lighting effect in ue4

melviso

How can this lighting shaft  be created in ue4?

I am aware you can do this with direction light but is this possible for a emissive material? and in this case it would be a point or spotlight. I have some lights embedded in the ceiling and they should have this volumetric effect. Or is this best done using mesh with alpha maps always facing the camera?

leleuxart

If you're referring to the lens flare, then there is no specific way to do them right now since UE4 doesn't have a standalone Lens Flare editor anymore. Common practice is to use a particle sprite that is camera facing, similar to what they did in the Infiltrator demo and in Unreal Tournament levels. There is also a Lens Flare blueprint/material setup on the Marketplace, but it's a bit tricky to use and you can only see it in game due to them being UI. That might not be an option for you. 

melviso

Yes, I would need it to show in the viewport, as I would be rendering out an animation using ue4 sequencer. By particle sprite, you mean a mesh with alpha maps? How would I make it always face the camera though?
I found this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciqcUlqZgcs
Could this be used to fake the effect? Here a cylinder is used but for what I am trying to achieve, a plane would be sufficient?

Obscura

What you are showing there in the video, is more like a volumetric light effect, that happens when the air has a lot of dust or some other particles - dense fog for example... What you are looking for, is a lens effect.

To make a plane facing the camera, you can do this:

https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Resources/Showcases/Stylized/Materials/index.html

To make it changing shape, fading out etc, you can use the angle between the camera and the mesh, or you could make a soft mask using the screen coordinates.

melviso

Thanks Obscura. Ue4 is really sort of technical to get certain features that aren't part of the engine mainstream. Coming from archviz with offline renderers, its a bit challenging but makes it interesting. In a production setting, might be a bit of a hassle but we learn everyday and get better.

John Baxter

It'd be nice to be able to get this effect on specular reflections. I wish Epic would implement a lens flare/bloom editor.

musashidan

If you look in the Content Examples>Level Design map>there is a 'Godray' volumetric BP setup that might be of use to pick apart.

melviso

musashidan said:

If you look in the Content Examples>Level Design map>there is a 'Godray' volumetric BP setup that might be of use to pick apart.

Will check it out, thanks mate

John Baxter said:

It'd be nice to be able to get this effect on specular reflections. I wish Epic would implement a lens flare/bloom editor.

Yeah but they are doing a lot to make the engine better. It almost a good choice for archviz. Hopefully soon, this would be added. Can't imagine what will come with ue5.

John Baxter

If anyone is watching the GDC livestream they revealed this feature called "FFT Bloom." Sounds like they're going to implement it at some point in the next year.

melviso

John Baxter said:

If anyone is watching the GDC livestream they revealed this feature called "FFT Bloom." Sounds like they're going to implement it at some point in the next year.

That's good news.