PATH TRACER Explained - Unreal Engine's Underrated Tool

The first 1,000 people to use this link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/williamfaucher08211
This tutorial is all about the new & improved Path Tracer renderer in Unreal Engine 4.27. This is a pretty condensed video but will cover everything you should know before using it! With new supported features like Subsurface Scattering, Raytraced Translucency, Caustics, and much more.
Major thanks to Lars Stranden for letting me use his epic Turtle Model in this video! Check out his channel here:
/ @larsstrandenart
Raytraced Glass Tutorial:
• The Awesome 4.27/UE5 U...
Movie Render Queue Tutorial:
• Improve Your Renders W...
Path Tracer Documentation / Supported Features:
docs.unrealengine.com/4.27/en...
Stay until the end for my recommended render settings.
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Some product links are affiliate links which means if you buy something I'll receive a small commission.
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Timestamps:
00:00 - B-Roll
00:25 - Pathtracer Explanation
02:26 - System Requirements
03:14 - Using the Path Tracer
06:39 - Why Samples Matter
09:03 - Denoising for video
10:17 - Other Features
13:02 - Changes to Materials
17:04 - Changes to Skylight
19:40 - Skillshare
20:52 - Limitations
23:06 - Rendering with MRQ
25:07 - Recommended Render Settings
--------Cameras and Gear Used To Film This Video ------
DISCLAIMER: This video/description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon and B&H Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support the channel and allows us to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for the support!
My Streaming / Recording Setup (How this Video was Recorded)
Nikon Z6II : geni.us/OPxBG
Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art : geni.us/ByMa
Deity S-Mic 2 Shotgun Microphone: geni.us/ed6pyO
Aputure MC Pocket LED: geni.us/uVZNl
Godox LEDP 260c LED Panel: geni.us/OgidwX
Godox Parabolic Softbox : geni.us/oHZ2b9
Godox SL-60W Studio Light: geni.us/68wx

[@WilliamFaucher]

The first 1,000 people to use this link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/williamfaucher08211

[@Wilphi]

NICE :)

[@esrarchitecture4136]

Hi William. I wrote to your Instagram account but you didn't reply. I need your help. My project is big and with your help the result could be very good.

[@WilliamFaucher]

@@esrarchitecture4136 Hey man, I get a lot a messages on IG, and it would be a full-time job to get back to everyone so I apologize. I really don't have enough time in my day to answer everyones questions unfortunately! It's nothing personal!

[@esrarchitecture4136]

@@WilliamFaucher I understand you bro, time is our problem. I have to animate this project very nicely. I need a little help with this. The project is an interior design animation of a large classical building. My video card is GTX 1080ti and I passed the project unreal, the details are very bad and blurry. I used ue5. Which video of you should I watch for lighting and upscaling? This project is very important for me, even for my business life. I hope you can understand me bro.

[@PiyushYankee]

@@esrarchitecture4136 I suggest you should use Unreal 4.27 with raytracing, that is what saved my project too, I have been using UE5 to quickly set up lighting but there were lots of flickering issues in an animated video, I think because of screen space Gi and reflections. I have a gtx 1060 6gb but All I need was rendered frame and It worked great apart from a few crashes but Still I get to Finish my project in Time.

[@radovanlai6kotal]

There are only few people whose make tutorials and explanations so positive, thank you William!

[@lordkiller977]

I was waiting for this video, William. This feature inside the engine is absolutely relevant for stills renders as a full package product with realtime content. Cheers, William!

[@stanislawmaderek8784]

Welcome back, William! It's great to see you here again. I was waiting impatiently for this movie. Thank you!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks Stanislaw! I appreciate it!

[@AleksaStefanRadunovic]

Just wanted to say that out of all the tutorials and guides online, I find yours the most helpful. You give practical, technical and artistic advice all in one. Also really nice that it's from a VFX point of view since that's my industry as well.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks Aleksa! I appreciate the kind words!

[@CCGS]

Fascinating, I honestly thought those little statues at the beginning of the video were part of a recorded intro and were real little statuettes 😆 absolutely gorgeous work and intriguing feature to dive into. Thanks for sharing 😁

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks so much! I appreciate it!

[@dominicmaher1389]

I was just about to comment the same thing!!

[@Brujah1988]

Welcome back mate! Was getting worried there for a while. Really neat video, as always. Can't wait for more hindsights in UE5!

[@WilliamFaucher]

I'm still alive! Real life just gets in the way sometimes :)

[@kirbi9205]

I haven't been on this channel that long, but am always impressed with how well the tutorials are explained. You really notice the quality! Good job mate!

[@garyhaus]

SUPER Awesome William! Thank you for the deep dive into the updated Pathtracer sir!

[@stephenforsyth7883]

I'm really excited about this move because it just simplifies your life as a 3d artist so much, once it's feature complete you're basically free to build your library of resources and personal pipeline entirely around UE and lose nothing for it. Even just being able to render out stills path traced but render fast videos in real time opens up many options.

[@FilmCore]

Another great tutorial! Thank you so much, always wondered what tf to do with the Path tracer! Like you said, I'll probably use it to compare the lighting for my real time renders! :D

[@WilliamFaucher]

Yeah it's great for comparing! But also amazing for final-pixel renders if you can afford the wait times.

[@FilmCore]

@@WilliamFaucher Yeah the final results look absolutely amazing, but i moved to Unreal to avoid the long render times haha. Maybe one day for a huge project when I have a lot of time I can go back to path tracers to get that supreme quality. Keep up the vids man! They're a lot of help!

[@WilliamFaucher]

@@FilmCore Yeah I don't see this replacing the realtime stuff, it's just icing on the cake, a nice feature to have if you need it. It makes Unreal a pretty well-rounded package now!

[@HB-qj7im]

You're such a champ. Your overviews and tutorials are so easy to digest and follow and your excitement is infectious. I've been working in games and in UE for years and I still find gems in each and every video. Keep it up!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks so much! I will! :)

[@CNCAddict]

Major props for adding descriptions to each section of your video! Saves so much time.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks! Yeah I love it when people add chapters so I do it myself too!

[@CinematicCaptures]

Man I can’t wait for this to be fully supported

[@WilliamFaucher]

It's pretty robust for the time being! No decals or volumetrics/fog is a big of a downer, but hey can't get too greedy!

[@CinematicCaptures]

@@WilliamFaucher yeah the fog and decals are really the only drawbacks left holding me back from experimenting with it more. But super exciting to imagine where they’ll be at once they fully release UE5.

[@WilliamFaucher]

@@CinematicCaptures If it supports hair soon too, I'll be happy!

[@Ivan_My_Zdes]

Спасибо! Отличные уроки. Качественно, интересно, профессионально

[@TehranBatman]

Thank you so much sir! you have no idea how your videos help me understand unreal so much better. The way you explain the concepts is awesome man! It's not boringly slow and it's not so fast that nobody could understand. Just the sweeeeeeet spot!

[@philippe6724]

Exceptionally well taught! Amazing content to get started with UE 5. Thank you William!

[@Ranstone]

Unity: "I soon will be a kinda-path tracer!" Unreal: _"I'm already path tracer"._

[@hypersapien]

This is the first of your videos I've seen- I really like your teaching style. You're very concise and clear, and sharing your video with some UE4 friends of mine I've found that they all already are familiar with your videos and like your stuff. Now I get to join the club!

[@bertcraft]

Dude, you're awesome. Way ahead of any other ue4 tutorials, very friendly, thorough and clear. You clearly think well about what people need to understand/learn when you make these videos. You deserve WAY more subs!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you so much! I appreciate that!

[@reversebutcher]

Thanks so much! Your tutorials are fabulous and really helping me wade through Unreal Engine as a fine artist who is learning it for making cinematics. Really helpful!

[@Mukhtar_SH]

Happy to see you again 🙌🏾 great tutorial

[@Apuat]

THANK YOU WILL!!! This is the only comprehensive tutorial I found for path racing and it’s so on time. I’ve been opening up some old projects and taking a look at them. Amazing! I can not wait till it works with Niagara & is implemented in UE5!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks Jonathan! Appreciate it! Will be exciting for sure if this works well with Nanite!

[@The9PointStar]

Best video ever about Path tracing! I've been watching your videos for a while, thank you!

[@allthings3d]

This is awesome. Thanks for the great presentation and tutorial on 'Path Tracer' PS great intro by the way, your natural camera and depth of field made me question if this was real or not.

[@princevasimalla]

I've been searching about this tool everywhere but didn't found any good tutorial this one is gem ❤️ happy to see you back again

[@WilliamFaucher]

Glad to hear it! Thanks so much!

[@jinmick9998]

that's so great !! Finally I figure out what's different between Octane / Redshift /Eeeve render and ureal engine path tracer thank you William

[@oxygencube]

Excellent once again. Great to see you back!!

[@UnrealBucket]

Great tutorial. I've been using path tracer to render assets thumbnails for the Unreal Bucket library for a while now, and I love it. I can't wait to have volumetric fog and decals support.

[@WilliamFaucher]

That's a perfect usage for it! Totally agreed, the day UE gets PROPER volumetrics support, like VDB's and such, oh man...

[@vfxforge]

welcome back, as always I am super impressed with your videos and the time you take to actually prepare and test your findings. thank you! hope you enjoyed your break as well.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you!

[@vfxforge]

displacement still not support I suppose?

[@WilliamFaucher]

@@vfxforge I haven't tried displacement specifically but I don't see why it wouldn't. This isn't UE5 :)

[@essam-awad]

Welcome back William my friend !!!!! :) very informative as usual !!!!, thank you my friend !!!!

[@amirierfan]

Every single time I watch your content I open Unreal 5 mins through your videos... Man, you are really really good at teaching this thank you so much, and please keep going...

[@risingtide_official]

Those first shots are amazing. Well done!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks so much!

[@guso-trungngo]

Thank you so much, hope to see more tutorials about material

[@m1sterv1sual]

Missed you so much man, u never disappoint!

[@wowowo]

Amazing stuff, thanks for your detailed explanations. Have a good day!

[@3darchstuffs]

Awesome video. lots of cool information included in it. Keep it up. Good luck.

[@amynfarooqui]

Im a big fan of yours. Wow what great videos and what explanation. Amaaaazzzing William!!

[@theSamuraiNz]

holy moly, amazing tutorials. Thank you.

[@JoseAGomezM]

Man, as an artist that have been away from unreal for a few months, I was amazed at how much this is the exact info I was looking for, explained in the exact way that like. Of course I subscribed as I suspect you are going to be showing us a lot of the things I will be using in the next months. Kudos!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks so much ! And welcome to the community!

[@matthewaina4234]

Amazing tutorial. Thanks William

[@Azaroth66689]

Amazing Tutorial as always, keep it up !!! Thanks

[@sergeygilgenberg8331]

Very cool lesson, as always! Thanks William!

[@Spark_Studios]

Thanks so much, this great tutorial is very helpful

[@jarrodsheldon8812]

Thank you so much for such great videos, you are so easy to follow.

[@GunHit]

The goat is finally back! Nice tutorial master :)

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks Miguel!

[@th.e.nglish]

The lighting in your scenes is so beautiful😲

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you very much :)

[@HyperGalaxyEntertainment]

amazing tutorial!! thanks my man

[@GrimmReaper2006]

Thank for such a great tutorial i want to be a game dev but i am a beginner to ue 4.27 so this helped me a lot

[@matthewgiardino9252]

Thanks for the video, very informative!

[@moleytv]

Really helpful. Thank you!

[@neo-giu]

Glad to see you back!

[@digeud1590]

Thank you for Tutorial!!

[@ArameoDios]

Awesome content man! So clear and fun to follow!!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you!

[@Delli88Burn1]

Niceee. Another quality tutorial!! Thank you

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks for watching!

[@BrettSimms]

Awesome tutorial as usual. Thanks!

[@RAM_industrial_death_metal]

Thank you so much for all your videos!

[@nicolascacha2]

William, tku so so much for sharing your knowledge! Your are amazing! Nico from Argentina.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Hi Nicolas! Thank you very much!

[@jhonnyvaldes3239]

Deud, what can i say, love the way you teach, keep doing such a great work!! thanks!

[@tiborattilaklatyik6417]

So many small details but the result is amazing!

[@PetrovMaxim3dmarks]

Oh gosh, man! Thank you so much for this awesome video!

[@penalearn5369]

thank you. really nice tutorial

[@Kineticartist]

thank you William this really helps

[@jesusfagzano1615]

excellently presented information thank you

[@Ndru7891]

Thank you so much, for this tutorial.

[@Tobe1Kanobee]

Updating to 4.27 now. Thanks as always.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Cheers man!

[@whnvr]

hello. i absolutely loved this and your other videos. would you ever consider doing an update for unreal 5.0+, also demonstrating techniques for comparing realtime to pathtracing like you mentioned, and perhaps adjusting realtime to better resemble the pathtracing. would love to see your process there.

[@shivendrapawar9618]

That's the only path tracing video I always wanted, thanks a lot...

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you!

[@TheGrrson]

Thanks for making this video. I was using way too many AA samples. Now I never go above 16 and with the Post-Processing PT settings, I get amazing renders ~25 seconds per frame.

[@pxlimage1963]

Thx for sharing this. Now new skill to improve. Thx again.

[@connorb9097]

I’m in awe again You sir, you’ve done it. Truely

[@8thofthe8th]

Great tutorial, as ever! I'd be curious to see whether you can get volumetric clouds to behave. I've followed the docs around skylight with real time capturing enabled, but I'm getting some strange results. Keep up the great work.

[@TVSynergyProperty]

great content thank you for this tutorial

[@josepr.casals513]

Congrats for your channel, it's one of the best about unreal! Thanks!!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks so much!

[@ChrisBraibant]

Thanks! Another great video!

[@BooneyianLogic]

I love your videos, and i aspire to one day be half as good with unreal as you are. Thank you so much for your hard work on all these tutorials and explanations, there really do help immensely. One question i did have when watching was, how does one determine the number of samples that they would need?

[@ianburke5867]

A round of applause..... I always look forward to your vids. Welcome back.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks so much! Appreciate it!

[@Niotex]

Posting this at 1 am huh? Will have to get to this first thing in the morning! Looking forward to it!

[@WilliamFaucher]

It's 8am where I live! ;)

[@TobiasSchoenke]

awwwwwesome - every single video is awesome. Thanks you do this :)

[@vhalenn7616]

Thanks ! This is awesome !

[@raheel_qureshi]

it's really helped me a lot.

[@danielastrom8368]

Great video mate! Thank you! :)

[@lemming77gode]

Wow, I’m absolutely in love with that table! Did you make it? Anyway, thank you for yet another amazing tutorial. These always come at the right time.

[@WilliamFaucher]

I only sorta did, it's Megascans! I did the whole layout and some of the models though

[@lemming77gode]

@@WilliamFaucher I will never cease to be amazed by the quality of Megascans. Well done on the mise-en-scène!

[@fiskn74]

Excellent video, thank you.

[@kaizendigital_id]

holy moly this iz so good!! thanks a bunch!

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks for watching!

[@DatGuyGLK]

great content as usual, looking forward to more

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you!

[@chosenonemedia8337]

Very good and very informative!

[@sergeisarichev3651]

thanks a lot for breaking things down, keep it up

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you Sergei!

[@emirunalan1287]

Hello William. It was a great tutorial. The main problem with UE videos is nobody talks about drawbacks. Facing them during production demotivates a lot. Thank you for sharing them in your tutorials. Besides that, I would like to ask something. What was your render time for your intro?

[@owVR]

Great video, thanks William

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks for watching!

[@user-tk5jx4ih4g]

When i watched the intro i didn't notice this wasn't real for quite some time. The only thing that gave it away where the figures after some time.. They looked a bit to perfect and clean. Next to the rather rough table the lack of dust on the figures broke it after a while I think. But the wood looked so damn real i felt conflicted on what i was seeing. Incredible to see what's possible in todays time already. I have never seen such a realistic render of wood. The camera shake also helped to sell the illusion. Fantastic work.

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thank you so much for the kind words, I really appreciate it! And also thanks for the constructive feedback, I totally agree about the dust, would have been cool to add dust and stuff on them but alas, we don't always have the time on our hands!

[@cammerongamer7948]

Welcome back William & thanks for tutorial, that was really useful for me. What scene you used for this tutorial?

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks! I made the scene myself. :)

[@onixvideosoficial97]

Great video! thanks!

[@danielefrontini6204]

Great video, thank you!!

[@edemyankah5290]

Sweeeeeeet. Nice to have you back William

[@WilliamFaucher]

Thanks! Good to be back!

[@uwekreuzahler3976]

Following your tutorials for a very long time and I'm still amazed about the stuff you teach. Please keep up the good work Question about Path Tracer. Unfortunately decals are not supported. Is there a workaround for the use of decals, using path tracing?

[@WilliamFaucher]

Hi there! No, decals are not supported with the pathtracer at all, there is no workaround unfortunately.

[@tbarsnessvfx]

As an alternative to arnold or vray this is very powerful. Now it needs better support for farm rendering and AOV's in render que. Welcome back btw!

[@britogarcia5507]

Great video William, can you explained how to create the shake camera effect? Tanks for your great work

[@WilliamFaucher]

My latest video talks about exactly this!

[@unreal_animations]

Thanks for this ! Lot of G.I choice on Unreal, Lumen / Raytracing and Pathtracing. Great !

[@WilliamFaucher]

Yeah it is exciting! I love having lots of GI options! Each one has its own sets of pros and cons.

[@Anono_Bear]

Your videos seriously give me so much knowledge and happiness in my day, thank you so much!! Just when I thought Unreal could do it all, now it's trying to disrupt my relationship with Octane 🤣

[@WilliamFaucher]

For what it's worth, Octane does volumetrics much better! ... for now....