Billboard Bloom

I was testing with A mixed camera compound as it seems to be a good solution for having both Fixed cameras and tracked cameras in a project.

I came into a problem with the image quality when using the VCams.

I get this weird bloom effect around the actor on the billboard.

I tried everything like disabbling Post Process and lighting entirely in Unreal. I tried lit option in aximetry.

I would have tried the allow virtuals option in aximmetry but that is only available for the tracked cameras. So does that mean virtual camera billboards are always rendered by unreal?

The only thing that fixed the issue was rotating the billboard 180o. But, you know, this means the image is flipped and unusable. (notice the bottle changes from left to right)

How can I get rid of this problem?

AxiTry

Ahmed@Aximmetry

Hello,

can you share with us your Blueprint and your keying settings?

TwentyStudios

I’ve seen this exact same problem with Allow Virtuals turned on. I’m pretty sure that two Billboards are rendered on top of each other, and that the one behind the other is affected by depth of field in UE4. I think this is a bug that showed up recently.

@AxiTry: Virtual Cameras have the option to turn on and off Allow Virtuals. Turning it off should solve the problem since the Billboard isn’t rendered in UE4 then.

AxiTry

Thanks for your replies.

I don't have any blueprints setup affecting the style. I have a Post Process Volume with a simple bloom and exposure setting that I turned on and off and didnt solve the problem. I have enabled with stencils in the project options.

Another person has told me it should be a bug like twentyStudios Said. The problem is I cannot find an otpion to toggle Allow Virtuals in the Virtual camera tab.

I have seen this issue in frantzens video, at 5:10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl1_FLUUUwY

I think this happens, or is more noticeable, when we have bigger lens. On open shots its not noticeable but when I zoom in with SpaceBar+ m1 it shows. There also seems to be an exagerated bloom effect that is tottaly unwanted. You can see it in that video and I had the same happen to me in different shots (input didnt show any light that would cause taht)

I might as well ask one more thing: I wanted to make my virtual lens coincide with the real lens. Using spacebar + Mouse 1 I found refers to the zoom pin in the FOV calculator mode. I change it and the setting in FOV calculator to "Focal Length" but it seems to be the same. How does this work and what is the best way to have the same lens virtual that I have in my cameras?

TwentyStudios

@AxiTry: This artifacts has nothing to do with bloom. It’s due to the focus distance not being set with with the billboard plane in focus. You can get rid of it by setting the focus distance correctly so that the billboard is in focus using ALT + Space + Left Mouse button. Still, I don’t think it should happen even when you set the focus incorrectly.

I think you’re looking in the wrong place for turning off Allow Virtuals. It’s under the Cameras panel in the Cameras & Render Setup control board.

AxiTry

Yup, I was totaly not looking there, Thanks!

akifabuassi

need help

please i need unreal engine for aximmetry old version like 2020 4.2 the new update problem when cooking for windows please please thanks

AxiTry

Hey, again.

I was testing the allow virtuals option with the virtual camera from the mixed camera compound. I have some questions regarding how to have 3D objects cover the talent.

https://aximmetry.com/wiki/index.php?title=Setting_Up_Virtual_Sets_with_Tracked_Cameras

So this document shows that with "Allow Virtuals" off we can have a table cover the talent. I know this article refers to a tracked camera but I will also be using virtual cameras in my workflow.

When I use the virtual camera biollboard with "Allow Virtuals" OFF the talent is always composited on top. Why is it that I can't have it masked out like the article has?

Also whit "Allow Virtuals" ON and using Ligtwrap I can see the blurred edges through objects like in this picture. Is this a bug, a limitaion, or am I being dumb? :p

TwentyStudios

@AxiTry You need to connect the B-Mask pin output from the UE4 scene mode to the appropriate input.

AxiTry

Ignore my last post if you saw it. I found the problem. I left the billboard with a 180o turn and that messed up the masking.

It also seems that the secong billboard aura bug isn't showing anymore (but I can't be sure if it's because of bmask since I had already worked around it)

Also, thanks a lot for helping!

AxiTry

Hey, I am havingtrouble using billboards with a tracked camera.

The Foliage behind is eating up my billboard even though it is placed in front. I have the B mask connected.

The Shaddows are also completly off. Can't adjust with the offsets.

Then if I try using Allow Virtuals the billboard and camera move and it becomes impossible to align.

AxiTry

So, turns out that the Lock to Camera option rotates the billboard 180 degrees and that messes up the masking. Why does that happen? There are situations where I think it would be be usefull.

Zoltan@Aximmetry

Hi all,

Regarding the original question.

I'm pretty sure it's caused by depth of field.

The billboard image itself is not rendered twice, but the depth map is modified under the talent in order to provide a (more or less) correct screen-space reflection, and probably this disturbs the DOF algorithm.

So the solution: either keep the billboard in focus, or use Allow Virtuals = OFF.

PLEASE NOTE: if the DOF worked correctly on the billboard you would see a completely blurred talent in this case. So there is no point of "fixing" this "bug", you still would be forced to keep the billboard in focus.

Offtopic: if you want the DOF effect to (more or less) work on the billboard, check
https://my.aximmetry.com/post/679-how-can-you-enable-dof-for-billboards-ins

Zoltan@Aximmetry

Lock to Camera: unfortunately I could not reproduce the issue.
The Z (blue) axis should point away from camera so that the masking is correct.
And Lock To Camera does exactly that.

TwentyStudios

@Zoltan: When setting the focal distance manually it’s easy to end up with the focal point set “incorrectly” in relation to the billboard. Sometimes this can have creative uses, so it would be useful if we could turn off the Billboard depth map for correct screen-space reflections.

Another suggestion to make setting up focal distance correctly would be to add a function to always keep the billboard in focus, relative to the camera position. The focal distance parameter could instead act as a +/- offset to the billboard focus in this case.

Billboard Bloom

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