# Lighting in paper2d **URL:** \ **Category:** Rendering\ **Tags:** unreal-engine, please-help-me, question\ **Created:** [October 23, 2026, 6:59pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/lighting-in-paper2d/2844405 "2026-10-23T18:59:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lord\_starkiwi](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@lord\_starkiwi](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/lord_starkiwi)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2026, 6:59pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/lighting-in-paper2d/2844405/1 "2026-10-23T18:59:26Z")
Hello! I am very new to Unreal Engine and am trying to follow this paper2d tutorial on youtube: [https://youtu.be/xNZXFA\_eE8Q?si=GV1zlxW0OXyt0YX3](https://youtu.be/xNZXFA_eE8Q?si=GV1zlxW0OXyt0YX3) It seems easy, but when I press play my world goes black (see images). I think it has something to do with lighting and rendering but I do not know how to fix it because I am unfamiliar with the engine. Please help! ![Screenshot 2026-10-23 101250](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/3/6/1/361de5a85535097cb1ea91a1bd2f44441acba05f.jpeg) ![Screenshot 2026-10-23 101323](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/7/3/e/73ebd36671d35a917a17a0186b882a66a1fd5485.png) ---
**Author:** ![ChenDong](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@ChenDong](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/ChenDong)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2026, 12:44am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/lighting-in-paper2d/2844405/2 "2026-10-26T00:44:34Z")
The editor shot and the Play shot are not the same world. In the editor outliner the Lighting folder is there: DirectionalLight, SkyLight, SkyAtmosphere, ExponentialHeightFog, VolumetricCloud, SM\_SkySphere, and the viewport is Lit, so the scene looks normal. In the Play In Editor outliner that whole folder is gone (58 actors loaded, and the list starts at the character, the cube, and a DefaultPawn). With no directional light and no sky, the level goes black. The cat stays visible because the sprite is drawn on top of that, with a small pool of light, not because the level lighting survived. So this is not a Paper2D material problem. The light actors are not coming into the game world. Check these on DirectionalLight, SkyLight, and SkyAtmosphere: 1. They need to live in Scene1 itself, not in a sublevel or a level instance that Play does not load. In the outliner, if the level column is anything other than Scene1, right click the actor and choose Move to this level, then save. 2. Details panel, the actor section: Is Editor Only Actor must be off. If the map is World Partition, set Is Spatially Loaded off for the lights and the sky. A directional light that is spatially loaded will stream out when its own position is not near the player, and the level goes black exactly like your screenshot. Same for any Data Layer: either no data layer, or a layer that is loaded at runtime. 3. Save All, then play again. One File Per Actor maps only spawn what is saved. Your editor count was 141 actors and Play only had 58, so a lot of those actors never made it into the loaded level. 4. Set the directional light and skylight to Movable so they do not depend on a built lightmap. On the skylight, turn on Real Time Capture. After the lights actually show up in the Play outliner, if the scene is still very dark, add a Post Process Volume set to Infinite Extent and set Exposure to Manual with Min Brightness and Max Brightness both at 1. Auto exposure crushes a mostly empty Paper2D scene. Do that second. The missing Lighting folder is what matches the two screenshots. One extra thing in the Play outliner: there is a DefaultPawn0 as well as BP\_Pirate\_Character. Your game mode is still spawning the engine default pawn. In Project Settings, Maps and Modes (or World Settings, Game Mode Override), set the default pawn to BP\_Pirate\_Character. That will not fix the black screen, but it will stop a second pawn from spawning on top of the tutorial character.