Landscape looks blocky and low resolution

Hi there, I’m having a problem with a level that contains a UE Landscape. It used to load fine and after a few seconds the landscape would smooth out. However now when I open it, the landscape does not smooth out and remains blocky and low resolution. I don’t recall changing or editing the landscape recently. The only answer I could get on the UE Discord is “wait for it to load and it’ll smooth out”. Well it never does.

I can reproduce the issue. It’s when upgrading the engine version of the project. If I have this asset in a 5.3 project and upgrade it to 5.4, that’s when it breaks and goes chunky.

What is the reason or explanation for this? Are 5.3 landscapes not compatible with 5.4?

Comparing the landscape in both versions and the properties/vars look the same.

The landscape is an asset from here:

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/matte-painting-skybox-pack-viii-doom-skies/

I’ve been searching a few days but cannot fix it.

EDIT: this also happens when the asset is added to a new UE 5.4 project.

Upgrading version for projects can be buggy. Try migrating it instead.

It happens with a fresh new project. Could it be the asset which is a problem? It seems like a 5.4 issue, but I can inform the author.

After a week of chasing this I finally got it fixed. The problem was Derived Data Cache. When I changed the paths in the Editor Settings, the data got rebuilt and the problem is now gone. Nasty bug!