Foliage not casting shadows

[Petrichora]

Hi, complete beginner here. I’ve recently started learning UE for architecture, following a YT tutorial. After adding trees to the scene, I’ve noticed that they’re not casting shadows on the ground. In the tutorial, the shadows work just right. The tutorial was made in an older version of UE, I think 5.2, I’m using 5.6.1. I’ve searched everywhere and turned on cast shadows in the foliage mesh settings, the ground mesh, checked the directional light settings. The shadows work fine on the trees themselves; they’re just not projecting any on the ground. Do you have any idea where the problem is? Thanks

[brs-sebascova]

Hello there @Petrichora!

Welcome to UE! You have encountered an interesting conflict here, since your house is clearly casting shadows, yet the foliage is not. It reminds of a thread from a few months ago, with a similar scenario:

500×500 2.84 KB

I’ve encountered a shadow rendering issue in Unreal Engine 5.6. When using Nanite-enabled trees painted with the Foliage Tool, and Evaluate World Position Offset is enabled in the material, the trees do not cast any shadows, neither direct nor indirect, even with Lumen turned off. However, if I drag and drop the same mesh directly into the level (with identical material and settings), shadows appear as expected. This issue wasn’t present in UE 5.5, so it seems to be a regression in 5.6. …

Following this background, we have a few solutions to test here:

• First of all, test dragging one of your trees directly into the level, instead of using the Foliage Tool, just like in reference thread. If it has shadows, then we are in the right track.

• Now, test if you are having the same interaction between Nanite and WPO. Open your tree static mesh, and confirm if Nanite is enabled. Then, open the tree’s material, and look if “Evaluate World Position Offset” is enabled. If this is the case, disable WPO, and check if the shadows appear. Otherwise, disable Nanite as well.

• Next, we can play around with shadow distance values. Check the details on your directional lights, look for Dynamic Shadow Distance, and set it to 100.000.

• Then, there’s the shadow method being used. Back to your lights, look for Shadow Map Method, and set it to Virtual Shadow Maps. You can also test this change from Edit > Project Settings > Engine > Rendering > Shadows

[Petrichora]

Hi, thank you for the link to the thread! It really was the WPO. When I unchecked it, the shadows appeared. I’ll have to learn more about this issue. Thanks for help!