# Deformed shadows after lighting build **URL:** \ **Category:** Rendering\ **Tags:** shadow, unreal-engine, question, static-shadows\ **Created:** [November 13, 2020, 3:05am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/deformed-shadows-after-lighting-build/474401 "2020-11-13T03:05:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Noobcreator03](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Noobcreator03](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Noobcreator03)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2020, 3:05am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/deformed-shadows-after-lighting-build/474401/1 "2020-11-13T03:05:25Z")
I have this weird issue where the editor seems to have problems drawing the mesh’ shadow when I build the level, at first, it looks normal but after I build the level, the shadows are deformed, I wonder if anyone could help ![321883-man-sky-unreal-editor-13-11-2020-09-52-04.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/f/2/1/f2189292f4dd8d646a341ca21febd5b6a654cf7b.jpeg) before lighting build ![321884-man-sky-unreal-editor-13-11-2020-10-00-13.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/1/f/9/1f93478bd4b56784f7ec0dbb91c8fa76406cf11d.jpeg) after lighting build ---
**Author:** ![presto423](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@presto423](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/presto423)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2020, 11:58pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/deformed-shadows-after-lighting-build/474401/2 "2020-11-14T23:58:49Z")
What are the directional light settings (2-3 screenshots of all the lighting and shadow settings)? What are the scalability and quality settings too (scalability is in upper settings dropdown, and quality is in another dropdown to the right of it)? ---
**Author:** ![Noobcreator03](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Noobcreator03](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Noobcreator03)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 3:26am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/deformed-shadows-after-lighting-build/474401/3 "2020-11-15T03:26:14Z")
here it is ![322061-man-sky-unreal-editor-15-11-2020-10-19-42.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/f/f/c/ffc589aaa090c3dbd6c52d05705429edcd610478.jpeg) ![322067-man-sky-unreal-editor-15-11-2020-10-21-03.png](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/c/1/2c13308b40853ff3591ed9b5d6f4ad46057578cb.png) ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_f26c856c1](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_f26c856c1](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_f26c856c1)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 9:41am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/deformed-shadows-after-lighting-build/474401/4 "2020-11-15T09:41:39Z")
Hi! Your receiver surface (floor) has a lightmap resolution that’s too low! You can either raise the resolution or you can try to go with stationary/dynamic lights which are easier to control in the beginning… ---
**Author:** ![Noobcreator03](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Noobcreator03](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Noobcreator03)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 11:27pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/deformed-shadows-after-lighting-build/474401/5 "2020-11-15T23:27:57Z")
Thanks for the help!, is there a way to instantly set all the lightmaps higher instead of setting them one by one? ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_f26c856c1](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_f26c856c1](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_f26c856c1)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 12:11am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/deformed-shadows-after-lighting-build/474401/6 "2020-11-16T00:11:10Z")
> **[Property Matrix](https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.1/en-US/property-matrix-in-unreal-engine/)** > > Tool for viewing and editing multiple properties of multiple Actors at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Noobcreator03](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Noobcreator03](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Noobcreator03)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2020, 4:34pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/deformed-shadows-after-lighting-build/474401/7 "2020-11-21T16:34:22Z")
your advice really helps, but it only works on meshes and flat surfaces, not landscape mode, I tried increasing the static light resolution but it increases the render time for simple things and crashed the software, is there a way to fix it? ---
**Author:** ![presto423](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@presto423](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/presto423)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/deformed-shadows-after-lighting-build/474401/8 "2020-11-21T18:59:31Z")
Increase “Packed Light and Shadow Map Texture Size” in World Settings (dropdown arrow under Lightmass). What is the size of the landscape? Are there reflection captures in the scene? ---
**Author:** ![Noobcreator03](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Noobcreator03](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Noobcreator03)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2020, 12:38am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/deformed-shadows-after-lighting-build/474401/9 "2020-11-23T00:38:08Z")
sorry for the long reply, here’s the full info of the landscape ![322806-forest-cabin-unreal-editor-23-11-2020-07-36-35.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/0/d/7/0d73d4f469729a1507b0840ec76693e224802264.jpeg) ![322807-forest-cabin-unreal-editor-23-11-2020-07-33-19.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/c/e/a/cea35a3e14d6e5cc1918113c003262285bd73692.jpeg) there are no reflection captures on the scene as of now ---
**Author:** ![presto423](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@presto423](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/presto423)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2020, 2:10pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/deformed-shadows-after-lighting-build/474401/10 "2020-11-23T14:10:38Z")
Were the trees placed with the foliage tool, or painted on, or placed separately one by one? There’s a few possible reasons it’s doing that I’m thinking of: 1. The distance field meshes for the trees aren’t a high enough resolution / aren’t two-sided (open a tree mesh in the mesh editor, go to Build settings for LOD0 and enable “Two-sided mesh distance field” and/or increase “Distance Field Resolution” in steps to 2, 3…etc until a more fully-formed shadow is rendered) 2. Mesh Distance Fields aren’t enabled in the project settings (go to Project Settings \> Rendering and check “Generate Mesh Distance Fields”) 3. The Global Distance Field is casting those globular shadows rather than the mesh distance fields that are generated per mesh. ---
**Author:** ![Noobcreator03](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Noobcreator03](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Noobcreator03)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 12:41pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/deformed-shadows-after-lighting-build/474401/11 "2020-11-24T12:41:31Z")
Sorry for the long reply, the trees were placed with the foliage tool, but some aren’t (2 of them specifically) 1. I tried to do exactly what you said but it doesn’t work, I kept increasing the distance field up til 7, its still the same 2. I’ve enabled it, the results were still the same 3. is there a way to change that? ---
**Author:** ![presto423](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@presto423](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/presto423)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2020, 2:01pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/deformed-shadows-after-lighting-build/474401/12 "2020-11-24T14:01:43Z")
Global Distance Field settings are in cvars from console, and there’s one in World settings for the distance it covers from the camera (default 20,000). This sounds as if there’s a different problem than simply the settings for the trees. Are you able to share the project file? I’m open to looking at it on my computer, but I need the trees’ file too if it’s not in the Content folder of the project. If it renders ok on my computer, it could be a hardware or software bug on yours. If it renders the same as yours, then I’ll look at various settings quicker than suggesting them in the AnswerHub. ---
**Author:** ![Noobcreator03](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Noobcreator03](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Noobcreator03)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2020, 1:09pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/deformed-shadows-after-lighting-build/474401/13 "2020-11-25T13:09:07Z")
The trees were from marketplace, you already know that the trees are already optimized, as you can see from the pics I posted before (man, cube, streetlamp) those have a similar problem, I thought my mesh were problematic until I test build the tree and starter kit meshes, again sorry for long reply