ARFX Camera Settings

Section 11. Change ARwall Camera Settings

The ARFX Pro Camera Actor is our primary tool that makes our method of virtual production do its magic. It acts as our all-in-one package that handles inputs, UI, and of course, the image warp effect given a valid tracking Component. Without this, nothing can get done!

Important

Only one ARFX Camera can be in a scene/level at any given time!

In this section, we'll detail what the camera is, a tiny bit of what it can do, and how you can customize it to your needs

Changing the ARwall camera settings allows you to match the Virtual Camera to the physical camera as closely as possible by changing the camera, lenses, focus, and aperture.

Important

While the following settings below can help match the virtual ARFX camera to the physical camera, the placement of the physical camera will also change how the virtual camera angle looks. It is a delicate dance between virtual camera and physical camera to get the right look for a shot, and it is recommended to have tech rehearsals ahead of production shoot days to pre-set virtual camera settings and bookmarks and physical camera locations on the physical set.

To change the ARwall camera settings, do the following:

1. Select the ARwallCameraActor in your scene or in the World Outliner, and navigate to the Current Camera Settings section in your Details panel.

2. Click on the box in this section to display a dropdown list of cameras or lenses that you can select from to match your equipment.

Section 11.1 Base Settings

• Load Calibration from File - If enabled, the camera will use a universal config file to save and load calibration data that works across all projects. (Save location: %AppData%\ARwall)

• Disable Tracking - Disables tracking except for when calibrating. Useful for Level Sequences where you are manually moving the camera or using pre-recorded tracking data.

• Disable Tracking While Calibrating - Disables tracking while calibration menu is open. Especially useful for optic-driven tracking solutions such as mobile tracking the ARFXApp.

• Sequence Tag Name - Name of the tag to look for when using the camera in a sequence. Will disable tracking and use values derived from a Level Sequence instead.

• Screen Width - The physical screen's width from edges in centimeters. Do not change while in play!

• Screen Height - The physical screen's height from edges in centimeters. Do not change while in play!

• Near Clipping Distance - Distance at which the camera will begin to clip objects from view.

Section 11.3 Calibration

• Screen Offset - This offset is applied only on calibration. Useful for screens too far from the tracking volume to be calibrated normally. Recommended to use a fixed point that will never move to use as your calibration point.

• Screen Orientation - The calibrated orientation of your screen. Do not manually edit this value!

• Screen Origin - The calibrated position of your screen. Do not manually edit this value!

Section 11.4 Bookmarks

This section gives you the controls on how bookmarks are handled and the camera's starting bookmark. For more information on bookmarks, please refer to the Bookmarks section.  

• Disable Indexing - Disables auto-indexing functionality. You must manually set bookmark indexes to all bookmarks placed in the scene (1 to N)

• Do Not Create Origin Bookmark - This will prevent the camera from creating an initial bookmark at its starting position on the map.

• Start at Bookmark -  Assign this to an ARFX Bookmark already in the level to be where the camera will spawn at on play.

• Always Skip Transition - If enabled, skip the transition animation between bookmarks.

• Transition Curve - Transition curve for the interpolation time-line. Use this if you want customize the overall movement of bookmark transitions. By default is uses a simple ease-in, east-out curve.

• Transition Play Rate - Sets the transition play rate, allowing you to speed up or slow down the interpolation movement.

• Actors In Bookmarks - A list of actor bookmarks that you want to move along with the camera on transition.  

• Actors to Hide - A list of actors to hide when switching to this bookmark. Used to prevent clipping issues.

Section 11.5 User Interface

The settings found in this section refer to all in [PlayInEditor] UI. You can ignore the settings under the Customize section as they are populated automatically for you when in play.  

• Do Not Auto Load UI - Disables the UI from loading automatically. Turning on Debug Mode will show the information as normal but still not show when disabled.

• Disable Option UI - Completely disables the Option UI. Use this if you have settings being overridden that you do not want.

• Top Bar Height - The height of the solid color bar that can be toggled on the screen.

• Bottom Bar Height - The height of the solid color bar that can be toggled on the screen.

• Top Bar Color - The color of the solid bar that can be toggled on the screen.

• Bottom Bar Color - The color of the solid bar that can be toggled on the screen.

Remote Control

This is purely for setting up RemoteControl support on our camera.

• ARwall RC Preset - Assigning an empty Remote Control Preset here will enable Remote Control support. The preset MUST be in the root of the project's Content folder!

• RC Post Process Volume - Assign the main post process volume for remote control to use for editing the look of your scene while in play.