Help: Shadows are pitch black.

I have been introducing the weather and daylight system to my map… set the blueprint and all exactly like the ‘TheIsland’ map, but the results are quite different. Where in the island, the shadows are just fine, in my map shadows and the ‘dark side’ of objects are pitch black. I have been looking around all the objects related to the lighting and compared them to ‘TheIsland’ map to make sure they are the same and they are.

Anyone has any idea on how to sort this shadow issue please? I tried playing with the ray tracing values but nothing changed unfortunately…

I thank you all in advance for any help. Below is an example of the shadow. (Tried even standalone but still pitch black.)

GI may be disabled. Personally I just use lighting assets from the test map until theres a guide on a complete lighting system.

Will check the GI later on when at home and get back (hopefully it solved it :))… But not a bad idea to work on the test map for now.

I am having this issue on Terra Nova aswell, everything in the shadows is either metallic or black, kinda ruins the experience abit

So as suggested I checked the GI and it is on… i tried introducing the reflector spheres and once again confirmed the blueprints and they are in fact fine. I also introduced the SkyLight but still no change.

Like uzumi i can make out things in the dark parts but everything becomes a shiny metallic. It is more obvious during the night when everything looks chromed.

Unfortunately still cannot identify the issue.

Same here, noticed it(the shiny black/purplish character chrome effect along with the too dark shadows) when trying to apply day cycle from 's youtube tutorial along with problems with the starfield and sun/moon not moving or effecting lighting so reverted to TestMap setup till someone has a simple working example to follow.

The daylight/weather system and as to why the sun sucks with starfield showing bla bla bla was a little tedious to solve, but managed to solve it. You need to do something that is unfortunately not mentioned in 's tutorials (maybe at that time it copied them)… You need to do the ‘Level Blueprint’.

You access this through the levels window (where you create new levels for streaming - has a video if you confused on this)… this screen will contain the logic of the map from the underwater particles, to weather effects, heat waves, cold front… everything is basically managed from this. Simply open ‘TheIsland’ to compare and see what needs to be done. There are some handy tutorials on youtube on how to work with this blueprint but it did take me some time to understand… but was worth it once I saw a nice shiny son and the day cycle was working :).

N.B. - You can copy the logic from one side to the other, but it does not copy events and some asset elements so you need to see TheIsland and work it out… again its not easy, but worth the end result.

Problem is, this blasted shadow of doom persists so I will continue experimenting and digging in the main map to find out what is lightening the shadows. I am sure it has to do with the reflection spheres… but I just need to understand how.

This did, at some point, used to copy over. I had the system working by following 's tutorial on a test map, but I never saved it as I was just trying to get a feel for the editor.

I tried copying everything over but I think this is above my level of understanding. Hopefully this can be an easier process in the future. A template that includes this system would be nice.

Also, a little curious what this guy does. Don’t know if it is related or not.

Uzumi provided a link on your other article - Strange Lighting Issue - ARK: Survival Evolved - Epic Developer Community Forums that provides a blank map with the correct setup for all your basic map needs…

I am using that right now and it seems to be working just fine :).

It was…I am using that map as well …but I cannot copy things over. the editor crashes when I do. so now Uzumi’s map…is a sublevel. its the only way I can get it into my map without crashing the editor.

I still have very black shadows as well, the clouds shadows in particular are so black that I cannot even see the island and have to get on really odd angels to see anything.

I’m laughing my *** off while working cause its a super handicap.

yeah that template was created with adk 184 i believe so its a bit out of date

im sure my map will be ok with this as a sublevel yeah?

bwahaha those are dark !
I had that issue, i resolved it by going into the SKYLIGHT settings and changing the “Sky Distance Threshold” from 10,000 to default, and the shadows were a LOT softer, but, too soft for my map. I noticed the default is something like 150,000 … lol … so 10,000 may not fit all maps. I am testing between 125,000 and 130,000 and the shadows look waaaaaaaay better, i just have to figure out what one i like the best.

Warning Global_PostProcess_Blueprint Volume actor has a collision component with 0 radius - please delete

I get this error now when I build the geometry

so what i did didnt work
The solution: Ark using some ****ing custom “MasterIBL” ******** and not telling anyone how to do it. They did reply to a post “coming soon” a year ago. I bumped it. MasterIBL will resolve ALL shadow issues we are all having.

sit around, thumb in *** … and wait … wait longer … so far, we are looking at about 7 months from the last reply to this (from wildcard)

@ TKat - warnings mean nothing. when your looking at over 100k of warnings that dont even pertain to your map … let me know. your just getting started at that point

HAHAHAH ok cool that’s good to know
for some reason, the area i just painted with foliage while showing foliage in the editor, doesn’t when I run preview.
the map is saved and all that jazz, rebuilt the geometry as well just for kicks. I also fall a little bit thru here when in playthru, I can still run around and eventually I am on the top of the ground again. I can even go back to where I sank a bit and its fine…but the foliage isn’t there.

CRAZY??? possibly…could also be something I am missing

sounds broken …
sounds like a reoccurring broken on your end lol … do a quick test, import a heightmap to a new mod … just toss in: heightmap (random one from google), directional light, atmos fog, and, global process thing to make it all work … start a test, see if you fall into the world. if you dont, then fix your map. if you do, we can narrow it down to something else.

i do not fall into the world at all

Wondering what could have happened…it was all one piece like you and I talked

So something is wrong with your landscape, and, im not sure why.

Lets get back to these black shadows … shall we? I really want a solution haha