Devlogs - jonathanlinat/unreal-engine-psx-sandbox-project GitHub Wiki

๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฑ-๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฑ-๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿด: Strip more rendering features for PSX style

โ€” Montrรฉal, QC, Canada

I decided to investigate further and continue removing as many unnecessary default rendering features as possible, aiming to start from a clean slate before applying PSX-inspired features and limitations to the project.

I recreated the project from scratch and removed all the default variables listed under the [/Script/Engine.RendererSettings] section of the DefaultEngine.ini file. Next, I used the Project Settings within the Unreal Editor user interface to disable most unnecessary rendering features.

Finally, I made additional manual adjustments by editing the DefaultEngine.ini file directly.

Here is the complete list of variables:

[/Script/Engine.RendererSettings]
r.AnisotropicMaterials=0
r.AntiAliasingMethod=0
r.DefaultFeature.AmbientOcclusion=0
r.DefaultFeature.AmbientOcclusionStaticFraction=0
r.DefaultFeature.AutoExposure=0
r.DefaultFeature.Bloom=0
r.DefaultFeature.MotionBlur=0
r.MSAACount=1
r.Nanite.ProjectEnabled=0
r.Nanite=0
r.PathTracing=0
r.RayTracing=0
r.ReflectionMethod=0
r.TemporalAA.Quality=0

Some more detailed explanations for the declared variables:

Variable Description
r.AnisotropicMaterials=0 Disables anisotropic material filtering
r.AntiAliasingMethod=0 Disables anti-aliasing
r.DefaultFeature.AmbientOcclusion=0 Disables ambient occlusion
r.DefaultFeature.AmbientOcclusionStaticFraction=0 Disables static fraction ambient occlusion
r.DefaultFeature.AutoExposure=0 Disables auto-exposure
r.DefaultFeature.Bloom=0 Disables bloom (glow around bright areas)
r.DefaultFeature.MotionBlur=0 Disables motion blur
r.MSAACount=1 Disables multi-sample anti-aliasing
r.Nanite.ProjectEnabled=0 Disables Nanite virtualized geometry for the project
r.Nanite=0 Disables Nanite globally
r.PathTracing=0 Disables path tracing renderer
r.RayTracing=0 Disables ray tracing features
r.ReflectionMethod=0 Disables advanced reflection methods
r.TemporalAA.Quality=0 Disables temporal anti-aliasing

After saving the changes, I restarted the editor to applied them.

[!NOTE] Related commits:

Related resources:


๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฑ-๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฑ-๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿณ: Strip rendering features for PSX style

โ€” Montrรฉal, QC, Canada

The project has been created! Since I'm aiming to recreate a retro-style, PSX-inspired sandbox game, I wanted to remove unnecessary rendering features provided by Unreal Engine.

Most of these features are controlled in the DefaultEngine.ini file, located in the project's Config directory.

The section to edit is [/Script/Engine.RendererSettings]. This is where I modified various engine variables to disable unwanted features:

Variable Description
r.DefaultFeature.AmbientOcclusion=False Disables ambient occlusion
r.DefaultFeature.AmbientOcclusionStaticFraction=False Disables static fraction of ambient occlusion
r.DefaultFeature.Bloom=False Disables bloom effect
r.DynamicGlobalIlluminationMethod=0 Sets global illumination method to 0 (disables)
r.Lumen.HardwareRayTracing=False Disables Lumen hardware ray tracing
r.MSAACount=1 Sets MSAA sample count to 1 (disables MSAA)
r.PathTracing=False Disables path tracing
r.RayTracing=False Disables ray tracing
r.ReflectionMethod=0 Sets reflection method to 0 (disables)
r.TemporalAA.Upsampling=False Disables temporal anti-aliasing upsampling

After saving the changes, I restarted the editor to applied them.

[!NOTE] Related commits:

Related resources:


๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฑโ€๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฑโ€๐Ÿฎ๐Ÿฒ: This is the beginning of something big โœจ

โ€” Montrรฉal, QC, Canada

Today marks the official start of my journey into game development using a modern engine.

For over 15 years, I've worked as a Software Engineer, building enterprise-grade Web applications. While I've enjoyed my career, the truth is, I've always been a gamer at heart. Ever since childhood, gaming has been a constant source of joy and inspiration. Now, as a husband, father, and professional, I've decided to take a leap and pursue something I've dreamed about for years: creating games.

What drew me in? Retro gaming. Over the past few years, I've fallen in love with the PSX aesthetic. It all started when I hooked up my Raspberry Pi to my TV and began emulating classic PlayStation games years ago. That magical combination of low-poly models, pixelated textures, and atmospheric limitations had an undeniable charm. I couldn't get it out of my head.

In my spare time, I've been exploring modeling tools, experimenting with level design, and studying the unique quirks of the original PlayStation hardware. Now, I'm ready to take this passion to the next level and create my own retro-style PSX-inspired sandbox game using Unreal Engine.

I don't have a specific reason for choosing this particular game engine. I've read about Unity, Godot, and Unreal Engine, and after some consideration, I believe that last one is the best fit for my project, as a beginner.

I have already installed Unreal Engine 5.5 from the Epic Games Launcher and created a new project based on a blank template with no starter content and a scalable quality preset.

This is a big step, and I'm excited to share the journey-one devlog entry at a time.

[!NOTE] Related commits: