Your game's rules

Opening photo mode

Out of the box, P opens and closes photo mode in every level, with no setup. The key comes from Project Settings > Plugins > ta Lensman:

Setting	Default	Description
Add Open Key	On	Adds a small input mapping so the open keys work in any level.
Open Keys	P	The keys that open and close photo mode.

To open photo mode from your own menu instead, turn off Add Open Key and call Enter Photo Mode on the Lensman subsystem:

UTALensmanSubsystem* Lensman = UTALensmanLibrary::GetLensman(this);
if (!Lensman->EnterPhotoMode(/* Profile */ nullptr))
{
  // Blocked: CanEnterPhotoMode tells you why.
}

In Blueprint: Get Lensman → Enter Photo Mode. Exit Photo Mode, Toggle Photo Mode and Is Photo Mode Active do what their names say. Opening photo mode from a paused pause menu works: the game stays paused, and closing photo mode returns to the menu. In CommonUI games, see CommonUI.

What photo mode changes, and restores

When photo mode opens, it:

spawns its own camera at the game camera’s position and makes it the view target,
applies the time mode (Paused by default),
hides your HUD and every widget on screen (Hide Game UI), and the actors with the hide tag,
blocks your game’s input bindings and adds its own,
keeps nearby characters fully animated and brings them up to date, so they look right in the photo,
adds the profile’s blocking tags to the player’s ability system (see Abilities).

When it closes, everything goes back exactly as it was: the view target, the cursor and input mode, the paused state and time dilation, the HUD and widgets, hidden actors, posed characters and their meshes, the sun and time of day, and the ability tags. A game that was paused before stays paused. Photo mode also closes when the player controller changes.

Blocking photo mode

Call Set Photo Mode Blocked with a reason to block photo mode, for example during a cutscene or a boss fight, and again with Blocked off to allow it:

Lensman->SetPhotoModeBlocked(TEXT("Cutscene"), true);   // also closes photo mode if it is open
// ...
Lensman->SetPhotoModeBlocked(TEXT("Cutscene"), false);

Each reason is separate, so several systems can block photo mode at the same time. Can Enter Photo Mode returns whether it may open, and why not:

“Photo mode needs a local player.”
“Photo mode is not available right now.” (a blocking reason is set)
“Photo mode is not available here.” (a Lensman Area blocks it, or its own message)
“Photo mode is not available in online games.” (the profile doesn’t allow multiplayer)

Lensman doesn’t show these messages itself: show them in your own UI when Enter Photo Mode returns false.

Lensman Areas

A Lensman Area is a box you place in the level to change photo mode where the player stands when it opens:

Property	Default	Description
Allow Photo Mode	On	Off blocks photo mode inside the box.
Blocked Message	Empty	The reason Can Enter Photo Mode returns here.
Keep Camera Inside	Off	The camera can’t leave the box.
Max Distance	−1	The camera’s distance limit here. Negative: the profile’s. 0: no limit.
Profile	None	A different profile for this area.
Priority	0	The area with the highest priority wins where areas overlap.

The area is chosen once, when photo mode opens. Use areas to keep the camera inside a room, out of an unfinished part of the level, or to give a level its own poses and filters.

Time

The profile’s Time Modes are offered in the Time row; the first is used when photo mode opens:

Mode	What happens
Paused	The game is paused.
Frozen	Time almost stops (global time dilation), so skies and effects keep updating.
Slow motion	Time runs at Slow Motion Dilation (0.2).
Live	The world keeps running.

A game that was already paused when photo mode opened only offers Paused, so photo mode never unpauses your pause menu.
Network games (clients, listen servers) only offer Live.
Frozen and slow motion use global time dilation; things that ignore time dilation keep moving.

Hiding things

Hide Game UI (profile, on): your HUD and on-screen widgets are hidden while photo mode is open.
Actors with the tag LensmanHide (the profile’s Always Hide Tag) are always hidden: markers, waypoints, debug helpers.
Hide Others Classes (profile): extra classes that the player’s Hide other characters option hides.

Fresh poses

Characters that were off screen are brought up to date when photo mode opens, including the parts of modular characters and their cloth, so nobody shows a stale pose (Refresh Nearby Meshes, on). Actors with the tag LensmanNoRefresh (No Refresh Tag) are left alone, for meshes your game drives itself.

Abilities

With the Gameplay Ability System (Lyra included), photo mode keeps abilities quiet while it is open. The tags in the profile’s Blocking Tags are added as loose tags to the ability system components of the player’s pawn and player state (once each, when they share one) and removed again on exit.

Tag	Use
`Lensman.PhotoMode`	The plugin’s own tag: add it to your abilities’ Activation Blocked Tags, or to Lyra’s tag relationship mapping.
`Gameplay.AbilityInputBlocked`	The tag that makes Lyra ignore ability input.

Tags your project doesn’t have are skipped. Games without the Gameplay Ability System are not affected: photo mode does not depend on that plugin. Turn it off with the profile’s Add Tags To Ability System.

Reacting to photo mode

Actors that implement the TALensman Aware interface get On Photo Mode Entered and On Photo Mode Exited, for example to hide a weapon, stop a sound or freeze a particle system, and On Photo Mode Sun Changed when the player turns the sun on the Scene tab. The subsystem also has the events On Photo Mode Entered and On Photo Mode Exited for your game code and UI.

Multiplayer

Photo mode is local to the player who opens it: nothing is replicated. In network games the world keeps running (Live), and poses, hidden actors and lights are only seen by that player. Clips are recorded as the game runs, not frame by frame. Turn off the profile’s Allow In Multiplayer to keep photo mode out of online games.

Packaging

The default profile (named only in the project settings) and the screen’s icons are added to the cook automatically. Profiles used by Lensman Areas or passed to Enter Photo Mode are referenced by your own assets and cooked with them, as are their poses, frames and stickers.