Panorama Tool

Personal: Art tool

Note: The scene shown above is from Epic Games’ free learning resources. It has not been modified and is used solely to demonstrate the functionality of my 360 image capture tool.

While developing this tool, I needed a reliable way to export 360 images from Unreal Engine—but encountered several technical limitations.

Challenge 1: Unreal’s built-in Panorama plugin and cubemap capture methods do not support screen space effects, which are critical for accurate visual fidelity. This includes compatibility issues with UE5’s Lumen lighting system. My custom solution fully supports all lighting scenarios, screen space effects, and post-processing features—ensuring accurate, high-quality 360 renders every time.

Challenge 2: Both Unreal’s Panorama plugin and standard cubemap capture methods suffer from resolution limitations that can lead to performance issues. Cubemap capture typically maxes out at 2048x1024, and while it's possible to push higher, it often results in instability. Similarly, the Panorama plugin has upper limits that can impact output quality and reliability.

My custom tool bypasses these constraints and supports ultra-high-resolution output—limited only by your machine's hardware. The demo image above, captured from Epic’s Virtual Studio scene, was rendered at 8192x4096 without any performance degradation.