Hi, I am losing my mind over this, hopefully somebody can point me the right way…
I am trying to make an animation but one of the issues Im facing is getting it rendered properly - in this case I have a BP character that consists of skeletal mesh body and metahuman head attached to the neck socket. Im using imported fbx animation for the body and manual animation for head/face. There is total of 7 characters made this exact way and all but one work. The one that doesnt work will have its body not appear in the final render (via Movie Render Queue), leaving just the head floating around. It seems to work in viewport just fine. Using Path Tracer for both final output and viewport.
Another thing I noticed is that when I orbit closer around this character in viewport in Lit/Unlit modes, his body will strangely flicker on and off (or disappear) under certain angles which doesnt make any sense. Again, under Path Tracer it shows normally. yet, if I render it using Path Tracer via MRQ, the body will disappear.
MRQ goes into PIE. Does it disappear in PIE?
yes, indeed it instantly disappears when I hit Play in editor (but only in Path Tracer. In Lit mode it seems to work just fine)
further investigation shows that it happens also if I use the skeletal mesh only (not as a part of blueprint), which leads me to believe it has something to do with the core skeletal mesh.
One of the most often mentioned solutions I found online has to do with bounds but changing them to virtually any value didnt solve the issue. It still disappears when I hit PIE. I also made sure it has no collisions and no Physical asset.
Any suggestions?
If it’s there in deferred but not in Lit, it could be getting culled from ray trace culling due to wonky bounds, yes. Where the bonding box is offset from the actual geo for whatever reason. You can try and disable ray trace culling as a quick test with the cvar r.RayTracing.Culling 0
thanks for your reply.
Not sure I understand exactly what you mean (Im still kinda new to UE so bear with me) but based on your suggestion I tried using console command r.RayTracing.Culling 0 and hitting play (while viewport set to Path Tracing). Body still disappears. If I set to either Lit or Unlit, it is visible even after hitting PIE.
I opened the skeletal mesh and checked it’s bounds and they are just like they should be, making a tight box around the character.
Just noticed that in Lit/Unlit mode there are two other characters that will have their bodies disappear under certain angles/distance, but not in Path Tracing. I made all of those characters the exact same way so Im little bit confused.
I wonder if its LODs. Can you try and force LOD to 0?
ok I did some further testing. I created a new empty level and dragged the character there (both BP and skeletal mesh side by side). Rocking only a single directional light.
Running it with path tracer works, also as PIE. So if Im correct its gotta be something with the level itself?? In my main level Im using Ultra Dynamic Sky and some spot lights.
Also, orbiting around the character in Unlit mode does not cause any issue…
Another thing I noticed in the original level is that if I delete the character and re-drag it into a scene, it will be invisible in Path tracer viewport too for some reason. only opening another level and going back will make it visible… Im getting more and more confused here
Another update - added all the characters in that new level and now the same problem appears - body disappears in PIE…
Any suggestions?
Tried reimporting the character from scratch, without materials, just simple drag and drop to the empty level (with directional light). Now Im having an issue that its invisible in viewports pathtracing but visible in PIE’s path tracing… exact opposite of the original issue! Tried also creating whole new vanilla project, same problem… just WTF
Its so frustrating it makes me wanna abandon UE altogether because the amount of unnecessary issues it presents on daily basis is making me feel this engine is certainly not a good option for cinematics…