Description: I have encountered an issue in Unreal Engine 5 where reflections in the scene appear brighter than the actual light source. This problem is particularly noticeable with Bloom and Lens Flare effects.
Steps to Reproduce:
- Create a scene with a SkySphere mesh that includes a fake sun on the material.
- Ensure that the SkySphere mesh overlaps with the “real” sky atmosphere sun.
- Enable Real Time Capture for the SkyLight.
- Observe the brightness of the reflections in the scene, particularly in relation to the emissive brightness of the fake skydome sun.
Expected Result: Reflections should accurately represent the brightness of the actual light source without appearing overly bright or overexposed.
Actual Result: Reflections are significantly brighter than the actual light source, leading to an unrealistic visual experience. Adjusting the emissive brightness of the fake skydome sun in the SkySphere material does not resolve the issue, as it causes overexposure in the environment due to the SkyLight capturing the bright skydome sun on the cubemap.
Additional Notes:
- Increasing the emissive brightness of the fake skydome sun is not feasible when using Lumen, as it overlays bright fake light sources onto the scene, negatively impacting overall lighting.
- Adjustments to the material’s specular settings and disabling the SkyLight do not alleviate the problem.
- The core issue appears to be that the brightness of the fake skydome sun on the emissive material is lower than the brightness of the specular on the directional light.
- The skylight captures the entire texture of the skydome, and a larger, brighter point (the fake skydome sun) results in an excessively bright environment. The fake skydome sun may only be captured occasionally due to the sun’s rotation, which affects its visibility in the cubemap.
Recommended Fix: Investigate the interaction between the SkySphere’s emissive material and the directional light’s specular settings. Consider implementing a way to balance the brightness of the fake skydome sun with the reflections captured by the SkyLight to achieve a more realistic lighting scenario.
