I have run into an issue where 4D characters are invisible in path tracing mode in UE5.6. Both in viewport path tracing and in path traced render (MRQ). Is this just not supported or am i missing something?
Considering “Full support added for Unreal Engine version 5.6.” is written in release notes for Anima 6.1.1, I hope this issue is on me:smile:
I have the same issue. Did you manage to solve it?
After very unhelpful back and forth with support still no solution. They are trying to blame it on Unreal but I mean come on. They’re responses are just disappointing at best and seem to have no clue or willingness to actually solve this.
My workaround is to split scene into layers and render Anima with diffused rendering writing alpha and composite it later. But this is only half measure which needs separate colorgrading…
If you would please write to support as well so we get some kind of meaningful help with this.
Same here, any support from chaos team is very welcomed.
Offtopic: Do you get shadows from anima humans when the lightsource has Raytraced Shadows in UE5.6?
Not at all. It’s a bit disappointing at this point, whole anima experience in UE.
~UPDATE~
After some trying , I managed to see SOME anima characters in viewport path-tracing. It has occurred on a project updated from UE5.5 to UE5.6. I cannot say this will work reliably. In the 5.5 version of the project I never intended, and as result, never tried path-tracing, but after upgrading it to 5.6 the 4D characters are there (only some and in viewport so far). Important thing, this project is using a crowd sim asset created in Anima app. Now I’m considering two things: Anima has problems with UE5.6, or some 4D characters are incompatible/broken.
In the pictures below you can see path-traced(left) and lit(right) viewports. based on this I’m leaning towards some assets being incompatible/broken.
My support request on Chaos in currently on hold (in the hands of third party), so at least they are doing something.
At this point I need to look at the details. I’ll update with any new findings.
[EDIT: :] Exactly same behavior in UE5.5. Rendering it out with MRQ is pointless I think.
~UPDATE~
Hi everyone,
This issue has been forwarded to Anima dev team. They’ve been able to replicate it and figure out where the problem lies.
It is “plugin managing the 4D models in UE, which is not properly exposing their mesh” to Unreal. This is also most likely causing lack of shadows with lumen raytracing (differed rendering).
Fix should be issued with next Anima update.
I confirm Josef’s words. Thank you, Josef, for updating this thread with the latest information on this issue.
Anima 6 не работает у меня в Unreal Engine 5.6 в пути traci.
Пожалуйста, исправьте это.
Anima 6 doesn’t work for me in Unreal Engine 5.6 in path traci. Please fix this.
Hi, I’ve just installed the new Anima 6.2 update, but it looks like the shadow casting issue still isn’t fixed. This is really frustrating, as it makes the Anima Drop feature practically unusable. Is there any workaround to handle this problem?
Hi everyone.
I can partially confirm @elia_oab 's findings. After Updating Anima to 6.2 some of known broken assets now have shadows in differed rendering. Path-tracing is still entirely broken though.
Also a new error message popped up:
This happened after trying to send previously unused asset. So no test with previously not downloaded assets unfortunately.
I created a new project for testing, and was still unable to introduce any new assets to testing, only those already saved.
Also known broken asset without change.
On the Left is Differed viewport, on the Right Path-traced viewport.
Same behavior in MRQ.
I also tried importing fresh testing anima project into UE. In this case known broken assets are behaving correctly. I am not 100% sure if this is true for every walking asset though, as troubleshooting that would take quite a long time.
~UPDATE~
After further testing even importing project with 4D assets cannot fix them.
Only walking assets (generated on path) seem to be fixed!
Hello Elia_oab, Josef_mores,
Thank you both for your feedback on this.
Only walking assets (generated on path) seem to be fixed!
Actually, the issue was only happening on the 4D models since the beggining. The other assets are all standard UE assets (skeletal meshes or static meshes), so they behave as any other UE asset of that type. However, the 4D models are a special type of asset not directly supported by UE, so the Anima plugin needs to take care of it entirely.
I checked with the Dev team and, unfortunately, the fix for this one and a few other issues related to 4D models and some advanced ray tracing features available in UE [RayTraced reflections, Path tracing, etc] had to be postponed to the next release. The fix is complex because it requires changes in the core structure of the 4D plugin for UE, and they could not finish it in time to be included in v6.2.0, which is already packed with several fixes and also new features.
That said, please notice that 4D models are compatible with the UE 5 standard ilumination system , which includes also support for high quality ray casted shadows.
My colleagues and I are waiting for a fix. We use ray tracing for rendering in Unreal Engine 5. The last version of the Anime plugin that works properly with ray tracing is Unreal 5.5.4, but the new versions have many features we need for our work. However, starting from version 5.6, there are no shadows for characters when using ray tracing or path tracing. We’re eagerly waiting for you to fix the character rendering issue because we can’t update our projects to work in the newer versions of Unreal Engine.
Shadows don’t appear in Lumen in Unreal Engine 5.6. My team is also waiting for a quick update. Anima is the only reason we can’t use the new version. I haven’t heard any good news.
Well it’s been some time now. is there any indication as to when we could expect the fix? It has been 4 months since I submitted my support ticket for this issue but who is counting anyway. Frankly at this point I just given up even checking if I can use feature which is still part of release notes since 6.1.1. There have been two versions released since. The irony of this is well past amusing.
I’m working on a project in Unreal Engine 5.6.1. I purchased Anima to add people to my architectural scene, but it turned out that Anima exports characters incorrectly in UE 5.6.1 — they become invisible in Path Tracing. This is very disappointing, especially since you stated that Anima supports version 5.6.1. My project deadline is approaching, and there is no solution to this issue. Rolling back to Unreal 5.5, where the models are visible, is not possible because it would require redoing all the work. Could you please tell me what options exist to resolve this problem? I need your models to be displayed correctly in UE 5.6.1 in Path Tracing mode.
Is there some kind of workaround to get the 4D People Shadows working with Lumen? Or some information about when this could be solved?
maziar_mian there is a workaround on page 1 of this thread. But in short, it is possible to split scene into render layers and render Anima using lumen with everything else rendered by path-tracer. This does not solve shadows though, there is no help with those unfortunately.