SkyLight Completely Broken in 4.11 and 4.12

General Feedback & Requests
1

Hello,

The SkyLight darkens anything that uses “2 Sided” and “SubSurface” shading models. And it darkens them too much.
Everything works fine as long as the SkyLight is set to Stationary. But this happens as soon as you put skylight on Movable. (Happens without having generate mesh distance fields and DFAO activated so it’s just something wrong with the SkyLight itself or the shaders).

After using 4.10 for a while then I downloaded 4.11.2 and faced the problem for the first time. And it is still there in 4.12 Preview 2 as well. (Both downloaded through launcher).

Repro steps:

  1. Create a new level
  2. Check Force no precomputed lighting option in the world settings and click on build lighting once to get rid of the pre-baked lighting that’s on the newly created level.
  3. Put a piece of foliage/vegetation in the scene. (Something that has leaves and uses the “2 Sided” shading model.
  4. Remove directional light. (Do this so you will see the problem a lot easier).
  5. Add Skylight.
  6. Switch back and fourth between Stationary and Movable to see the darkening problem.

The problem happens 100% of the time when I do this in 4.11.2 and 4.12 preview 2.

System specs:

Windows 7 x64
GTX 970
Core i7 4790K
16GB RAM

Example setups:

Skylight set to Stationary - No DFAO

Skylight set to Movable - No DFAO

Another test

Another test in different project

It is very critical for us to have skylight working properly on movable. So we can then use DFAO. But currently it darkens the assets so much without DFAO that if we enable DFAO too then it’s just total darkness on these assets.
Looking forward to get a reply on this!

Thanks!

2

I think (not sure) that you have to increase the “Distance Field Resolution Scale” in the static mesh build settings. You can try and see if it works. :slight_smile:

3

All of the above looked ok in 4.10 and older versions. It’s not the DF resolution scale. :frowning:

4

Does it also happen when you set the directional light to intensity 0 without removing it?

5

Can you also report this to AnswerHub please?

6

Yes. It happens when directional light is affecting the world as well. But because the directional light is lightening up the assets, it undo the skylight problem to some degree. But the problem is still there with/without directional light.

7

Sure! It’s done. :slight_smile:

8

Maybe generate mesh distance fields in project->rendering is unticked. It has sth. with moveable sky lights in it…

Edit: no, does not help… (please post the solution here if answer hub has one)

9

So what if we don’t get any answers on answer hub too? do I have to bump there as well?
Just want to know if it’s going to get fixed asap or not. It’s a big red flag if we can’t have DFAO in projects because of skylight not working on movable.

10

I have moved your Answerhub report into the correct Bug Reports section. It will be reviewed by support staff as soon as possible.

Cheers

11

Silly (perhaps) question - why do you want SkyLight to be Movable ?

12

So we can use DFAO.
@anonymous_user_1da90bc6, Thanks!

13

Any updates on this?

14

The ‘Two Sided’ shading model got broken in 4.11 and has been fixed for 4.12 which will be in the next 4.12 preview release.

The ‘Subsurface’ shading model was never handled for movable skylight, but it has also been fixed for 4.12.

Thanks for bringing this up and with such clear images and reproduction steps!

15

Amazing! Thank you! :slight_smile:

16

Shivers down my spine and this strange feeling that comes with cold and sweaty hands when thinking about doing a game that takes 1-2 years to complete in UE4.
Can you let the decision making board know that feature hunting in every version, trading of stability, is not going to convince developers to use the engine?

17

Just showed the ‘Two sided foliage in 4.11’ line to my buddy.

Reaction was something close to this:

Have mercy with us, guys! Do not become the next Cry-Engine, with users just waiving at UE4 after too much mess produced by feature mongering. That already got Cry-Tek into trouble. For every serious project, stability and reliability is number one.

18

Hi ,

I just downloaded 4.12 Preview 4 and there are still problems with 2 sided and subsurface shading models there.
Things don’t get as dark as OP but they still do. And the following screens are without having DFAO and SSAO. It’s just a skylight switching from stationary to movable.

Now if we were to use DFAO and/or SSAO, things get much darker as well.
Repro steps are the same but I will just write again.
**
Repro steps:**

  1. Create a new level
  2. Check Force no precomputed lighting option in the world settings and click on build lighting once to get rid of the pre-baked lighting that’s on the newly created level.
  3. Put a piece of foliage/vegetation in the scene. (Something that has leaves and uses the “2 Sided” shading model.
  4. Remove directional light. (Do this so you will see the problem a lot easier).
  5. Add Skylight.
  6. Switch back and fourth between Stationary and Movable to see the darkening problem.

The problem happens 100% of the time when I do this in 4.12 preview 4.
This is a solid dead end for foliage/vegetation and outdoor scenes. Please look into it. We’re stuck at this since 4.11.

Thanks.

Edit: @DanielW, I just noticed “Lower Hemisphere is black” was unchecked on the skylight. When I check it I get witness the problem at its 100% strength like in the OP so this isn’t fixed at all. Did you mean preview 5 when you mentioned it’s fixed in the next preview?

Edit 2: Reflections seem to be wrong as well.

19

Maybe what DanielW meant was the next 4.12 rc which preview 5.

20

I just checked github. It’s not in 4.12 preview 4 so will be in preview 5 I guess.

https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/commit/c607b92f3731b59cd71fdff0a068a8f298a3e28b

“Two sided was broken by selective GBuffer outputs, Subsurface had never been handled #jira UE-30855”