# How to increase shadow distance view **URL:** \ **Category:** Blueprint\ **Tags:** unreal-engine, Rendering, Blueprint, question\ **Created:** [May 3, 2023, 6:47am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-increase-shadow-distance-view/1152698 "2023-05-03T06:47:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GamesDevForFun](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@GamesDevForFun](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/GamesDevForFun)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2023, 6:47am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-increase-shadow-distance-view/1152698/1 "2023-05-03T06:47:46Z")
How can I increase the distance before the shadows aren’t showed anymore? Right now this is the distance: [![](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/3/b/d/3bdf24249ffad2f44eb7aa5c80dd2d936fee33b8.jpeg "Shadow disappear UE5") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTKIDlXtQPU) I want to increase it even more as I have some scenes where the camera will be like this, top down from a bit far away, but I still want the shadows to appear. Because general hardware isn’t quite there yet to support lumen on mid range GPU’s, I’ll focus more with it disabled, and maybe add support for it later (but even with Lumen enabled, the shadows disappear at the same distance), but I am using Nanites. That being said this is what I use right now: - Dynamic Global Illumination Method: None - Reflection Method: Screen Space - Shadow Map Method: Virtual Shadow Maps In the world I also have: - Exponential Height Fog - Post Process Volume (Infinite Extend (Unbound): Enabled) - Sky Atmosphere - Sky Light For lighting I’m using Directional Light: - Mobility: Movable I’ve seen somewhere a suggestion to change the value of `Dynamic Shadow Distance Movable Light`, and I tried it, but it doesn’t seem to make any difference. I’ve set it to 0 as well as a huge number. The shadows didn’t showed, neither did those on screen disappear. Maybe this is what I should change but before doing that I need to set something else also? Any help is appreciated. //Edit Solution: For my case this worked, but as a note, as of this posting this doesn’t work for meshed that use nanites. > [@Shadows disappear with increased camera distance](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/shadows-disappear-with-increased-camera-distance/4690/1): > > **r.Shadow.RadiusThreshold** > > - Default Value: 0.03 > - A lower value of 0.02 or 0.01 greatly increases shadow visibility at far camera distances (seems to have the most impact of all the console commands). ---
**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:** [May 3, 2023, 7:10am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-increase-shadow-distance-view/1152698/2 "2023-05-03T07:10:27Z")
See the first part of this post > [@Shadows disappear with increased camera distance](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/shadows-disappear-with-increased-camera-distance/4690): > > I was playing with a pseudo-isometric camera style (low camera Field of View) with a larger camera distance to give it a 2.5D feeling but still maintain some perspective. Anyhow, I’m not sure if this is a bug or if I need to change the way my lighting is being handled in the scene. When the camera distance (being driven by the SpringArm in the Blueprint) exceeds about 6500+ units all of the cast shadows seem to completely disappear or are not being rendered or registered. However, by just lower… ---
**Author:** ![GamesDevForFun](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@GamesDevForFun](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/GamesDevForFun)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2023, 7:40am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-increase-shadow-distance-view/1152698/3 "2023-05-03T07:40:04Z")
> [@Shadows disappear with increased camera distance](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/shadows-disappear-with-increased-camera-distance/4690/1): > > **r.Shadow.RadiusThreshold** > > - Default Value: 0.03 > - A lower value of 0.02 or 0.01 greatly increases shadow visibility at far camera distances (seems to have the most impact of all the console commands). I tried this and it worked in the scenario I showed, thank you! I’ll try the other commands to see what they also change, maybe I’ll like the effect they produce. Am I correct in thinking that this command affect how big the character has to be on the screen for it’s shadow to appear? Also, while this does work on characters (which as of now in the engine don’t have nanites) and on foliage without nanites enabled, it doesn’t work on foliage with nanites enabled. I have a tree from Megascans and I made two copies of the mesh. In one I enabled nanites and in the other they are disabled and use the normal LODs. Now on the level for the one without nanites the shadow distance is controlled with that command, but the one that has nanites enabled isn’t affected by it. Is there a new command for nanites as well, or being in beta state there isn’t one just yet? ---
**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:** [May 3, 2023, 7:50am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-increase-shadow-distance-view/1152698/4 "2023-05-03T07:50:54Z")
I think the problem is, you basically can’t have shadows to infinity, otherwise your PC would explode 🙂 Almost everyone fakes this kind of thing is some way. How, depends on what you’re goal is. ---
**Author:** ![GamesDevForFun](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@GamesDevForFun](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/GamesDevForFun)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2023, 7:56am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-increase-shadow-distance-view/1152698/5 "2023-05-03T07:56:52Z")
> [@ClockworkOcean](#): > > I think the problem is, you basically can’t have shadows to infinity, otherwise your PC would explode 🙂 Yeah, shadows/lighting are a big thing, and the new tech instead of making them cost less, in general it makes them look prettier (lumen / RT) but also at a way bigger cost. > [@ClockworkOcean](#): > > Almost everyone fakes this kind of thing is some way. How, depends on what you’re goal is. For now I should be fine as the top down camera isn’t for player gameplay action, only for showing something in rare cases, I just wanted to know of a way for the future in case I would need it. ---
**Author:** ![ATomCZ1](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@ATomCZ1](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ATomCZ1)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2024, 8:21pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/how-to-increase-shadow-distance-view/1152698/6 "2024-04-03T20:21:19Z")
For really long distances only “DistanceField Shadow DIstance” helps > **[Using Distance Field Shadows in Unreal Engine](https://dev.epicgames.com/documentation/en-us/unreal-engine/using-distance-field-shadows-in-unreal-engine)** > > How to setup and use Distance Field Shadowing in Unreal Engine.