How do I see the same thing in the Editor and in Standalone? (Postprocessing)

[Ivan3z]

I don’t see the same thing in the editor as in standalone game.
In standalone it looks darker.

I’ve been trying with the exposure parameters but I can’t see the same in editor and standalone

The difference is very big

In the editor it is very bright and in standalone it is very dark.

Having to run in standalone every time I make a change in postprocessing to see if the change is correct is a headache.

How can I fix these problems?

Thank you so much!!

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EDITED:

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For whoever comes after:

The solution is in all the posts down from the answer marked as solution… You must read them all.

[3dRaven]

Unreal exports the game always with epic settings. You would have to override information with execute console commands or through a save / load settings system (you would need to copy the save game over to the packed project)

Switch to epic settings in the editor and see if the published version lines up with the packed.

[Ivan3z]

You mean this? "GameUserSettings?
I saved it in cinematic and I still see it differently than the editor.

It actually looks very ugly. XD

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When I make changes in the post-processing volume there are also changes in “standalone”… but it doesn’t look the same… normally it looks worse… Now there are some strange shadows (and I have everything configured to not cast shadows)… very strange…

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I just found this post… it has some console commands and .INI settings.
I don’t know if it’s what you’re saying, but I’m going to look into it… for now, it’s the only information I’ve found on the subject.

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Hi, We have hit a strange issue that effects lighting only in the build shipping build (not tested dev build yet) The lighting is super dark in the exe and perfect in the editor, play viewport and standalone. It is a VR game and yes lighting will look a bit different but this is a new issue and lighting before was perfect. It appears to be a runtime issue as we have rebuilt the scene from scratch, migrated it, cooked in-game, cooked in build, started a new project and also moved machines with…

Scalability Reference for Unreal Engine | Unreal Engine 5.5 Documentation |...

Thank you so much @3dRaven

[3dRaven]

Are you sure the dark spots on your map aren’t from distance fields?

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[323755-unknown.png] These are just some block outs I’m using but I’m getting these black artifacts around the corners of the mesh, and black splotchy areas on the ceiling. My directional light is movable since I’m using a day-night cycle, so I’m not baking any light. Also, if it makes a difference, these meshes are added in-game during runtime.

If you want a simpler mesh display that is cleaner without extra processing turning off distance fields can help

Makes the scene have a lot cleaner aesthetic

[Ivan3z]

Everything started to look bad when I changed the Postprocessing volume settings… when I had the default settings (without touching anything, everything looked more or less fine)… although with too much light for my taste. That’s why I started to experiment a little with the settings… that way I can learn how it works. And I realized that the editor and Standalone do not look the same.

I have all my mesh materials with everything disabled.

But if I had known before I would have done it from the project settings.

I’m going to do it right now.
Thank you very much for the info!!!

[Ivan3z]

Much better after applying the configuration you recommended in project settings!!

I still see shadows… but they’re not ugly anymore XD

It’s weird… there shouldn’t be shadows anyway.
All meshes has CastShadows=false

I could have sworn I had ambient occlusion disabled beforehand… I think I lost some settings when I downgraded.

[3dRaven]

Maybe a cell shaded approach would fit your games aesthetics?

[Ivan3z]

Finally the post-processing volume was completely broken…

It seems like everything I touch breaks within 5 minutes… XD

Someone should contract me to do software stress testing

[3dRaven]

Try setting exposure to basic

• min = 1
• max = 1

Why Unreal Exposure Matters

or even manual is you don’t have any tunnels / holes in your game where exposure can change then a static value can do.

Note it will only change when you go into brighter / darker areas.

You may be confusing it with gamma settings.

[Ivan3z]

Yes, gamma is much better than exposure.

The bad thing is that it doesn’t look the same in the editor as it does in standalone.

The difference is quite big when you see it up close.
It seems to lack shine and metallicity in standalone (Using Cinematic on both).
And standalone has more shadows…
This is crazy… Adjusting this in this way is going to be a nightmare.

[3dRaven]

Not seeing much of a difference color wise. The specular on the floor will change depending on the sun angle / angle of the camera.

Maybe you’ve got screen space reflections turned off in the editor somewhere?

[Ivan3z]

This happens when I activate reflections (sphere reflection → Rendering => visible = true)

“Metallic” surfaces are dark in standalone.
But they look great in the editor.

[3dRaven]

In your lit settings do you have manual exposure set or use game settings?

[Ivan3z]

That’s new to me…
I had “Game Settings”
I have disabled it and everything has become darker
I already thought that 5 lux was rubbish
In an office, at least 500 lux are needed for proper lighting.

Well, it seems that here with 20 lux it looks correct in the editor

But it’s still not the same in standalone.

[3dRaven]

Maybe try a full rebuild of the lighting from the menu?

[Ivan3z]

Now it looks extremely different in the editor too (Playing vs not playing)

Not Playing:

Playing:

I really like the second one better… I wish I could see it like this everywhere.

[3dRaven]

Try duplicating the map, delete the post proc volume in the duplicate and see if it looks the same in editor and standalone.

I also remember something being different with gamma on render textees between editor and standalone. One was 1.0 the other was at 2.2 or something like that to compensate.

[Ivan3z]

@3dRaven

Maybe try a full rebuild of the lighting from the menu?

I think I have some problem…

It’s been many EU versions since I received the message that I need to rebuild shadows and lights.
I thought it was because I’m using virtual shadow maps

I don’t need shadows anyway.

@3dRaven

Try duplicating the map, delete the post proc volume in the duplicate and see if it looks the same in editor and standalone.

Ok, I’ll get to it.

@3dRaven

I also remember something being different with gamma on render textees between editor and standalone. One was 1.0 the other was at 2.w or something like that to compensate.

Ok

[Ivan3z]

Yes, it looks different.

In the editor it looks like nothing happened (Everything seems the same).

In standalone the materials lost their metallic quality…
It looks like an ugly grey

It seems that I don’t have the light mass project in the engine source code

[3dRaven]

Almost looks like the skylight is missing in standalone.