Installation

Lensman is a C++ runtime plugin for Unreal Engine 5.1 to 5.8. It runs in your game on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS; it has been tested on Windows. MP4 clips are made on Windows only; clips are GIFs on the other platforms. It needs Enhanced Input and enables Unreal’s CommonUI plugin with it.

Install from Fab

Open ta Lensman on Fab, choose the license that applies to you (Personal or Professional) and add it to your library.
In the Epic Games Launcher, open Fab Library, find ta Lensman and click Install to Engine for each engine version you use (5.1 to 5.8).
Open your project, go to Edit > Plugins, search for Lensman and enable ta Lensman. Enhanced Input and CommonUI are enabled with it. Restart the editor when prompted.
Check Project Settings > Input > Default Player Input Class: it must be Enhanced Player Input, the default for new projects. Then take your first photo.

Installed this way, the plugin lives in the engine and is available to every project. To keep it with one project (for example so the whole team gets it from source control), install it manually instead.

Install manually

Close the Unreal Editor.

Copy the TALensman folder into your project’s Plugins folder. Create the Plugins folder next to your .uproject file if it doesn’t exist yet:

MyGame/
  MyGame.uproject
  Plugins/
    TALensman/
      TALensman.uplugin
      Content/
      Source/
      Resources/

Open the project. If the plugin hasn’t been compiled for your engine version yet, see Build from source below.
Open Edit > Plugins, search for Lensman and make sure ta Lensman is enabled. Enhanced Input and CommonUI are enabled with it. Restart the editor when prompted.
Check Project Settings > Input > Default Player Input Class: it must be Enhanced Player Input, the default for new projects.

Build from source

The plugin ships with its full C++ source code. If the copy you installed doesn’t contain compiled binaries for your engine version, the plugin has to be built:

C++ projects: build the project in your IDE (for example Visual Studio 2022 on Windows), or let the editor rebuild the missing modules when it asks on startup.
Blueprint-only projects: the editor can’t compile plugin code for you. Either add a C++ class to the project (which turns it into a C++ project) and build it, or build the plugin once with Unreal Automation Tool and copy the packaged result into your Plugins folder:
Terminal window
```
"C:\Program Files\Epic Games\UE_5.6\Engine\Build\BatchFiles\RunUAT.bat" BuildPlugin -Plugin="C:\Path\TALensman\TALensman.uplugin" -Package="C:\Build\TALensman" -TargetPlatforms=Win64
```
Use the RunUAT script of the engine version you want to build for, and add the platforms you ship on to -TargetPlatforms.

Your first photo

Open any level with a player character and press Play.
Press P. The game pauses and the photo mode screen opens with the default profile: the menu on the left, the picture on the right.
Move the camera with W A S D, E and Q, and hold the right mouse button to look around. Scroll to zoom.
Switch to the Frame tab with C, pick Border with ↑ ↓ and choose Polaroid with ← →.
On the Stickers tab, click the picture to place a sticker. Drag it, scroll over it to resize it, hold Shift and scroll to rotate it.
Press Space to take the photo, then G to see it in the gallery. Esc goes back and leaves photo mode.

Photos are saved to Saved/Photos in your project. See Photos & gallery. To record a GIF or MP4 clip instead, see Clips.

From here you can:

Make your own profile with your poses, filters, frames, stickers and logo, and set it as the default in Project Settings > Plugins > ta Lensman.
Open photo mode from your own menu instead of the P key: see Opening photo mode.
Change the keys: see Input.

Updating and removing

To update, close the editor and replace the TALensman folder with the new version (or install the new version from the Fab Library). Your profiles are assets of your project and your settings live in Config/DefaultGame.ini, so they are kept. Profiles, input assets and remembered settings from 1.0.0 load unchanged in 1.1.0.

To remove the plugin, delete the references to it from your game first (calls to Get Lensman, Lensman Area actors, Lensman Subject components, profiles), then disable it in Edit > Plugins or delete the TALensman folder while the editor is closed. Photos that players took stay where they were saved.