How to take sharp screenshots in Unreal Engine 5? Here are the steps I take to create sharp high-resolution screenshots. Screenshots taken in Unreal Engine often look blurry. This is because of anti-aliasing that Unreal uses to get rid of jagged edges. Since Unreal Engine 5 this has gotten a lot better but I still think it can be a bit sharper. Here’s how I do it:
In short this is how you take sharp screenshots in Unreal Engine 5:
- Use a sharpen console command
- Use a cinematic camera
- Set Screen Percentage above 100
- Set size multiplier to 2 or more
- Slightly sharpen in photoshop
Let’s dive deeper into these steps:
Step 1: Use a sharpen console command
Use the console and type this command line: r.Tonemapper.Sharpen 2 You can use any other number, I usually don’t go higher than 3 because this will make it look crunchy. To get into the console you can press the “Tilde” key “~” on your keyboard or just start typing i n the box on the lowest bar.
Step 2 : Use a cinematic camera
The high resolution screenshot option in Unreal Engine is influenced by the aspect ratio of your viewport. To make all my screenshot consistent I always use a cinematic camera and make my viewport big enough so there are two black bars at the top and at the bottom of the viewport.
To actually look “through” your cinematic camera you need to “Pilot” it. You can do that by right clicking and selecting “Pilot ‘CineCameraActor'”
Step 3: Set Screen Percentage above 100
Set screen percentage to more than 100. Simply explained this makes the amount of pixels rendered more while still having the same amount of pixels in the viewport, resulting in a sharper overall image. Depending on how heavy the scene is. I keep it anywhere between 120 to 200.
Step 4: Set size multiplier to 2 or more
Now it is time to take the actual screenshot! Like I mentioned earlier we use the “High Resolution Screenshot” Option. I never set the “Screenshot Size Multiplier” higher than 2 or 3 for a portfolio screenshot. The higher you set this option the higher the change that Unreal will crash. Make sure that before you take the screenshot you go into “Game Mode” This option removes all the actor icons and makes the viewport look as it would in game. To go into this mode simply press G.
Step 5: Slightly sharpen in photoshop
This step is not necessary but I still like to do it for that extra bit of sharpness. Once you have your screenshot I like to sharpen it a little bit in Photoshop. Depending on the size of your screenshot you can even downscale it in photoshop to make it sharper. When I do this I use “Bicubic sharper” in the options menu. To get into the image size simply press: “ctrl + alt + i”
Also, I just launched a newsletter. You won’t be hearing from me every week because I just started out but I will promise to send valuable tips and tricks about environment art and 3D.