Texture debug views?

Development Rendering
1

Hello,

I’m currently playing around with UE4 PBR and was wondering if there was a console command or function that allowed me to debug textures in my viewport. I was hoping to be able to check multiple textures in a similar method to Sébastien Lagarde: GDCE2013 - The art and rendering of Remember Me - PBR Textures validation - YouTube

I’m pretty sure he built those tools in himself and I’d barely consider myself a programmer (only know the basics) so I don’t think I could write my own for a few years haha.

I noticed further down the page that someone managed to get Renderdoc working with UE4, would this help me in this regard?

Edit:
Being a bit clearer, I’m not after the viewmode buffers necessarily, but it’s on the right lines. The thing I’m hoping for is something similar the value debugger (black compared to red&blue in the video) that the DontNod team created in UE3.

Edit Edit:
I found Gbuffer hints under the developer tab in the viewport options. Anyone know where I can edit/extend this in the code?

Thanks for reading,

-Axi

2

Hello!

You can indeed use renderdoc for this, but the simpler way would just be to issue the Vis command in the console if you just want to see a rendertarget / buffer.
VisRT even gives you a new window and some more digestible data.

The workflow is kind of like:
Do Vis to see a list of all targets, find the one you’re interested in and note its ID, then do Vis ID to activate viewing.
Note that you have to update the viewport once before you can see anything (like move the camera in the viewport a bit or something)

I used it quite extensively in [Odessey] Creating my own G-Buffer in UE4 - C++ Gameplay Programming - Unreal Engine Forums
and I think I have some more details about it in there hidden in the wall of text >_>

You can of course also use the Buffer viewer in the top left of the viewport for the more common rendertargets (It says “Lit” by default, but if you click it you get a combo box with most of the relevant stuff for your perusal :D)

Hope this helps :slight_smile:

/Temaran

3

This is perfect but I’m a tad confused with a bit of newbie info. I got the console working perfectly fine in editor while in play mode but is there no way to access it without playing? Is the VisRT window designed to work only with a developer build of a map that you then run through -game?

I’ll have to play around with this, I love UE’s documentation but sometimes finding the right keywords is hard haha!

I’ll also be reading through your posts soon, I had a brief flick through and you really seem to know what you’re doing!

4

You should not have to run in Play-in-editor mode (is that what you mean?). As I mentioned, if you are not in PIE-mode, the viewport does not render unless you change something (move the camera, place something new in the scene etc). So if you do Vis, you then have to force a render somehow to see the Vis picture-in-picture etc.

Yeah, I think Epic is counting on the community to make a lot of the docs :wink: the wiki is awesome for getting info though so I would definitely recommend looking it through: A new, community-hosted Unreal Engine Wiki - Announcements and Releases - Unreal Engine Forums

I’m doing my best to absorb as much as I can from all parts of the code-base… but there is just sooo much T_T

If we all cooperate I think we can really make this engine perfect though :smiley:

/Temaran

5

Ah I see thanks :smiley: I’m gonna be messing around with this over the next few days, most of this is for my dissertation proposal so I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me :slight_smile:

You’ve been a great help thanks!