Disable rendering objects.

tuxmask75

Hey guys. I have a few questions concerning rendering objects in UDK
Is it possible to disable rendering select objects in the world editor?

Alliteratively is it also possible to select what ob jets are rendered in a scene reflect actor?
Really need to be able to do this. Haven't found a thing about this anywhere.

Oniram

if you're going into game mode then setting the objects display properties to Hidden will hide it only when in game. id suggest just hiding what you dont need when you make your scenecap actor (if you plan to make it static). not sure if they have channel properties like lights but if they do that could be a way to toggle whats rendered.

tuxmask75

Yeah, going for realtime reflections, also wont be using the SceneCaptureCubemap actor.
Just the flat one.
wonder if there is any way kismet can do some of this ?

tuxmask75

hnmm perhaps I should try and explain what I'm attempting to do here,
I have a world, and within the world, reflections reflect another environment,

In the illustration we have a lake, and some red buildings off in the distance, but if you peer into the lake, you can see a sort of bad future with dilapidated buildings reflecting back at the player.

I think this could be done easily with making a new model upside down and do a transparent texture for the lake.
(however some other effects that need to be applied to this, they wont work out.........

i wonder if there is a sort of portal reflection feature that could be used over in another section of the level that can feed back to the material editor)
or could we connect a non player camera to the ScreenPos material expression?

sprunghunt

tuxmask75 wrote: »

i wonder if there is a sort of portal reflection feature that could be used over in another section of the level that can feed back to the material editor)
or could we connect a non player camera to the ScreenPos material expression?

use a scene capture actor.

You place one of these in the level and it creates a bitmap you can use as a reflection on your water material.

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/RenderToTexture.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ImageBasedReflections.html
http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/DevelopmentKitGemsCreatingDistortedReflection.html

to be clear - you can put a scene capture actor in a different level, then use it to make a bitmap you put on the water in your other level.

Xoliul

You can't have a static bitmap for dynamic reflections, so your idea won't work, Sprung.
What you could do, is just create the "bad future" part of the level elsewhere, out of regular sight. The position the scenecapturereflect where the lake would be in the bad future, but have the "real future: lake use the reflected image instead. Not so hard, hope i'm clear. just look up scenecapturereflect with water and then do some thinking.

sprunghunt

Xoliul wrote: »

You can't have a static bitmap for dynamic reflections, so your idea won't work, Sprung.

.

you can make a static image from a dynamic cubemap - right click on a render target and select "create bitmaps" It'll make a cubemap image that doesn't change.

It's pretty much what you were suggesting. But you don't need to have the geometry actually present in the level anywhere.

tuxmask75

Thanks guys, seems the tutorials did the trick(well sort of). i was able to use the SceneCapture2DActor to do what i needed, ( could successfully use the second camera to project the texture correctly to the material.

however i would rather use the SceneCaptureReflect Actor in my shader, the only way i could hook it up in the shader to work was by, hooking up mask (R G) and ScreenPos,
It only seems to use the main viewport camera ScreenPos,
Couldn't for the life of me find how to add a second camera's ScreenPos to the shader.

sprunghunt

tuxmask75 wrote: »

Thanks guys, seems the tutorials did the trick(well sort of). i was able to use the SceneCapture2DActor to do what i needed, ( could successfully use the second camera to project the texture correctly to the material.

however i would rather use the SceneCaptureReflect Actor in my shader, the only way i could hook it up in the shader to work was by, hooking up mask (R G) and ScreenPos,
It only seems to use the main viewport camera ScreenPos,
Couldn't for the life of me find how to add a second camera's ScreenPos to the shader.

Have you thought about using a 3D cubemap instead of a 2D texture sample?

tuxmask75

Yeah the 3d Cubemap does not align properly, its all over the place when the camera moves around

sprunghunt

tuxmask75 wrote: »

Yeah the 3d Cubemap does not align properly, its all over the place when the camera moves around

what vector are you using to align the cubemap? are you transforming it to the world?

using a camera vector to align a 2d bitmap will only work from one angle.

Xoliul

Cubemaps don't work very well when reflecting on a flat plane, Sprung. If you'd compare reflected rendertargets aith a cubemap rendertarget you'd see a big difference in realism. It has to do with the fact that a cubemap captures from a single point and a reflected texture from a plane.

Parkar

Have you tried to use the portalscene capture actor? Basicly make it so that the reflection is infact a portal to a upside down version of your scene? Should be similar to the trick with having the upside down version under the water.

Note that I have not tried to use the portal one my self but I think it acts similar enough to the relfection one to work.