Dirty lens effect in post process?

[ryanjon2040]

Hi all,

Is it possible to create dirty lens effect using Post Process Chain? So when i look at lights the effect shows. Similar to Battlefield 3 lens effect. If its possible can you post how to do this? Screenshot of material will help

[Whiteout]

Heres a video on it http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/...ht=lens+effect, not sure if he can help with a tutorial on it. I just started to look into rain and debris etc..so I don't know too much yet

[TheAgent]

So i tried it out in the Post Process Chain, its not perfect (darkens the scene). However, here is what I came up with.



Material must be set to UNLIT

Put it LAST in the Post Process Chain



And here is a quick Preview



Here is the texture



Download of the Package : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21544275/PPDirtyLens.upk

[Whiteout]

Ya looks ok. So basically same for blood splatter, dirt, snow, rain drops etc.. Just need to fig. out how to activate it when needed. I will post something also if I can find it, it must be in kismet or the uc code I would think...

[Whiteout]

Ohh I meant to ask, I haven't tried your chain yet, but I assume you plugged your created material/chain to the "world post process chain" with no script work? Anyways I will have to look in the activation when needed tomorrow night...eg so the rain starts and stops when needed...emerging from water to get a wet camera look etc....or may need some help with it myself in a couple days!

[TheAgent]

Well dirty lens effect will always be present, in terms of activating and deactivating : http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Devel...n Unrealscript

[darthviper107]

I think that might be something you would do in the lens flare material

[Whiteout]

Thx and also some reference at the bottom of this page http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/PostP...UserGuide.html Controlling effects through Kismet and or script. Definetlly a tutorial is needed on this! see where too from this.....It must be done in the player controller like the sniper Tut...I'm not sure if you actually go into camera properties under lens effects like I thought in the first place, from readind a udn page..anyways done for tonight...K makes a little more sense with the kismet examples with the below link fron "agent" t.y.

[TheAgent]

There is a tutorial on it, I just posted one of many....

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Devel...n Unrealscript

Or

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/Devel...ssEffects.html

[micahpharoh]

eg so the rain starts and stops when needed...emerging from water to get a wet camera look etc....or may need some help with it myself in a couple days!

You can control post process through kismet by using matinee if you use a scalar (or vector) parameter in your material.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR-NaruqDIs

[ryanjon2040]

So i tried it out in the Post Process Chain, its not perfect (darkens the scene). However, here is what I came up with.



Material must be set to UNLIT

Put it LAST in the Post Process Chain



And here is a quick Preview



Here is the texture



Download of the Package : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21544275/PPDirtyLens.upk

Thank you very much TheAgent....Am using that same texture from OF!

[ryanjon2040]

So i tried it out in the Post Process Chain, its not perfect (darkens the scene). However, here is what I came up with.



Material must be set to UNLIT

Put it LAST in the Post Process Chain



And here is a quick Preview



Here is the texture



Download of the Package : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/21544275/PPDirtyLens.upk

I downloaded your package and used it. This is the result i get. Am using the same material you gave me without any changes. Post Process chain has no other nodes except Material Effect with your material applied. Am using March 2012 Build.

[Count_de_Money]

I understand that for stuff like rain and blood you need to use the script, but for specific BF3 lens dirt look, is there any specific reason why you shouldn't use just regular lens flare element. From the some of the vids I could find it looks like those.





Jordan Walker from Epic was kind enough to share source files from that Street Fighter Redux scene for learning. Package also comes with material for Lens flares he used that contains screen dirt effect. I haven't looked at that material for some time, but IIRC the trick was by using ScreenPos node for the dirt texture which makes it static on the screen (without this your "dirt particles" would pan over screen based on the angle). Then it got multiplied to SphereMask to block out part of the texture that should be seen on the screen.

http://mutantspoon.com/Bathhouse

Also I think BF3 actually uses 2 settings for dirt effects, one on top of the source (equivalent of 0.0 position for flares in UDK, ones from that package come with this setting) for point lights, spot lights:



and from those vids for the Sun flare, it looks like they do radial falloff of the texture based on the camera angle. I guess you would have to modify material for this, so SphereMask part would have to be changed to something that radially blocks the texture.
However for a start you could just set position to 1.0 which would do opposite edge of the screen effect like on this pic.

[micahpharoh]

You can control post process through kismet by using matinee if you use a scalar (or vector) parameter in your material.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YR-NaruqDIs

I know that you can do it in the UDK and make it very convincing. Take a look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfBNMPMrJb8

It looks like they even used the same texture that TheAgent provided.

[TheAgent]

Its not the Lens flare that causes the dirty-ness, its already there. Just need to get where the light is in order for the dirty lends effect to show.

@ryanjon2040 : You only have one node which is my node in there. It will look partially inerted because i rely on the other nodes blacks to prevent that. If you make the post process chain look just like mine, in the picture I provided, it will look fine.

@Count_de_Money : I'm gonna take your advice and try something else with sphere mask and see if that helps as well. Instead of Inverting the scene and using that as a mask.a

[ryanjon2040]

@ryanjon2040 : You only have one node which is my node in there. It will look partially inerted because i rely on the other nodes blacks to prevent that. If you make the post process chain look just like mine, in the picture I provided, it will look fine.

Hi Agent...Changing the Constant value from 1 to 0 (Connected to B input in Lerp) fixed the black colors.

[TheAgent]

I suppose that works as well haha.

[ryanjon2040]

Here is a video!

[Whiteout]

Ya, I thought I'd give one a go tonight with a random texture, basically about the same results as what you have in the vid. above. Was trying a few things ended up using additive instead of opaque(and I think it solves the darkening of the screen that the agent was talking about but you may have to make some other minor tweaks)....same results. Good for short screen effects, I wouldn't want them on the screen for long....see if I can come up with anything interesting during this week/nights...

[Whiteout]

Anyways I thought I would start some kind of water emergance like in CryE 3.. At least some kind of fade, dissolve, running down screen or combination. I'll see what I can do with it over the next week...I haven't seen too many vids using it......http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lCbg...vXeKc4WMf30%3D

[ryanjon2040]

Anyways I thought I would start some kind of water emergance like in CryE 3.. At least some kind of fade, dissolve, running down screen or combination.

That's cool.....

[Dralex789]

Not sure if anyone was wondering, but it is possible to link it to your bloom (http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/...amorphic-Quest) . Not plugging my own stuff here, just thought it may help someone out. I have seen it done with traditional lens flare utility in UDK quite well, mostly by accessing the screen UVs (look at the HLSL when your screen texture is called in a material based post effect), then use another lens flare texture (some blur or whatever) to bring in the dust. If anyone still wants to see it done that way let me know and Ill create a quick example

[ryanjon2040]

Not sure if anyone was wondering, but it is possible to link it to your bloom (http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/...amorphic-Quest) . Not plugging my own stuff here, just thought it may help someone out. I have seen it done with traditional lens flare utility in UDK quite well, mostly by accessing the screen UVs (look at the HLSL when your screen texture is called in a material based post effect), then use another lens flare texture (some blur or whatever) to bring in the dust. If anyone still wants to see it done that way let me know and Ill create a quick example

Hello Dralex789...I saw this on polycount forums and am interested how you did that. Can you put a quick example?

[Dralex789]

For using a traditional UDK lens flare actor? Or for what I'm doing over at polycount. I can do the first one quickly, the second one will have to wait, but in short, I am taking my Bloom, plugging in a flipped version and using that to mask in the dirt.