Movie Render Pipeline

The Movie Render Pipeline is Unreal Engine's offline image sequence and movie rendering solution. When creating linear content using Unreal Engine’s 3D rendering and lighting capabilities, you can use the Movie Render Pipeline to achieve higher quality results when compared to traditional real-time rendering. Using offline rendering with the Movie Render Pipeline provides an opportunity to use settings and commands that greatly increase the quality, precision, and look for features like Ray-Tracing Global Illumination and Ray-Tracing Reflections. With offline rendering you can also get improved Motion Blur, and remove unwanted anti-aliasing artifacts.

There are three tools you can use to interface with the Movie Render pipeline to render your project that each offer different features to meet your projects needs.

• Movie Render Graph (MRG): A graph-based interface you can use to build logic to execute render operations.

• Movie Render Queue (MRQ): A tool you can use to create presets and scripts to queue render processes and then export high-quality images.

• Quick Render: A tool you can use to quickly render your project with one click using customizable settings.

Movie Render Graph

Movie Render Graph (MRG) is a graph-based tool you can use to build logic to interface with the Movie Render Pipeline to export high quality renders of your content. You can use the graph to designate frames for render, settings for your render, and the exported file types. These node-based graphs can be as simple or complex as necessary to address the needs of both small and large teams.

You can set up graphs to render a single shot, or design them to scale out across complex multi-shot workflows. You can modify and save these graphs as reusable assets, introducing greater flexibility to your production pipelines.

The Legacy preset system of MRQ can be used interchangeably with the new MRG. For more information about MRQ render settings, see the following documentation:

Render Settings and Formats

Customize your render output and visuals with render settings and formats for MRQ and MRG

Prerequisites

• We recommend you have a familiarity with MRQ and the Render Settings and Formats before using MRG.

• You need a project with a Level Sequence to render. If you do not have a project with a Level Sequence you can render, you can use the Main_Seq Level Sequence in the Meerkat Demo as a sample.

• Enable the Movie Render Queue Plugin. Navigate in the Menu Bar to Edit > Plugins and locate the Movie Render Queue plugin in the Rendering section, or by using the Search Bar. Enable the plugin and restart the editor.

Enabling Alpha Channel Support in Project Settings

Previously, you needed to select one of three values for the Enable alpha channel support in post-processing (experimental) property in your Project Settings, in order to enable Alpha output support. UE 5.5 has simplified this to one Alpha Output checkbox. The Alpha Output checkbox defaults to Off, however some templates will automatically turn it on (such as template for film/TV/Virtual Production). If you want to disable alpha output, you can do so in your Project Settings. In the Menu Bar click Edit > Project Settings, then select Rendering under Engine. Previously the alpha setting was in the Post-Processing section, but now it is in the Default Settings section. Click the box to disable Alpha Output.

There is also a new project setting called Support Primitive Alpha Holdout (Deferred), which is now required for holdouts to be enabled in the Deferred Renderer. Film/TV templates and samples will set this to On by default, but Game projects can disable it if they are not using Holdouts, in order to avoid impacts to performance. MRG will notify the user when setting up Holdouts in a Modifier if this project setting is disabled.

Opening the Movie Render Graph

The Movie Render Graph is accessible through the Movie Render Queue. To open Movie Render Queue, follow these steps.

1. In the Menu Bar click Window > Cinematics > Movie Render Queue. This opens the Movie Render Queue window.

   

   You can also access Movie Render Queue in the Sequencer tab, using the ellipses next to the Render Movie button to expand the Render Movie Options. Select the Movie Render Queue option, then click the Render Movie button.

2. Click the Render button and select your level sequence.

   

3. In the Settings column, click the arrow next to Unsaved Config and select Movie Render Graph  (Beta). The Settings column now shows DefaultRenderGraph.

   

4. Under Create New Asset, Click Movie Render Graph.

   

5. Name your graph and click Save. Your new Movie Render Graph Config asset will now be shown in the Movie Render Queue Settings column and listed as a preset asset.

6. Click on your MRG Config asset in the Settings column to open it for editing.

   

Movie Render Queue

Movie Render Queue (MRQ) is a tool you can use to batch queue and process your content in Unreal Engine using the Movie Render Pipeline. It is built for high-quality rendered images, simplified integration into production pipelines, and user extensibility. Using a combination of settings, presets and scripts, you can use MRQ to manually export high quality image and video files of your content, or automate rendering processes.

Movie Render Queue supports several features for producing high-quality renders, such as its temporal subsampling feature which helps you produce high-quality radial motion blurs. You can also export images containing translucent pixel values (using appropriate project / scene settings), generate 16-bit HDR images with linear data, and save render configurations into assets that you can reuse and share. You can manage multiple jobs and their settings at once using the render queue, which supports running batch rendering jobs.

Prerequisites

• Movie Render Queue is a plugin that must be enabled prior to use. From the Unreal Engine main menu, go to Edit > Plugins, locate Movie Render Queue in the Rendering section, and enable it. You will need to restart the editor afterward.

  

• You have created a project with a Level Sequence for you to render. If you have not yet created a project, Meerkat Demo is a pre-made content example available for use.

Opening Movie Render Queue

You can open the Movie Render Queue window two different ways:

1. From Unreal Engine's main menu, go to Window > Cinematics > Movie Render Queue.

2. From Sequencer, click the vertical ellipsis next to the Render Movie button in the toolbar, then select Movie Render Queue from the dropdown and click the Render Movie button.

   

After following one of the two options above, the Movie Render Queue window will now be open.

Interface Overview

The Movie Render Queue interface contains four main areas:

1. Toolbar: Contains a menu for adding or removing render jobs and loading or saving the current job list.

2. Jobs: Displays the sequences to render in the order in which they are queued. Each top-level item in the list is considered a job. These items also contain the configuration settings for each job.

3. Job Details: Details for the selected job. Lists the name, the level sequence asset, the level to run during the job, and the author of this job.

4. Start Render: Starts the render either locally on your machine, or in a separate process on your machine.

Toolbar

The toolbar contains the menu for adding and removing jobs. To add a new sequence to the render queue, click the + Render button and select a Level Sequence Asset. Sequences can also be added to your job list by dragging them from the Content Browser to the job region.

To remove a sequence from the job list, select the job, then click the - button on the toolbar or press the delete key on your keyboard

You can also save your current job list as a Queue Preset asset from the Toolbar. Click the Unsaved Queue button and, then select Save Queue As. You will then be prompted to name and save the Movie Pipeline Queue asset somewhere in your project.

The text of the Unsaved Queue button will now change to the name of your Movie Pipeline Queue asset.

All Movie Pipeline Queue assets you create are listed under this menu. Selecting a queue asset sets your job list to match the saved preset. This imports a copy of the queue into the jobs area. Changes made to the job list will not affect the asset unless you save them by selecting Save Queue in this menu.

Jobs

The jobs area contains a list of the Level sequences that will be rendered, along with their render settings and output directory.

Clicking the Settings entry for a job opens the settings window, where you can specify your render settings, output directory, and export format.

In the main toolbar of this window, click the + Setting button to open a list of settings. Click a setting to toggle it on or off for this render configuration. You will then be able to further configure this setting.

You can apply saved presets to your job by clicking the Unsaved Config button and selecting a preset.

The Output entry for a job is a link to the folder where your images or videos will be rendered to, as set in the output setting. Clicking here will open a File Explorer window with this folder targeted.

Visit the Render Settings and Formats page for more information on customizing your renders.

Job Details

When a job is selected, you can view its details in the job details area.

This area lists the following fields for the selected job:

Start Render

There are two buttons you can click to start rendering:

• Render (Local) renders in the same process as Unreal Engine and launches a Play in Editor session to render from. You do not need to save your changes when performing a local render.

• Render (Remote) launches a separate process that renders your jobs. You must save your changes in the project so the external process can read the saved files from disk.

The Remote option can be used to implement a remote render farm. The default behaviors of the render options are determined by the Project Settings and can be adjusted to run your own code, which is helpful when using third party-render farm management software. Additionally, the command used to launch the remote render process is written to the Output Log, which can be used as reference when building your own automated render farms.

Render Preview

When a render job is running, Movie Render Queue will display a render preview window showing you the current visual state of the render with relevant information. The preview window will automatically close when the render is complete.

1. Render Preview: This view shows the current visual status of the render. As each frame is displayed here, they are also being saved to your output directory. The preview here is based on the latest sample data from your GPU and may appear at a lower quality than the final render. If you have enabled Tiling for your render, then the preview will only display the bottom-right corner tile.

2. Overall Render Progress: These details show the current sequence that is being rendered, as well as the overall progress, elapsed time, and estimated time remaining.

3. Current Camera Cut Progress: These details show the current camera being rendered, as well as the progress for the current camera cut.

Creating a Basic Render

You can create a basic render of your cinematic sequence by following these steps.

Job Setup

1. Open the Movie Render Queue tool. From the main menu, go to Window > Cinematics > Movie Render Queue.

2. Add your sequence asset to the job list by clicking the + Render button and selecting your sequence.

   

3. Make sure that the correct Level is set in the Map property.

   

Output Settings

Once your sequence is added, you may want to adjust some of the output settings such as the destination folder, resolution, and file type.

In the Settings column, click Unsaved Config to open the Render Settings window for that job.

By default, Movie Render Queue will render out to a sequence of .jpg images. If you want to change this, you can delete the .jpg Sequence [8bit] entry and click the + Setting button to pick a different output format.

Select the .jpg Sequence [8bit] entry and press Delete, then click the + Setting button and select .png Sequence [8bit].

The Deferred Rendering entry will cause the output to render the exact image you see in your viewport. For basic renders like this, you can leave this setting as-is, but it must exist here in order for your image to render.

Clicking Output will reveal typical output-related settings such as file name, directory, and resolution.

If you want to change the Output Directory field, click the … button next to the entry, navigate to a new folder, and press Select Folder. Your image sequence will now output here.

Close the Render Settings window once you are done making changes.

Render

You can now render your sequence.

Click Render (Local) to start the render job for your sequence. A Render Preview window will appear showing your current render progress.

Once the render has completed, the preview window will close. You can now navigate to the output folder by clicking the linked output text for your job and view your output image sequence.

Usage in Blueprints

You can use Movie Render Queue to render movies in runtime builds and output files to a user's computer using Blueprints. Visit the Movie Render Queue in Runtime Builds to learn more.

Quick Render

The Quick Render tool exports a quick real-time render of your project for visualizing and reviewing your work. Quick Render can be useful for workflows that do not require heavy adjustment to render settings, such as Animation and Architecture Visualization.

To activate the Quick Render tool, follow these steps:

1. In the Main Toolbar, click the ⋮ (three dots) button next to the Quick Render button.

2. Select Quick Render mode.

Now, when you click the Quick Render button, Quick Render will generate a render of your project. You can change what type of render you want by clicking the ⋮ (three dots) button and selecting one of the following render options:

• Current Sequence: Renders the current Level Sequence. This option requires Sequencer to be open and have a Level Sequence loaded.

• Current Viewport: Renders a still image of the current view in the editor viewport.

• Selected Camera(s): Renders a still image of one or more selected Cameras. This option requires that you select one or more Cameras in the Outliner.

• Use Viewport Camera in Sequence: Renders a Level Sequence that you have opened in Sequencer, using the view in the editor viewport as the Camera. This option requires Sequencer to be open and have a Level Sequence loaded.

Quick Render Settings

You can change the settings that Quick Render uses, and each render option can have separate settings.

To open the Quick Render Settings, follow these steps:

1. In the Main Toolbar, click the ⋮ (three dots) button next to the Quick Render button.

2. Click Quick Render Settings.

At the top of the Quick Render Settings window is a dropdown where you can choose which render option to configure. Clicking the blue Quick Render button starts a render, and remembers the render option you selected as the selected option in the Main Toolbar.

The default Movie Render Graph Config can be changed in the Project Settings for Movie Pipeline. The options you choose in Quick Render Settings take priority over the options set by the graph configuration. If the graph configuration has variables exposed, the variables appear in the Primary Graph Variables category of the settings list. You can then override these variables when using Quick Render.

The After Render setting offers three options: 

• Play Render Output: See the Play Render Output section

• Open Output Directory: Automatically opens the output directory so the user can easily access the render output on disk.

• Do Nothing: Do nothing and stay in the Unreal Engine editor.

When Apply Viewport Look is enabled, you can have the following editor settings show in Quick Render:

• OCIO (OpenColorIO): When set in the editor viewport, OCIO will be added to all Output Type nodes in the graph configuration with the same settings as the editor viewport.

• Show Flags: Any enabled Show Flags will be enabled in the resulting Quick Render output.

• View Mode: Any enabled View Mode will be enabled in the resulting Quick Render output.

• Visibility: Content visible in the editor will always appear in the resulting Quick Render output, including the following:

  • Actors visible in the editor will appear in the render even if Actor Hidden in Game is enabled.

  • Levels visible in the editor will be loaded in the render even regardless of their streaming method.

  • Spawnable Actors visible in the editor will appear as long as Sequencer is open. This is primarily applicable to the Current Viewport and Selected Camera(s) options that do not require Sequences.

  • Control Rig gizmos visible in the editor will appear as long as Hide Control Shapes is not enabled in Animation Mode.

    

• Show Editor-Only Actors: Content typically restricted to the editor is sometimes desirable to see when rendering for Animation review. When enabled, this will make the following content appear: 

  • Billboards

  • Cameras

  • Camera Cranes

  • Camera Rig Rails

  • Camera Frustums (requires Show Flag for Camera Frustums to be enabled)

    

Quick Render also offers three options for the frame range to render when using a Level Sequence (not a still image):

• Playback Range: The entire playback range of the Level Sequence in Sequencer.

• Selection Range: The current selection range in Sequencer. If set in a Sub Sequence, Quick Render will map it up to the Parent Sequence.

• Custom: Override the start and end frame with custom values, using Frame Range Variables defined in the Movie Render Graph Config.

Play Render Output

The Play Render Output setting automatically plays rendered media in the viewer application of your choice. This choice is set in Editor Preferences > Plugin: Movie Render Graph and can be set per user.

To open the settings for the Movie Render Graph plugin, you can click the button next to the After Render dropdown in the Quick Render Settings window.

The Play Render Output settings include an Output Type Priority Order array. You can define a hierarchy of which Output Type to play when the render has more than one output type, which prevents the same content appearing multiple times. You can reorder the Output Types using drag and drop, and you can add additional formats, such as those generated by the Command Line Encoder.

By default, Output Type Playback is set to Use Priority Order, but it can be switched to Play All Output Types if you want to play all of the rendered output.

Since Unreal Engine does not have a native image viewing tool, an external viewer application must be used. Playback Method uses the Operating System as its default and performs the equivalent of opening the file from disk. You can instead set the Playback Method to a Custom Viewer by providing a path to the player executable wherever it is installed on your machine. Additional Command Line Arguments can be set, specific to whatever custom viewer the user chooses. The syntax for frame numbers can vary between viewer applications and the system accounts for this with the Frame Number Notation property that offers the following options:

• # with Start/End Frame: Use this for RV and xStudio.

• # without Start/End Frame: Use this for DJV and HieroPlayer.

• $F: Use this for mPlay.

• Start Frame: Use this for mrViewer and Cinesync.

Because the operating system has limited image sequence playback capabilities, there are three additional settings to change what the operating system or a custom viewer can play:

• Playback Range: When set to Operating System, the system uses First Frame Only, but a Custom Viewer can also play the Full Range of the image sequence.

• Job Playback: When a render has multiple jobs, the Operating System can play content from the First Job Only, but a Custom Viewer can play All Jobs.

• Render Layer Playback: When a render has multiple Render Layers, the Operating System can play content from the First Render Layer Only, but a Custom Viewer can play All Render Layers.

To account for differences in codec support and customization options on command line arguments, Play Render Output allows the viewer application for image sequences and movies to be configured separately.,