This section will explain how to load custom 360 images off your computer to use as photo spheres in unreal.

1. Find a “lat-long” style photo sphere image in either .png or .jpg format that you enjoy. You will need to convert .exr or .hdr images to .png or .jpg using your desired photo editing software.
   
   • Polyhaven has a considerable library of free HDRI. We use several in Automation.
     https://polyhaven.com/hdris. They usually come in HDR or EXR format so will need to be converted. Some will allow you to download jpg copies if you click the menu on the top right. Consider supporting Polyhaven if you enjoy their content.
     
   • This is the kind of image format you are looking for
     
   
   
2. Place the .png or .jpg in the following folder in AppData.
   
   C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Local\AutomationGame\Saved\UserData\PhotoScene\BackdropImages
   • App data is hidden by default in windows, so you may need to show hidden files to be able to find it.
     
   • You can also use the “Open Photo/Video Folder” button in the photo scene to find the automation appdata folder
     
   
   
3. Open up Automation and enter the photo scene with a car.
   
   
   
4. Under Scene->Level, click the currently opened level preview to open the level selection screen.
   
   
   
5. Select the 360 photo level preview.
   
   • Alternatively load a default photo preset that has HDRI in the name. These can be found under the Scene->Level->Default Photo Presets collapsable box. These may be configured slightly differently to the basic level, so you can experiment with these later.
   
   
   
6. You should now see additional Photo Sphere controls under the level settings once the level has loaded. Under Scene->Level->Texture click Mode and change it to Custom Images.
   
   
   
7. Now click the Image selection below and your new photo sphere or image should appear in the list.
   
   • If you already have a photoscene opened when you add a new image you can change the mode to HDRI and back to update the Images list with your new images.
     
   • If the image doesn’t show in the list, make sure it’s in the right folder and is actually a .jpg or .png. Just renaming your .hdr or .exr files will not work.
   
   
   
8. Select your desired image and you should see it in the scene!

If you want to superimpose your automation cars onto photos off your cellphone or camera, or images you've found online, the photo scene HDRi sphere prop can help you out!
We have provided a default photo scene preset to make this setup process easier.

Example car by Shinyodd

1. Find a photo backdrop you want your car to be placed on to. Any photo will work, provided it’s a .png or .jpg format.
   
   • You can get really nice backdrops from https://polyhaven.com/hdris. Find an HDRI you like, then click in the top right corner and check if the creator has uploaded any “Backplates”. These are high resolution context images used as backdrops. Consider supporting Polyhaven if you enjoy their content.
     
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2. Place the .png or .jpg in the following folder in AppData. “C:\Users\[your username here]\AppData\Local\AutomationGame\Saved\UserData\PhotoScene\BackdropImages”
   
   • App data is hidden by default in windows, so you may need to show hidden files to be able to find it.
     
   • You can also use the “Open Photo/Video Folder” button in the photo scene to find the automation appdata folder
   
   
3. Open up Automation and enter the photo scene with a car.
   
   
   
4. Under Scene->Level->Default Photo Presets collapsible area, load the Custom Backdrop Image preset by clicking the load entire preset button.
   
   
   
5. Depending on the car selected, you may need to move the car up and down to fit the loaded scene. Change to the layout camera by pressing Shift + C or clicking the switch camera button
   
   
   
6. Move the layout camera to see the wheels of your spawned car. As you can see here the wheels are slightly in the ground.
   
   
   
7. To solve this we click the car, making sure the gizmo shows up
   
   
   
8. Then make sure ground snapping is off
   
   
   
9. Then use the gizmo to move and rotate the car till it looks like it's sitting on the surface.
   
   
   
10. Once you’re happy with the car sitting on the surface, switch back to the photo camera with Shift + C or the switch camera button.
    
    
11. Now we can change the backdrop to our custom image. This scene defaults to having 2 photo sphere objects, 1 is controlled from the level tab and is used for lighting and reflections and is a sphere. The other is a prop, which is used as the actual backdrop. To change the background/backdrop we need to select the prop. You can select it by pressing the TAB key or finding it in the spawned props list.
    
    
    
12. Now with the prop selected, under Props->Level->Texture click Mode and change it to Custom Images if it isn't already.
    
    
    
13. Now click the Image selection below and your new image should appear in the list.
    
    • If you already have a photoscene opened when you add a new image you can change the mode to HDRI and back to update the Images list with your new images.
      
    • If the image doesn’t show in the list, make sure it’s in the right folder and is actually a .jpg or .png. Just renaming your .hdr or .exr files will not work.
    
    
    
14. Select your desired image and you should see it in the scene!

• Increase the intensity slider in the Texture settings. You can both scroll and type in values far higher than the sliders permit if required.
  
• You can also use the light strength slider but be aware that this will slightly detract from reflections. The brighter the Texture Intensity is the brighter reflections will be on cars, but the brighter the light is the more flatly coloured the reflections will become.

• The direction of the shadows on a photo sphere are dependant on the scene that the sphere is loaded in.
  
• The vanilla HDRI Photo Level has a control for light height that determines the shadow length & a light rotation control that determines which direction the shadows come from. (Pre 4.2.26 they were called X Rotation and Z Rotation)

• Lighting distance basically simulates how far away the sun is away which determines how sharp shadows are.
  
• A lighting distance of 0 will be the softest shadows possible. A distance of around 150 is about the max, but requires much higher light strength or texture intensity.

• Photo spheres distort when Camera Projection is off due to the mesh they are placed on. To allow the car to cast shadows on the ground the "sphere" has a flat bottom. This means there is transition between the flat ground and the spherical top of the mesh, that can result in distortion.
  
• One option to fix this distortion is to stretch the texture on the ground to move the horizon point up and down. Basically you're changing where that transition is on the image. This doesn't remove the distortion but potentially moves it to somewhere where it isn't as visible. Slide the Texture Height slider to test this method. Also try switching the mesh type when you play with this slider, as your backdrop may work better with a dome, box or sharp box.
  
  
• When the Texture Height is pushed too far it brings the horizon of the photo too high which makes the photos look unnatural. If this occurs then you're probably better off trying to enable Camera Projection. Camera projection will not distort at all, as the 360 photo is displayed in the background exactly as it was taken.
  

• Backdrops distort due to an incorrectly placed camera relative to the backdrop. The texture on the mesh is projected from a certain angle, and if the camera moves too far from that angle you will see the curve of the backdrop distorting the image.
  
• The primary solution to this distortion is moving the photo camera relative to the backdrop till the project lines up correctly.
  
• Similar to the photo sphere, you can get around this distortion by moving the background image around so the texture in focus is not near the area of distortion. Use the X Offset (Horizontal) or Y Offset (Vertical) sliders under Texture to move the background image.