i recently got a good uproject that i wanna modify that only works in 4.12.5, problem is that older versions of unreal engine 4 have seamingly unstable ui which makes it impossible to work with anything at all, my question here being if there could be any fixes for this problem since its been a constant annoyance for a long time
Why it only works in 4.12.5 ?
I recently dug out all my ancient projects and migrated them all to 4.27, which is the best unreal version. All worked, had slight problems with Dungeon Architect, but made it.
So if you have plugins only in old version, get C++ and recompile it yourself, to 4.27
And yes there are fixes for 4.12.5 they are 4.13 … 4.14 all up to 4.27
project is in 4.12.5 because its a recreation of a build of a game which used this exact version of unreal engine,
as far as my knowledge goes this version of this game used lighting settings which were removed from unreal engine versions after, i may consider migrating to a new version of ue with the risk that stuff will break, (morely lighting),
but ignoring that which version of ue should i migrate to on which the ui wont be unstable and the lighting settings have not changed that much (so the visuals stay accurate),
4.12.5 had many different things for last time.
Are by any chance referring to unreal changing from Deferred to Forward rendering?
I do not remember state of 4.27 in that area, however unreal 5 has most of those problems fixed.
If you gave description of exact things not working anymore there may be some better reply.
Yellow Rubber Duck made summary:
| Feature / Effect | Deferred | Forward |
|---|---|---|
| Screen Space Reflections (SSR) |  |
 |
| GBuffer (World Normal, Roughness, etc.) | |
|
| Advanced Post-Process Effects | |
 Limited |
| Real-time Translucent Shadows | |
|
| Per-pixel dynamic lighting | |
Limited |
| Volumetric Fog | |
(older), (newer) |
| Material-based stylized shading tricks | |
|
state in ue 4.27:
| Feature | Status in 4.27 |
|---|---|
| Planar Reflections in Forward | More stable, usable |
| Pixel Depth Offset in Forward | Improved support |
| Custom Depth / Stencil for Outlines | More reliable |
| SSR in Forward | Still not supported |
| GBuffer Access in Forward | Not available |
| Translucent Shadows in Forward | Still broken/limited |
| Volumetric Fog | Still tied to deferred |
| Reflection Capture System | Performance + quality |
really that chatGPT while dumb at coding is great at making nice summaries:
| Feature / Effect | 4.12 Deferred | 5.5 Deferred | 5.5 Forward Rendering | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GBuffer Access (SceneTexture) | Full |
Full |
Not available |
Forward rendering still lacks direct GBuffer, limiting advanced FX |
| SSR (Screen Space Reflections) | Good quality |
Lumen / SSR |
Not supported |
Lumen is a great SSR alt, but only works in deferred or hybrid modes |
| Translucent Shadows | Very limited |
Better in deferred |
Still limited |
Forward can fake it with tricks, but no full dynamic translucent shadowing |
| Volumetric Fog | Available |
Improved |
Still not fully supported |
Forward still lacks rich volumetric lighting/fog |
| SceneTexture in Materials | Usable |
Usable |
Not supported |
SceneTexture nodes disabled in forward — no stylized effects that rely on it |
| Custom Depth / Stencil | Supported |
Improved |
Supported |
Works across both paths, useful for outlines, silhouettes, etc. |
| Pixel Depth Offset (PDO) | Deferred only |
Deferred + Forward |
Supported (now) |
Now works in forward — useful for soft particles, stylized edges |
| TAA / Anti-Aliasing Options | TAA + FXAA |
TAA / TSR |
MSAA only (by default) |
Forward lacks TSR/TAA by default, but MSAA can be clean for VR |
| Dynamic Lighting Scalability | Limited lights |
With MegaLights |
With MegaLights (exp.) |
MegaLights in 5.5 improves light count — great step forward |
| Planar Reflections | Experimental |
Stable |
Supported |
Available in forward, though performance-heavy |
| Stylized / Postprocess-Heavy FX | Easy via GBuffer |
Best in deferred |
Very limited |
Still a major pain point in forward rendering |
| Shader Complexity View (debug) | Full metrics |
Full metrics |
Not available |
Forward rendering lacks in-depth debug views |
| Lumen Global Illumination | Not available |
Deferred only |
Not supported |
Forward rendering doesn’t support Lumen GI or reflections |
and final table:
| Lost in 4.12+ | Replaced in UE 5.5? | How? |
|---|---|---|
| SSR in forward | Not yet |
Only in deferred with Lumen |
| Full GBuffer access in forward | Still missing |
Use deferred rendering |
| Translucent shadows | Partially |
Improved in deferred, not fixed in forward |
| Postprocess stylization | Half-fixed |
CustomDepth + improved PDO, but not full scene-based FX |
| PDO in forward | Fixed |
Now works in both rendering paths |
| Light count limits | Improved |
MegaLights (experimental) lifts limits |
| Volumetric fog in forward | Still limited |
Deferred still the way to go for full volumetrics |
So after summary spam solution would be. Unreal 5.5.