Look browser

The look browser is a panel over your running game listing every Blendable FX effect the project has. Pick one and it plays over the real scene, with your lighting, your camera and your characters, and every setting it has shows beside it to change while you watch. It works on a copy, so nothing you try changes the effect itself. When you've found what you want, Copy Settings puts every value on the clipboard as text.

It's for choosing and tuning looks in the game itself, and it doubles as a photo mode: hide the panel and the look stays on the picture.

Opening it#

In the editor, the Blendable FX button on the toolbar has Look Browser: it opens the browser over the game as it plays, and with nothing playing, it plays in the editor first. It's in Tools > Blendable FX too.

From Blueprint, Open Look Browser opens it over the player's view, with the mouse shown while its panel is. Toggle Look Browser is for one key: it opens the browser, brings its panel back when it's hidden, or closes it. Close Look Browser closes it and takes off whatever it was showing.

It lists every effect in the project. Give Folders (such as /Game/Effects) to list only the effects in those.

Picking a look#

Type in the search box to find a look by its name or its folder, and narrow the list to Transitions, Impacts or Overlays. Pick one and it plays as it was made to: a transition runs over a cut, an impact strikes once, and an overlay is held on the picture. Up and Down step through the list, playing each in turn, and Enter in the search box plays the first look it found. Every other key goes on to the game, so the player still moves with the panel open.

• Show.

  Holds it on the picture as an overlay.

• Play Once.

  Plays it once as an impact: in, held and gone.

• As A Transition.

  Runs it over a cut that changes nothing, so you see it cover and reveal.

• Stop.

  Takes it off.

• Reset.

  Puts every setting back as the effect has it.

• Copy Settings.

  Copies every setting as it is now, as text, for your notes or to set on the effect.

Changing it live#

Under the buttons are the effect's settings: Overlay Amount, Strength, Colour and Second Colour, then everything on its Tuning band, as sliders and menus. Every change shows on the picture at once. They change the copy the browser plays, never the effect asset, so close the browser and the effect is as it was.

Taking a picture#

Hide hides the panel and gives the mouse back to the game, leaving the look on the picture to take a picture of it. Toggle Look Browser, or Set Look Browser Panel Hidden turned off, brings it back.

Where next#

• Overlays: holding an effect on screen from Blueprint.
• Tuning: every setting a look has.
• Blueprint nodes: the look browser's nodes.