable Parameters:
  • Film Grain Intensity: The overall strength value.
  • Film Grain Intensity Shadows: The strength of film grain specifically applied to the darker areas (shadows) of the image.
  • Film Grain Intensity Midtones: The strength of film grain applied to the middle range of tones (midtones — the areas of an image that are neither very dark (shadows) nor very bright (highlights)) in the image.
  • Film Grain Intensity Highlights: The strength of film grain applied to the brighter areas (highlights) of the image.
  • Film Grain Shadow Max: The maximum darkness level (shadow intensity) at which film grain will be applied.
  • Film Grain Highlights Min: The minimum brightness level (highlight intensity) at which film grain will start to be applied.
  • Film Grain Highlights Max: The maximum brightness level (highlight intensity) at which film grain will be applied.
  • Film Grain Texel Size: The size of the simulated film grain particles (texels) in the image, affecting the coarseness or fineness of the grain appearance.
  • Film Grain Texture: The actual texture or pattern used to simulate film grain, which can vary in appearance and detail based on settings like texel size and intensity.
  • Where/when to use?:
  • Can evoke a nostalgic or vintage feel, reminiscent of older film photography. Use film grain to add character and authenticity to your photos, especially if you want to recreate the look of classic films or vintage photography.
  • In some cases, film grain can enhance the atmosphere or mood of a photo. For example, adding grain to a moody or dramatic black-and-white image can amplify the emotional impact and create a raw, artistic effect.
  • Film grain can also be used balancing smooth tones; making the transitions between colors or shades appear more organic and less digital.

Path Tracing

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Description: Path tracing is a rendering technique that simulates the behavior of light rays as they interact with objects in a scene. This method is used to achieve highly realistic and physically accurate rendering results, particularly for generating lifelike images and visual effects.

  • Adjustable Parameters:
  • Max.Bounce (Default: 32): Controls the maximum number of times a ray can bounce around the scene before it is terminated. Each bounce represents a reflection or refraction of light. Increasing this value can result in more realistic lighting effects, but will also increase rendering time.
  • Samples per Pixel: Determines the number of samples (rays) cast per pixel during rendering. More samples per pixel generally lead to smoother and less noisy images, particularly in areas with complex lighting or materials. However, higher sample counts also increase rendering time.
  • Max Path Exposure: Controls how much light can accumulate along a ray path before it is considered overexposed (too bright). It helps prevent overly bright areas in the rendered image by limiting the amount of light that can contribute to a pixel’s final color.
  • Reference Depth of Field: Depth of field refers to the range of distances in front of a camera where objects appear in focus. This setting allows you to specify a focal point and adjust the amount of blur (or bokeh) applied to objects that are not at the focal distance. It’s a key feature for achieving realistic camera effects.
  • Reference Atmosphere: Enables the simulation of atmospheric effects such as haze, fog, or other types of aerial perspective. It can enhance the depth and realism of outdoor scenes by adding atmospheric scattering and coloration based on the distance of objects from the camera.
  • Denoiser: Used to reduce noise (graininess) in rendered images. Path tracing can produce noisy results, especially with lower sample counts or in complex scenes. The denoiser analyzes the image and smooths out noise while preserving detail, resulting in cleaner final renders.

Post Process Volume Settings

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  • Adjustable Parameters:
  • Priority: Determines the priority level of the post-process volume compared to others in the scene. (If you have multiple post-processing effects in the scene). Post-process volumes with higher priority values will take precedence over those with lower values when they overlap or intersect in the scene.
  • Blend Radius: Specifies the distance over which the effects of this post-process volume blend with other volumes in the scene. When a player or camera moves into or out of the volume, the blend radius defines the area where the transition between post-process settings occurs smoothly.
  • Blend Weight: Controls the strength or intensity of the post-process effects applied by the volume. A blend weight of 0 means no effect is applied, while a blend weight of 1 means the full effect is applied as defined by the volume’s settings.
  • Enabled: Toggles the activation of the post-process volume.
  • Infinite Extent (Unbound): Allows the post-process volume to affect the entire scene without any boundary limitations. When enabled, the volume’s effects are applied across the entire level, disregarding physical volume boundaries. Useful for global post-process effects or when you want consistent settings throughout the entire level or game world.

Final Words

I tried to explain everything in simple terms as much as I could, but if you think there are any areas that could use more examples, feel free to comment or share your knowledge about the subject in the comment section below. That aside, if you think this tutorial was useful, please consider supporting me on Patreon, regardless of the amount. I enjoy writing these types of tutorials, but they take a significant amount of time to do. With that being said, good luck with your project!