# DFAO not visible with VR **URL:** \ **Category:** XR Development\ **Tags:** dfao, distance-field-ambie, unreal-engine, Oculus-Rift, bug-report, question\ **Created:** [March 20, 2017, 5:12pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468 "2017-03-20T17:12:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fisher007](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Fisher007](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Fisher007)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2017, 5:12pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/1 "2017-03-20T17:12:56Z")
Hi, It seems like DFAO doesn’t work with VR. I have checked with 4.14 and 4.15. Just a fresh project, DFAO switched on, VR preview. ![130918-dfao1.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/0/4/7/047800a147158ad5bf429340e525a8ff971a5549.jpeg) ![130919-dfao2.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/f/f/d/ffdaac487c2e8f6654338c6e21e963d2517180fb.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_6e7b421a](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_6e7b421a](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_6e7b421a)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 2:39pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/2 "2017-03-22T14:39:32Z")
Hey , So I ran a test on my end and can confirm that DFAO is not working on VR. However, I do not believe this to be a bug as using DFAO requires a Movable Skylight cast dynamic shadows set to true. This kinda goes against the VR best practices where we encourage users to use static lighting as often as possible, and as few dynamic lights as possible. This is done to keep in line with the performance requirements when making any VR experience. Using a Movable Skylight is going to immediately have a performance cost, and having to leverage that with your other VR content would be difficult as Skylights cast shadows on the entire scene. If you would like to use AO there are a few other methods which can work really well for you in this case. For starters you can use the Lightmass baked AO term, which can be found and enabled through the World Settings tab. You can also take a look at the Precomputed AO Mask to have more control over how the AO will look on a per material basis. Let me know if you have further questions or need additional assistance. Thank you, ---
**Author:** ![Fisher007](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Fisher007](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Fisher007)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2017, 3:38pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/3 "2017-03-22T15:38:45Z")
Hi Andrew, Thanks for the reply. I know the best practices very well and agree that for average hard surface environments those should be used if possible. On the other hand I really strongly disagree on that “best practices” is a valid reason to limit certain tools. It’s up to the user to decide if they are happy to pay the high price for using it. Not everyone is making Robo recall or VR arch-viz. There could be numerous creative use cases for DFAO with VR. So unless there are technical limitations to implement it, I can only call this a bug. Regards, Fisher ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_6e7b421a](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_6e7b421a](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_6e7b421a)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2017, 7:39pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/4 "2017-03-24T19:39:10Z")
Hey , You make a fair point, so I have gone ahead and entered the bug report to have this issue addressed. **[UE-43318](https://issues.unrealengine.com/issue/UE-43318)** Once the issue has been addressed by our engineers the ticket will be updated and reflected in the public tracker. Let me know if you have further questions or need additional assistance. Cheers, ---
**Author:** ![Fisher007](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Fisher007](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Fisher007)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 11:48am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/5 "2017-03-25T11:48:24Z")
Thanks Andrew! ---
**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_6e7b421a](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_6e7b421a](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_6e7b421a)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2017, 2:50pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/6 "2017-03-29T14:50:54Z")
The report has been updated to reflect the future of DFAO in VR. ---
**Author:** ![pixelvspixel](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@pixelvspixel](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/pixelvspixel)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2017, 7:04pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/7 "2017-04-02T19:04:52Z")
I agree with you completely as well. I’d love this ability as well. I’ve found if I’m working on a really small or focus project that I can break a lot of the “VR best practices” that a full game can’t. Visualizing a few things really well in VR is still a need of a lot of non-game users. ---
**Author:** ![alecmoody](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@alecmoody](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/alecmoody)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2017, 7:33pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/8 "2017-04-08T19:33:16Z")
I added another vote for this. My project would be better served with distance field lighting in the deferred renderer than using the suggested forward rendering pipeline. ---
**Author:** ![Maxwell\_77](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Maxwell\_77](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Maxwell_77)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 10:28am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/9 "2017-05-13T10:28:00Z")
Are there any news to this topic? I really need DFAO in VR too. My current projects are looking really bad without DFAO in VR… ---
**Author:** ![Fisher007](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Fisher007](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Fisher007)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 10:05am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/10 "2017-05-14T10:05:04Z")
Yeah, you can ready it in the bugreport above. They won’t fix it unfortunately, so make sure to vote on it, maybe it reaches the needed pressure. ---
**Author:** ![Maxwell\_77](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Maxwell\_77](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Maxwell_77)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 6:04pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/11 "2017-05-14T18:04:25Z")
I have voted for it. 🙂 But I have no understanding for Epic’s decision not to fix it. Perhaps we can change their opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Fisher007](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Fisher007](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Fisher007)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 10:15am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/12 "2017-09-12T10:15:29Z")
It has been 6 months ago. Any update on this matter maybe? I had quite a few projects that really missed this feature. Makes me really sad that it’s there, working perfectly but we can’t use it just because of “vr”. Thanks, Fisher ---
**Author:** ![Maxwell\_77](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Maxwell\_77](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Maxwell_77)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/13 "2017-09-12T17:46:49Z")
I also have no sympathy for the fact that Epic does not support DFAO in VR. Even if it can lead to performance problems, it should be left to everyone to decide whether to use this technology or not. DFAO is currently the most important feature that needs to be integrated into VR. It would dramatically increase the visual quality. ---
**Author:** ![Maxwell\_77](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Maxwell\_77](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Maxwell_77)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 9:17am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/14 "2018-03-30T09:17:46Z")
Unfortunately there are no good news regarding this topic. I cannot understand why it is so difficult to implement DFAO into VR… Screenspace Reflections and normal AO is working in VR… And this can also lead to performance problems. ---
**Author:** ![CupMcCakers](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@CupMcCakers](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/CupMcCakers)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2021, 5:36pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/dfao-not-visible-with-vr/388468/15 "2021-09-29T17:36:23Z")
Please add support for DFAO in VR. If it’s just to protect performance what is the point? There are tonnes of other engine features that murder VR performance. Besides, hardware has come a long way in the last few years!