Mobile (and High-End Mobile) Preview Rendering Modes must be activated every time I Play now

Previously, I had to activate preview rendering to see the expected lighting values and material behavior every time I started Editor. Now I must do it every time I “Play” as well or my lighting looks darker than it should during the play session.

Note that if I had enabled preview rendering prior to playing, it will look incorrect during play, but revert to appering correct as soon as I stop the session.

If I had never enabled preview rendering, but enable it during a play session, the preview rendering will stick when I stop. BUT, if I play again, the lighting appears dark again…and won’t appear correct unless I stop or enable the preview rendering again.

Mobile HDR is disabled in my project and this is becoming a REAL pain…plus I wonder how many of the artists are reacting to the incorrect ligthing values.

Hi akira3d,

I ran a test based off the information provided and wasn’t able to reproduce your issue. To test this I did the following:

  1. Open a blank 4.13.1 project
  2. Open project settings and unchecked Mobile HDR as well as auto exposure
  3. in the default scene removed the skysphere and atmospheric fog
  4. added a moveable pointlight, applied a black default material to the floor, and added a cube
  5. Set camera position by pressing ctrl+1 and took a screenshot
  6. changed the preview rendering level to android preview
  7. Played in editor then stopped and took screenshot

RESULT
The preview shading level seemed to persist after playing in the editor

If I missed anything in my test let me know and I can adjust the test as needed! It would also be useful to know if you can reproduce this in a blank project or if this issue only occurs in your personal project.

Here are my screenshots from the test:

Default Shading

Mobile Preview after play

,

Ed

But what happens when you play again? The problem is that you have to enable it when you play again. And I’m not sure if it will make a difference, but I’m also using lightmass baked lighting.

I went back and played multiple times. I also tried different mobile preview levels. My settings never reverted. Do you experience this in all your projects, even a blank project?

If so could you try reinstalling the engine. If that doesn’t fix your issue, could you provide your DxDiag. To do this open your windows command prompt and enter dxdiag

When the window appears save all information and attach the generated file in this post.

,

Note that the Editor’s menus show that mobile preview rendering is active (even displays “Feature Level ES3_1” on the HUD), but the image reverts to the way it looked before I enabled (baked shadows appear darker, specular highlights aren’t as bright) as soon as I hit play.

Another interesting test…I just modified my sky material to display the color red unless the feature level is actually ES3_1…and the sky turns red as soon as I hit play (even though the HUD suggests that it should be Feature Level: ES3_1). The red goes away (revealing the expected sky) as soon as I re-enable preview rendering High-End Mobile. The sky stays correct when I quit, but then turns red as soon as I hit Play again…confirming the behavior I have been noticing.

Note…this isn’t just on my machine…this is on everyone’s machine in my office.

I just ran another test and took a video while I was testing. Video
Please take a look and see if the test is addressing your issue.

The final thing I need to know at this point is if you guys are using a windows machine (if so what OS version this is important because windows 10 seems to be causing quite a few bugs)

Or if you guys are developing on mac (need to know OS for this as well).

Other than that, the only reason I am unable to reproduce your issue is either because the machines in your office are different enough in hardware from my system.

Getting your dxdiag would answer some of these questions for me. To do this open your command prompt and enter dxdiag

When the window appears save all information and attach the generated file in this post.

,

Yes, have been on Windows 10 since late July. link text

Okay, so we put together a machine with similar specs and the exact same OS (build 14393). I still wasn’t able to replicate the issue. Nothing in your system hardware really stands out as an issue. Your drivers are a few months old, but we tested on a machine with the same drivers so I would be surprised if that is it.

At this point I may need to enter the bug report without being able to reproduce it so for me to do that I need you to do a few things.

  1. See if you can reproduce this issue in a blank project. If you can please give a detailed list of steps you took to show the issue in a blank project. (I know this seems dumb but if I can’t replicate the issue I need a list of steps to provide in the bug report to the devs)

  2. Click on verify just to check if there are any issues with your engine (corrupted files).

112852-verify.jpg

Also, as a precaution if that doesn’t catch anything I would still try to reinstall the engine.

If you haven’t guessed, I haven’t had time to try anything new. We’re trying to get our project’s release candidate ready…so that is taking priority over everything now.

That is perfectly fine, just comment here once you are ready. The post will show up in my list of issues and I can start working on the bug report for you.