Issue improving frame rate when using dynamic lighting in large open world

Development Programming & Scripting Blueprint
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Hello everyone, I’m working on a large open world project in Unreal Engine 5, and I’m experiencing significant frame rate drops whenever dynamic lighting (especially from directional light and skylight) is enabled. Here are some details:

  • Unreal Engine version: 5.3

  • Platform: PC (Windows 11)

  • Hardware specs: RTX 3070, 32GB RAM, i9-9900K

  • Scene setup: Large terrain with lots of foliage, moving time of day using directional light + skylight + real‑time shadows

  • What I have tried so far:

    1. Lowering shadow quality & distance

    2. Using LODs for foliage

    3. Turning off some post‑processing effects (ambient occlusion, bloom)

    4. Baking light for smaller, static objects

Even after these changes, frame rate still drops to ~25‑30 fps in certain areas (normally expect 60 fps).

My questions are:

  1. What further optimizations can be applied to improve performance with dynamic lighting in open world environments?

  2. Is there a recommended workflow or plugin to manage day/night cycle with good lighting performance?

  3. What settings in UE5 (lighting/shadow/lightmass etc.) are most often overlooked but have big impact?

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions!