# Baked Lights look awfully bad **URL:** \ **Category:** Rendering\ **Tags:** unreal-engine, lighting-problem, Rendering, question\ **Created:** [January 30, 2026, 8:47pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/baked-lights-look-awfully-bad/2696076 "2026-01-30T20:47:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Divyanshu](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/divyanshu/32/495647_2.png) [@Divyanshu](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Divyanshu)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 8:47pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/baked-lights-look-awfully-bad/2696076/1 "2026-01-30T20:47:58Z")
Hey, I am new to game development, I used to get very less fps when I used stationary lights then I got to know I am supposed to make all the lights of my horror game static and build light accordingly, but the baked lightning looks awfully bad. This is the before look- ![HorrorProject - Unreal Editor 31-01-2026 02_02_10 AM](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/d/c/f/dcffbf76ad5338f8bd25a4b38bf03871765f6785.jpeg) This is the fater look- ![HorrorProject - Unreal Editor 31-01-2026 02_01_42 AM](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/0/8/1/081d8bec702e7e6891abee09946773e32b6234bc.png) If I tweak the intensity of the lights a little bit and then again put the initial value I get similar results as the lightning gets dynamic again(I guess) but the fps drops again and lightning has to be rebuilt which again on rebuilding gives awful results. Please anyone help me if possible… ---
**Author:** ![Chantanclan](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Chantanclan](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Chantanclan)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2026, 6:01am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/baked-lights-look-awfully-bad/2696076/2 "2026-01-31T06:01:20Z")
Hi! I’m not an expert, but I’m going to tell you some basic things to check since I’m also learning to work with baked lighting: - Have you disabled Lumen global illumination (in project settings and in the post process volume)? - Have you enabled the “Allow Static Lighting” option in project settings? (I assume so since it lets you bake, but just to check) - Do your objects have the correct lightmaps? (This is usually one of the main problems, even when you think they are fine and something is missing) - Are you using Nanite geometry? (if so, this complicates things) Good luck with that, baked lighting along with reflection captures require more work, but it’s a very good option to massively optimize performance. You can also use stationary lights which are also partly baked; they require a bit more resources but cast shadows from dynamic objects like a moving character. Best regards. ---
**Author:** ![Divyanshu](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/divyanshu/32/495647_2.png) [@Divyanshu](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Divyanshu)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2026, 3:52pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/baked-lights-look-awfully-bad/2696076/3 "2026-02-01T15:52:33Z")
I did all those things already but no considerable results… ---
**Author:** ![Chantanclan](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Chantanclan](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Chantanclan)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2026, 5:33pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/baked-lights-look-awfully-bad/2696076/4 "2026-02-01T17:33:49Z")
I’m sorry to hear that, the only thing I can think of is the shadow maps. Are you using Shadow Maps (instead of Virtual Shadow Maps)? Starting from version 5.5 included, “normal” shadow maps do not work well with rect lights and spotlights if you are using GPU Lightmass. Have you set the correct index for each mesh when building the lightmap UVs? (In the static mesh details, “lightmap coordinate index” = 1) ? ---
**Author:** ![Divyanshu](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/divyanshu/32/495647_2.png) [@Divyanshu](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Divyanshu)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2026, 7:07am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/baked-lights-look-awfully-bad/2696076/5 "2026-02-02T07:07:08Z")
Yes everything already done as you say ---
**Author:** ![yujiang.wang](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@yujiang.wang](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/yujiang.wang)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2026, 8:12am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/baked-lights-look-awfully-bad/2696076/6 "2026-02-02T08:12:00Z")
If you want to use GPU Lightmass, use this community fork: [Epic's GPUlightmass - #667 by yujiang.wang](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/epics-gpulightmass/139357/667) ---
**Author:** ![3d\_dreamer](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/3d_dreamer/32/1164318_2.png) [@3d\_dreamer](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/3d_dreamer)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2026, 5:19pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/baked-lights-look-awfully-bad/2696076/7 "2026-03-03T17:19:15Z")
Try these options; the issue might be with the Lightmass settings or with the points. [![](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/f/7/f/f7fdba65a2a6df1b861b9a1fdd17c511664ec8ba.jpeg "How to Fix Light Baking Artifacts in Unreal Engine 5 | Tips & Tricks") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G049l_vP8bs)