Quick answer:
- Open the viewport menu (the ☰ button at the top left) and set Screen Percentage to 100. In game, use
r.ScreenPercentage 100. - In a Post Process Volume, set Motion Blur Amount to 0, and check that Depth of Field isn’t blurring the scene.
- Add a little sharpening with
r.Tonemapper.Sharpen 0.5. - If only textures are blurry, look for “TEXTURE STREAMING POOL OVER BUDGET” on screen and raise
r.Streaming.PoolSize.
What kind of blur is it?
| What you see | Usual cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Everything is soft, mostly in the editor | Screen percentage below 100 | Step 1 |
| Blurry only while moving | Motion blur, or TSR ghosting | Step 2 |
| Background or close objects blurred | Depth of field or Cine Camera focus | Step 3 |
| Textures look low-res and sharpen late | Texture streaming pool full | Step 4 |
| Soft edges with colour fringes | Chromatic aberration | Set Chromatic Aberration > Intensity to 0 |
| Still slightly soft at 100% | TSR smoothing | Step 5 |
Step 1: Screen percentage
Unreal can render at a lower resolution and upscale. That’s fast, but softer. The editor viewport may also pick a lower value for performance.
- In the viewport, click the ☰ menu and set Screen Percentage to 100.
- If it keeps resetting, open Edit > Editor Preferences and search for “screen percentage” to change the viewport’s default.
- In game, run
r.ScreenPercentage 100. If you use dynamic resolution, it can still lower the resolution when the GPU is busy.
Step 2: Motion blur
Motion blur is on by default. In a Post Process Volume with Infinite Extent (Unbound) ticked, set Motion Blur > Amount to 0. To turn it off for the whole project, untick Motion Blur in Project Settings > Rendering > Default Settings.
If moving objects leave trails rather than blurring, see the TSR ghosting fix.
Step 3: Depth of field and the Cine Camera
A Cine Camera Actor uses real lens settings, so whatever is outside its focus distance blurs.
- Select the camera and open Focus Settings.
- Tick Draw Debug Focus Plane to see where it’s focusing.
- Use the eyedropper next to Manual Focus Distance and click the object you want sharp. To turn focus blur off, set Focus Method to Disable.
Step 4: Texture streaming
Unreal loads lower-quality texture versions until there is memory for the full ones. When the pool is full, textures stay blurry. Raise the pool size, in MB:
r.Streaming.PoolSize 3000
Keep it below your GPU’s memory. To keep the setting, add r.Streaming.PoolSize=3000 under [SystemSettings] in Config/DefaultEngine.ini. A texture that is blurry on its own may have a low Maximum Texture Size or LOD Bias in its texture settings.
Step 5: Sharpen TSR
TSR smooths edges by mixing frames, which softens fine detail slightly. Two options:
r.Tonemapper.Sharpen 0.5adds sharpening at almost no cost. Values above 1 start to look crunchy.r.TSR.History.ScreenPercentage 200stores more detail between frames. It’s sharper, but costs GPU time.
FAQ
Why is the packaged game blurrier than the editor?
It often uses a different scalability level or dynamic resolution. Test with r.ScreenPercentage 100 in the packaged build.
Should I switch to FXAA for a sharper image?
FXAA looks sharper in motion, but edges and foliage shimmer more. Try sharpening TSR first.
Does raising screen percentage above 100 help?
Yes, it supersamples, but the GPU cost rises quickly. It’s fine for screenshots and renders, and rarely worth it for gameplay.