Understanding Desaturation Turning Red in UE5

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Introduction

Desaturation in UE5 can sometimes result in unexpected color shifts, such as turning red.
This issue can be influenced by the Tonemapper and Color Space settings in Unreal Engine.
When colors are blended in Linear Space, it can lead to undesired colors, such as emphasized pink and orange when blending between red and blue.
Adjusting the Gamma Correction and sRGB settings can help mitigate these issues.
Using Post-Process Volumes and specific Material Settings can provide more control over color desaturation effects.

Tonemapper: Affects how colors are displayed in Unreal Engine, often leading to unexpected results.
Color Blending: When blending colors in linear space, it can result in undesired colors.
Example: Pink and orange colors can become emphasized when blending between red and blue.
Control: Adjusting the tonemapper settings can help control these effects.

sRGB: Enabling or disabling sRGB can affect how colors are displayed.
Linear Space: Colors in linear space can appear incorrect without proper gamma correction.
Vertex Colors: Mesh vertex colors are often in linear space, leading to unexpected results.
Color Curves: Similar issues can occur with color curves driven by dynamic parameters.

Gamma Correction: Applying a power of 2.2 can correct colors in linear space.
Performance: This method can be expensive and less accurate for mobile platforms.
Alternative: Using a different color picker that handles color conversion behind the scenes.
Example: Correcting gamma in shaders to achieve desired colors.

Post-Process Volumes: Can be used to replace the tonemapper in a post-process material.
Control: Provides more control over how colors are displayed and desaturated.
Example: Using post-process volumes to achieve desired color effects.
Settings: Adjusting settings within the post-process volume to fine-tune color desaturation.

Material Settings: Adjusting material settings can help control color desaturation.
Emissive Channel: Multiplying the emissive channel by a variable can make colors brighter.
Bloom: Increasing brightness can cause more bloom and less saturation.
Physically Correct: Unreal Engine attempts to display colors in a physically correct way, affecting how white and other colors appear.