This is just a nightmare to work with the circle DoF after using Gaussian for years. Its like I have no control for it at all, I cant do same nice blends from cinematic camera to field camera etc, this limited control Circle DoF just…argh.
I dont need the small boost in quality it offers over Gaussian, the usability means much more to me. Point of focusing in games is to set focus on things and for that Gaussian worked perfectly fine, not to make everything visually more gimmicky, which Circle DoF is, just a visual gimmick with no gameplay functionality.
I recently upgraded to 4.25, then migrated a perfectly working project that heavily relies on Gaussian blur to create a nice depth effect, and just noticed the functionality is gone. It was also working at a perfect 60 fps before on a moderate PC, so I have to agree with the following:
- A Boost in performance/quality over an easy straightforward solution does not seem beneficial, especially if you no longer have the option to choose between the 2 options
- RDG seems quite complicated to achieve such a simple task
- Removing such a heavily used technique with no easy alternative will surely be frustrating for many developers.
Just so we are a clear, is this why my Near Sighted Glasses effect using GaussianDOF has broken when I tried to upgrade my game to 4.24?
I use to set the Method to GaussianDOF and now I just don’t see. I guess I’ll see if it’s possible to achieve it wit Circle…
+1 that upgraded to 4.24 last week and got frustrated with the removal of GaussianDoF. There’s no control at all.
Please Epic, return the option.
this doesn’t look significantly simpler
Yeah this just straight up broke stuff in my project. I dont see why, is the PC not strong enough to use mobile depth of field?
The “better” pc dof that costs more performance is worse quality anyways since it doesnt play nice with translucency.
I’ve been struggling with this for months… cine camera actors simply can’t do what Gaussian blur so easily could. I want to be able to force an ‘in focus’ range and heavily blur everything else.
Here I am 5 months later and there aren’t any solutions. Maybe someone could create a plugin for the marketplace?
Same issue, still no solution for that. Define a focus area, blur everything else. It was really simple with the gaussian DoF, now it’s not possible at all, to e.g. fake a tilt-shift effect.
Update: Gaussian blur can be implemented like that as a custom node:
https://www.raywenderlich.com/57-unr…toc-anchor-006
… But I haven’t tried that yet, I guess that it won’t work in current engine version…?
… Maybe this combined with some depth distance masking could serve as a workaround for the lack of gaussian DoF.
Not sure about the HLSL, that’s outside my skill set, but that link looks to be more like a 2D blur, not a distance based gaussian blur. It might be possible to create what we want, but I don’t know.
For the meantime, I’ve added a cine camera and tweaked the focal/aperture settings as finely as I can to reproduce the effect I so easily (and flawlessly) got with the old gaussian blur. It’s not really a solution, because no matter how much I tweak it, I can’t make it perfectly sharp exactly at the distance and range I want, but it’s good enough for now to be able to move on to something else.
Well, I came all the way here just to say more of the same: Bring back the gaussian DOF.
Came here to bump this and echo what you all have said, we really need a simple gaussian DOF blur. The new lens blur is just to complex and limiting artistically.
Another bump of said request. Whenever I do a simple cinematic, I miss gaussian DOF. If it can’t be brought back for whatever technical reasons, please proivde a simple, working (!) alternative.
Bump.
I started my project in 4.26 having been away from UE4 for a good few versions. Having made a lot of progress on mechanics, I’ve started working on the cameras, and was disappointed to see how difficult it is to use DoF now, and seemingly impossible to do anything more stylised such as a tilt shift effect.
It’s been over two years now and we still don’t have a Depth-of-Field solution that is actually usable for games.
CircleDOF still has artefacts and is reliant on Temporal AA to filter those out, and it’s still impossible to use DOF to create the same effects that Gaussian was capable of (for example, only blurring items close to the camera and nothing beyond that).
Can we please get back our beloved, simple, always-there-for-us Gaussian?
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I’d really love access to Niagara and 4.26’s warp/deformer tools…but alas I’m stuck on 4.22 because removal of Gaussian DOF has completely ruined the look of my stylized side-scroller where the setup is “Keep Camera Far Away” and 25 FOV - with Gaussian DOF to blur the Background 
Been stuck with these old tools for 2 years now. When I upgraded a copy of the project to 4.26 it just completely ruins the effect with the removal of Gaussian DOF…
Is there a way to just copy over the old camera source code? or create a custom camera type?
I think @TheJamsh hit it on the head - there’s no DOF meant for actually making games. CineCameras are great for very specific needs but aren’t a sufficient replacement for Gaussian DOF.
I’d love to get some input from Epic on this… is it even on the radar? Will it appear in ue5? What’s the suggested solution, aside from being stuck in 4.22? I’m feeling pretty ignored on this one.
Unfortunately it’s not that simple nor maintainable. The rendering architecture has changed to a new system called RDG (Render Dependency Graph) that has no documentation outside of a (admittedly comprehensive) presentation linked in a prior reply to this thread. In 4.24 at least, it also still had several issues (though those seem to have since been resolved).
So many people want this back, but RDG/rendering-related changes are complex and anybody who is fortunate enough to be versed in it is almost certainly going to be too busy elsewhere. It’s also far too easy for somebody with less experience to go about it in a non-optimal way. Render programming is finicky.
My real problem with these changes is that it would have taken Epic relatively little effort to port it themselves, and it represents a recurring theme where changes made to appease/further the cinematic/film industry have caused irreperable damage to the games side. This has happened more than once. I understand the need to progress, time-contraints, maintence concerns and the limits to backwards compatibility etc etc. but this feature in particular could easily exist alongside the new DOF method.
I also still maintain that CircleDOF is largely useless for games, aside from pre-determined cinematic sequences. It’s reliance on Temporal AA is also a hindrance for games.
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Even if this is a loss couldn’t we use previous version of the engine to export our projects in these and then use Gaussian dof on there. Surely some features of the later version will be missing but that’s the price to pay I guess…
Bump.
Gaussian DOF is also very useful if you are trying to replicate an anamorphic lens, as you can simply change the bokeh shape to create a convincing effect.
With CircleDOF, you have to install an architecture visualisation plugin, and either accept that you will lose 50% of your resolution, or you will have to double your resolution to maintain your original resolution. None of this was necessary with Gaussian DOF, just change the bokeh shape, and off you go.
By the way, if anyone knows how to achieve this effect in UE5, please let me know.
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