Lensman

Version 1.1.0 Unreal Engine 5.1 – 5.8 Personal $19.99 Professional $39.99 on Fab

Lensman is a runtime plugin that adds a photo mode to your game. It gives your players a free camera with real lens controls, and then lets them direct the shot: pose characters, make them look into the lens and change their expression, place their own lights, turn the sun, and finish the picture with frames, stickers and your game’s logo. Photos are saved in high resolution, short clips as GIFs (and MP4 videos on Windows), and both can be browsed in an in-game gallery. Players can save their favourite looks and share them as short codes.

It works the moment the plugin is enabled: press P in game. It plays fully with a gamepad and fits into games that use CommonUI. Everything is data: one profile asset decides what your players get, and the whole menu can be driven from Blueprint or C++.

Features

• Camera. Free camera or orbit around a character, with a distance limit, collision, speed control and roll. Focal length in millimetres; the mouse wheel zooms. A tripod lock keeps the camera in place (turning still works) or holds it completely. Pause the game, freeze it (skies and effects keep updating), play it in slow motion or keep it live. See The photo mode screen.
• Lens. Depth of field with auto focus, focus on a character, manual focus, or lock focus on any object by clicking it: the lock follows the object while the camera moves. Aperture, exposure, vignette, film grain, chromatic aberration and bloom.
• Filters. Eleven built-in filters plus your own (colour grading values, a LUT and post process materials), with strength, contrast, saturation and white balance on top.
• Looks. A look keeps the lens, filter, frame and photo lights together. Six built-in looks, your game’s own, and eight slots for the player’s, each with a small picture. Any look can be copied as a share code (LM1-4F7Q-K2ZD-9PXR) that other players enter to get the same look. See Looks & share codes.
• Characters. Pose the player and nearby characters with your own animations, even while the game is paused; turn their head and eyes toward the lens; give them a facial expression; hide the player or everyone else. Poses run on a stand-in copy, so your Animation Blueprints are never touched. See Characters.
• Photo lights. Up to four lights aimed at the selected character, with presets, angle, height, distance, brightness, colour and softness. See Lights.
• Scene. Turn the sun (height and direction) or drive your time-of-day system. Everything goes back when photo mode closes. See Scene.
• Frames, stickers and logo. Eight nine-sliced frames, sixty-one stickers in seven packs to place, scale and rotate, and your logo. Aspect ratios for screens and social media and composition guides. See Frames, stickers & logo.
• Photos and gallery. PNG or JPEG, up to eight times the screen resolution, with the frame, stickers and logo drawn into the image. HDR displays are supported. The in-game gallery shows photos and plays clips. See Photos & gallery.
• Clips. Short clips with the same frame, stickers and logo: GIFs on every platform, MP4 videos on Windows. The camera can move by itself while recording (orbit, dolly, pan, tilt, zoom, crane) and the clip can loop forward or ping-pong. Clips have no sound. See Clips.
• Controls. Keyboard and mouse or gamepad, switching on the fly, with button prompts that show the keys actually mapped. Enhanced Input throughout. See Controls.
• CommonUI. In games that route input through CommonUI, photo mode becomes the active layer above your menus. See CommonUI.
• Your game, your rules. Block photo mode during cutscenes, keep it out of parts of a level, hide markers and helpers, and let actors react when photo mode opens and closes. With the Gameplay Ability System (Lyra included), photo mode tags the player’s ability system so abilities stay quiet. See Your game’s rules.
• Your UI. Restyle the built-in screen, design your own layout with named widgets, or build a new screen on the data API. See Custom UI.
• Localizable. Every text the player sees can be translated with the Localization Dashboard.

Quick start

1. Install the plugin and make sure your project uses Enhanced Input.
2. Press Play, then P. Photo mode opens with the default profile, which already has the frames, stickers and shutter sound.
3. Move with W A S D, hold the right mouse button to look around, scroll to zoom. Switch tabs with Z and C, pick rows with ↑ ↓ and change them with ← →.
4. Press Space to take a photo, G for the gallery and Esc to leave. To record a clip, set Capture button to Record clip on the Clip tab.
5. Make your own profile with your poses, filters, frames, stickers and logo.

Note

Lensman ships no animations: poses are your own Anim Sequences or Montages. The default profile has frames, stickers and the shutter sound; poses and a logo are added in your own profile.

Supported versions

Unreal Engine	5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8
Platforms	Win64, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS (tested on Windows). MP4 clips on Windows only.
Module type	Runtime: TALensman and TALensmanCommonUI
Dependencies	Enhanced Input and CommonUI (enabled automatically)
Multiplayer	Local to the player who opens it
License	Fab Standard License: Personal $19.99, Professional $39.99
Get it	ta Lensman on Fab

Quick links

InstallationAdd the plugin and take your first photo.

ControlsKeyboard, mouse and gamepad.

The photo mode screenEvery tab and every row.

Looks & share codesSaved looks, tile pictures and share codes.

ClipsGIF and MP4 clips with camera motion.

SceneSun height and direction, or your time-of-day system.

ProfileEverything your game configures, in one data asset.

CharactersPoses, look-at, expressions and the Lensman Subject component.

Frames, stickers & logoNine-sliced frames, stickers and your logo.

Photos & galleryWhere photos and clips go, their size and the in-game gallery.

Your game's rulesOpening, blocking, areas, hiding and multiplayer.

Blueprint & C++The subsystem, the menu as data and events.

FAQAnswers to common questions.