My gosh, the BEST tutorial. I'm still an UE newbie and the lighting system made me crazy but finally I know now how to light a simple asset with an HDRI and an exchangeable background like in every other 3D software programme 😅 This helped me out big time, thank you SO much!! 🙏
What kind of sphere is that? I tried to put it in Shapes / sphere, and I gave it a chrome material. But it doesn't act the same as yours. Well, when I rotate the angle of the Cubemap, ( Source Cubemap Angle ) it doesn't rotate in my sphere. What sphere did you put and why does it reflect like chrome?
im using a big film back drop i convrted the jpg into a hdri and im trying to use it as a back drop in unreal but i cant seem to get it have you done this before and can you show us how
Hi Alex, There is only one Hdri in my hdri file and I downloaded some Hdri from Hdri Heaven and when I want to upload them, I upload the Hdri and it does not appear at all and gives a red warning
thanks for the tuto; On 5.2 after some fighting; I manage to make the hdri to work (ray was doing nothing, but size at 1000 fix bugs). I also find a way to change the HDR to a sphere (the static mesh in the content was not working at all) Speaking about fireflies, take care that limiting max value will also limit the specular value, if you render in EXR you will notice it.
How use HDRI but without the sky ! I have the BP SKYSPHERE with clouds mouvement, I just want keep the montains from my HDRI but without the sky !? is it possible ?...
Packaging is a whole other thin. I’m not sure why it wouldn’t be packaged by default, but you may have to play with the packaging settings like full rebuild or include editor content.
I am getting hung up on how you made it so your HDRI Backdrop did not contribute any lighting. I followed your steps exactly but turning down my backdrop intensity still impacts my lighting in viewport using Lumen. Any ideas? Thanks for releasing this!
Dear Alex, thank you for your time and effort. I am a beginner and I apologize in advance for my stupid question. I create stories and need only renders. And the HDRI lighting looks great but when I turn off Visible in Geometry (I don't want to render the HDRI itself - only its lighting) the lighting from the HDRI also disappears. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. All the best from Copenhagen, Adam
Nice tutorial! lots of cool tips. In my project I am trying to render my scene with path tracing. The animation sequence starts in darkness and I then need to turn on the reflections and lighting from the backdrop, few light manipulations in sequencer with the hdri background to stay black. I understand there is no way to have reflections without lighting so I need a way to manipulate the plugin intensity from sequencer. Digging in the material I found the parameter array but the values are not named or I am too dumb to figure it out. Should I just try and learn do the skybox myself instead of relying on the plugin? If anyone knows how to pull that parameter into sequencer or any other solution I ll be forever grateful!
exr file does work. unreal treats exr files as textures and hdr files as cubemaps and project them differently. for exr files, you will need a uv-unwrapped skysphere mesh and create an issky material using the exr file.
@@AlexPearce3d I use an editor sphere as a custom skysphere and exr files actually work for me because editor sphere has uv. although I couldn't recall why I keep doing this rather than just use HDRI backdrop or feed an HDR file to skylight. Real time capture? No need to change mipmap settings? I guess old habits die hard.
No the HDRis I’ve been shooting have been from a dslr with multiple brackets which wouldn’t work for drone photography. It is possible to shoot non hdri 360 images from drones, of course and it’s something I could look into.
When I try to use HDRI, it's all distorted unless I use camera projection, but I don't want that. edit: Found the problem. The ones I have were meant to be used with SM_SkySphere mesh.
Do you have the version from the epic marketplace? Of so do you have path tracer checked on? You’ll need to uncheck that if you not using path tracing. If you’re still having issues email is at hello at Lightsailvr dot com and if you can, send some screenshots, ue version number, etc.
If that doesn’t work one trick is to change the extension to .hdr, then import it. There’s probably a texture import preference you can change to make it work as well.
When I change the file format to .hdr, I still encounter the same issue. So far, the only solution I have found is adjusting the Compression Settings 🥴@@AlexPearce3d
Yeah :( for all these issues, I made my own plug in that has HDRis set up in a way, and locked the sun position to where it should be in the HDRi so that you can rotate them both with one slider, etc
![Demystifying the Skylight [Unreal Engine 4 & 5]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BGoaPyfZlYg/mqdefault.jpg)
My gosh, the BEST tutorial. I'm still an UE newbie and the lighting system made me crazy but finally I know now how to light a simple asset with an HDRI and an exchangeable background like in every other 3D software programme 😅 This helped me out big time, thank you SO much!! 🙏
After long time I found a perfect and well explained tutorial. Great Work
Glad to hear that!
this just made my day sir, please keep on doing what you do, grat work!
Very very good tutorial abou HDRIBackdrop in UE5. Thanks!!!
im at 4:35 and the hdri still doesnt light my scene, why do you talk about path tracing on ue5 and not... Lumen??
hi. is there a way to have the volumetric cloud be over the hdri so even thats visible?
Visible in ray tracing doesn't compatible with Lumen ??
When I go to lit I don’t have the option of ray tracing. Why?
What kind of sphere is that? I tried to put it in Shapes / sphere, and I gave it a chrome material. But it doesn't act the same as yours. Well, when I rotate the angle of the Cubemap, ( Source Cubemap Angle ) it doesn't rotate in my sphere. What sphere did you put and why does it reflect like chrome?
I've imported a room hdri and for some reson its flat it's not afecting the skies i cant see the room's roof only the bottom pic
Thank you so much! Big help on a current project I'm on at the moment!
Excellent tutorial, you gained one more subscriber!!
Thanks for the sub!
im using a big film back drop i convrted the jpg into a hdri and im trying to use it as a back drop in unreal but i cant seem to get it have you done this before and can you show us how
I enabled the HDRI backdrop but it's not showing under light
Hi Alex, There is only one Hdri in my hdri file and I downloaded some Hdri from Hdri Heaven and when I want to upload them, I upload the Hdri and it does not appear at all and gives a red warning
thanks for the tuto; On 5.2 after some fighting; I manage to make the hdri to work (ray was doing nothing, but size at 1000 fix bugs).
I also find a way to change the HDR to a sphere (the static mesh in the content was not working at all)
Speaking about fireflies, take care that limiting max value will also limit the specular value, if you render in EXR you will notice it.
Hello, can you update this plug-in? It needs 5.4 and 5.5 versions
How use HDRI but without the sky ! I have the BP SKYSPHERE with clouds mouvement, I just want keep the montains from my HDRI but without the sky !? is it possible ?...
Bro, when I package my project for PC target, the HDRI doesn't export, I have a blue sphere instead of, no background ! What is the solution ?
Packaging is a whole other thin. I’m not sure why it wouldn’t be packaged by default, but you may have to play with the packaging settings like full rebuild or include editor content.
@@AlexPearce3d I tried but no hdr after package game !
Thank you Bro. Nice tutorial. Keep the good work
Thanks!
Thanks so much, Alex for the Video. Explained it nicely. I will bookmark this vedio.
I am getting hung up on how you made it so your HDRI Backdrop did not contribute any lighting. I followed your steps exactly but turning down my backdrop intensity still impacts my lighting in viewport using Lumen. Any ideas? Thanks for releasing this!
Dear Alex, thank you for your time and effort. I am a beginner and I apologize in advance for my stupid question. I create stories and need only renders. And the HDRI lighting looks great but when I turn off Visible in Geometry (I don't want to render the HDRI itself - only its lighting) the lighting from the HDRI also disappears. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. All the best from Copenhagen, Adam
Nice tutorial! lots of cool tips. In my project I am trying to render my scene with path tracing. The animation sequence starts in darkness and I then need to turn on the reflections and lighting from the backdrop, few light manipulations in sequencer with the hdri background to stay black. I understand there is no way to have reflections without lighting so I need a way to manipulate the plugin intensity from sequencer. Digging in the material I found the parameter array but the values are not named or I am too dumb to figure it out. Should I just try and learn do the skybox myself instead of relying on the plugin? If anyone knows how to pull that parameter into sequencer or any other solution I ll be forever grateful!
thank you for the tutorial. and one other thing, can you tell me how you enable the path tracing loading bar?
exr file does work. unreal treats exr files as textures and hdr files as cubemaps and project them differently. for exr files, you will need a uv-unwrapped skysphere mesh and create an issky material using the exr file.
One trick is if you change the extension from exr to .hdr before you import, it will read it correctly.
@@AlexPearce3d I use an editor sphere as a custom skysphere and exr files actually work for me because editor sphere has uv. although I couldn't recall why I keep doing this rather than just use HDRI backdrop or feed an HDR file to skylight. Real time capture? No need to change mipmap settings? I guess old habits die hard.
Hi, does using the HDRI backdrop overrides the Sun and Skylight components with its directional lihjts or do you need to turn them off?
Very helpful and well explained, Thank you
How to hide the reflection and the background and keep only the lighting
vary good tutorial for HDRI, do you try a sphere HDRI pic by drone instead of a dome HDRI ground?
No the HDRis I’ve been shooting have been from a dslr with multiple brackets which wouldn’t work for drone photography. It is possible to shoot non hdri 360 images from drones, of course and it’s something I could look into.
Helpful man! Thanks
When I try to use HDRI, it's all distorted unless I use camera projection, but I don't want that.
edit: Found the problem. The ones I have were meant to be used with SM_SkySphere mesh.
Hi Alex, is your plugin available on the marketplace? Also - interested - when might we use path tracer over realtime/lumen? Thanks!
Ah HDRI plus! awesome. : )
This was very useful! Thanks
Well done! Thanks!!
yea turning off visibility turn off both my back drop and my lights............
Do you have the version from the epic marketplace? Of so do you have path tracer checked on? You’ll need to uncheck that if you not using path tracing. If you’re still having issues email is at hello at Lightsailvr dot com and if you can, send some screenshots, ue version number, etc.
@@AlexPearce3d Good afternoon! I have exactly the same problem, the lights go out!
@@AlexPearce3d but I use lumen
Thanks!
very thank!
Thank you
U DA MAN!
thx
LoL Pic format from HDRI Haven. Photoshop nor Unreal recognize it. Why even bother?
open hdr texture and set "Compression Settings" to default
If that doesn’t work one trick is to change the extension to .hdr, then import it. There’s probably a texture import preference you can change to make it work as well.
When I change the file format to .hdr, I still encounter the same issue. So far, the only solution I have found is adjusting the Compression Settings 🥴@@AlexPearce3d
btw I'm new on UE. so i search on the internet. thats not my solution 😃
You save My ass thanks
With no directional lights on your scene you wont get shadows from your objects.
Yeah :( for all these issues, I made my own plug in that has HDRis set up in a way, and locked the sun position to where it should be in the HDRi so that you can rotate them both with one slider, etc
🙏🙏🙏🙏