Lens flares ...... where are they set up?

Community Community & Industry Discussion
1

Hi folks,

I start with a completely empty level.

I throw in a directional light and a sky atmosphere. Nothing else.

When i pan around the viewport i’m getting lens flares.

As far as i know i don’t have any post processing volume or camera set up.

So where are these lens flares coming from (in the software) and where in the UI can i go to tweak them or even turn them off?

Thanks! (sorry for the noob question)

2

OK, so after some experimentation i have worked out the following:

After you start Unreal Engine you’re greeted with “Select or Create New Project” screen.

If you start a project with “Film, Television, and Live Events”, then there are no lens flares and the sun remains a sharp round shape. If you create a camera, it also won’t create lens flares (even if you turn them on), although it *will *create some other FX like grain jitter.

If you start a project with “Architecture, Engineering, and Construction”, then you will have lens flares by default and your sun will also have a more diffuse look. The lens flares can be turned off when viewing the level through a camera.

But that still leaves me wondering: where in UE are these lens flares and sharp / diffuse sun settings? I can’t see these settings anywhere. Neither Google nor UE docs turns up any info about it!

Or are these simply different “engines” and i just need to accept this as a fact and move on?

Thanks, hopefully, in advance!

3

If you don’t have one already, place a post process volume in the scene, the option to enable or disable lens flare is in there, although there’s no other customization options for it.

4

Thanks! …

But if i do these steps:

  1. Go to the “Select or Create New Project” screen
  2. Create new project with the “Architecture, Engineering, and Construction” template.
  3. Create an empty level
  4. Throw in ONLY a directional light & Sky/Atmos

… then i see lens flares, even though there is no post process volume in the scene! (as far as i know)

5

Put in a post process volume if it doesn’t have one and you can control whether lens flares are turned on or not

6

Thanks, that’s kinda crazy, an effect is turned on by default, but is invisible in the UI, you need to create the effect (although it already existed), and then turn it off!
I wasted hours looking for these settings in the UI, searching google, they should fix this trap for young players!

7

It’s the first result when you search “Unreal Engine Lens Flare”

9

Hey man, i appreciate the help … i’ve been using mainly audio software for like 25 years and VFX software for only about a year and i’ve never, in any program, seen an effect or setting that’s ON by default, but is NOWHERE to be seen in the settings or UI. And to turn it off, you need to create the effect (although it was already on), then you can turn it off. A complete time-waster for young players and nowhere is that mentioned in your link.

This problem would be simply solved if they create the post process volume in the outliner when they also create the effect.

Hopefully UE doesn’t contain many of these kind of easter eggs!

10

Thanks for the input. I don’t quite understand what you mean, are you saying that the stock lens flares in UE aren’t any good? I don’t see you my (now solved) problem is related to the quality of the stock lens flares, or am i misunderstanding?

12

Thanks for this thread, I was also struggling to find it. Now I found the answer in 5min :slight_smile: