HDRI Backdrop not recieving shadows

Hi UE friends - I’m getting into the HDRI Backdrop ray-traced lighting strategy but have run into an issue. Initially shadows were rendering properly on the ground-plane/environment dome but, while following the recent UE4 Automotive lighting/rendering tutorial ( Learn About Photoreal Automotive Rendering in Unreal Engine | Webinar - YouTube ) the shadows disappeared.

I tried backtracking on the steps I had taken but nothing brought them back and, even after starting a new project from scratch, I haven’t been able to get the shadows to reappear…

In the “Lighting Only” view, there ARE very soft shadows being cast by the HDRI backdrop itself and adding a directional light adds a much clearer shadow that should be visible on the HDRI backdrop mesh.

However, in the Lit scene but no shadows of any kind are cast on the ground…

Has anyone else run into a similar issue? I’ve double checked that all lights are movable and reset all the settings I could think of or had changed but with no success. Any advice would be a huge help!

ih man, same here. breen on this for 2 days!!! i wish i had never watched the automotiv tut, lol. did u find a solution yet?

Yes and No - I was able to get the soft ground-shadows working again but it only happened by downloading the Automotive Rendering Beach scene, opening it, then starting a new level from scratch. I have no idea why the HDRI backdrop ground shadows then began to function as they were demonstrated to but perhaps opening the Beach demo scene cleared some preferences/cache that was causing the issue… I’m really not sure - I wish I had a clearer answer because I know this may not work in your situation. I spent a few days pulling my hair out as well and can only wish you good luck!! If you do figure out what the root cause is though PLEASE let me know - I’d still love to know what’s at the heart of the issue!