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Prerequisites

Before you begin, you must have:
  • Unreal Engine 5
  • Deferred Rendering enabled (Forward Rendering is not supported)

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Get started

1

Install

Enable the plugin in your project by going to Edit → Plugins, searching for HBAO+ (or GT-VBAO) and enabling it. Restart the editor when prompted.
2

Verify it's working

Set the composite mode to 0 and enable Debug Mode to see the raw AO buffer in the viewport:
You can run these commads using the console (press ~ in the viewport) or via the Cmd input in the Output Log.Set DebugMode back to 0 when done.
3

Switch to production mode

Once everything looks correct, switch to Mode 1 for the best integration with Unreal’s native pipeline:
For optimal results, enable TAA or TSR (r.AntiAliasingMethod 2). This allows Temporal Accumulation to smooth out the AO signal over time, reducing noise and producing a cleaner result overall.
Unreal’s native pipeline doesn’t work in 5.0. Substrate is supported in 5.5+.
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