# Help with shadow transition distance for baked vs dynamic shadows

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/help-with-shadow-transition-distance-for-baked-vs-dynamic-shadows/488445>\
**Category:** Modding\
**Tags:** mod, unreal-engine, question\
**Created:** [September 6, 2021, 8:35am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/help-with-shadow-transition-distance-for-baked-vs-dynamic-shadows/488445 "2021-09-06T08:35:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_3b8272d4](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_3b8272d4](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_3b8272d4)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2021, 8:35am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/help-with-shadow-transition-distance-for-baked-vs-dynamic-shadows/488445/1 "2021-09-06T08:35:16Z")

</div>

I’m editing a game (No More Heroes 3) using cvars through the scalability settings and have a bit of an issue with shadows. I’ve noticed that if I increase the shadow distance scale, it allows dynamic shadows to be cast farther out from the player (which is great), but it also (unfortunately) increases the distance at which lower quality baked shadows are faded out (they’re either far shadows or distance field shadows, not sure).

I want to make it so that the baked shadows stay AND the dynamic shadows render at farther distances. I know that would cause a bit of overlapping but thats fine. Anyone know a way I could do this through cvars?

Here are image comparisons showing exactly what I’m talking about.

> **[NMH3 shadow distance scale - Imgsli](https://imgsli.com/Njk3Njg)**

> **[NMH3 shadows - Imgsli](https://imgsli.com/Njk3Njk)**

The reason I want to do this is because not all of the objects that have baked shadows have dynamic shadows enabled, so some of them (like the stoplight pole in the first comparison) don’t have any shadows at all when you get close to them. I know the baked shadow would be low res when I get close to it, but thats better than no shadow. And at the same time I want to keep the shadowdistancescale up to have the farther rendering for dynamic shadows.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ClockworkOcean](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/clockworkocean/32/1169999_2.png) [@ClockworkOcean](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ClockworkOcean)\
**Post date:** [September 6, 2021, 9:10am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/help-with-shadow-transition-distance-for-baked-vs-dynamic-shadows/488445/2 "2021-09-06T09:10:56Z")

</div>

Rather than using this metric, which I never found very useful, why not tinker with

 ![348083-screenshot-6.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/4/e/9/4e91d8f124577e109b1aff1b8ad0a19194ad083b.jpeg)

This way, you can have a static directional light and bake, but keep a tight radius around the player where all the shadows are dynamic.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_3b8272d4](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_3b8272d4](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_3b8272d4)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2021, 6:52am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/help-with-shadow-transition-distance-for-baked-vs-dynamic-shadows/488445/3 "2021-09-12T06:52:53Z")

</div>

Like I said, I’m only able to use commands. Anything there?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ClockworkOcean](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/clockworkocean/32/1169999_2.png) [@ClockworkOcean](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ClockworkOcean)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2021, 7:05am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/help-with-shadow-transition-distance-for-baked-vs-dynamic-shadows/488445/4 "2021-09-12T07:05:13Z")

</div>

meh… I can’t find a console command for that… :-/