Hi Folks
Many times when I post on here I get exactamundo no response, but here goes…
Quite often after setting up a level with dynamic lighting I think, we’ll in this case I could actually move to static, let’s give it a go.
So I just make the directional light and skylight static and build…
Nope…
The engine usually builds something totally whacky, dense black shadows or completely overexposed.
Is there supposed to be a way to gracefully move from dynamic to static, or do I have to resign myself to a couple of hundred hours of building / testing / building?..
Hi!
I don’t really understand what kind of answer you’re expecting here: there are hundreds of tutorials about static lighting…
As in every software there are settings for static lights depending on your liking…
I think the main thing which is good to understand in the beginning: you set your lighting/shadow quality in pixel maps! You’ll need your meshes to have a well laid uv set for lighting…
…and depends on the quality you’re after: YES, it’s highly possible that you’ll spend tens/hundreds of hours building lights…
Well it would make sense to be able to make the level with dynamic, and then switch to static, and get detailed shadows, great GI etc.
But there’s ( apparently ) almost no relationship between what looks good in dynamic ( re: skylight / directional light ) and what translates well to static.
Just try it. Make something with dynamic, get it looking good, then switch to static and build. It’s hardly related at all… 
( thank you for posting, by the way… )
Yes, afraid you were going to say that… :-/
It’s ok, you’re not an ***. I was just checking if there was something crucial I was missing… 
Can you make a screenshot of before/After? Normally the changes aren’t too bad. Maybe your Lightmap resolution is to low? Mostly if you have large meshes like a wall or floor. Also - how does your Lightmap UV Channel of the mesh look like? (Mesh editor, check which channel is used, and visualise it in the toolbar). sometimes it’s horrible what UE creates on its own when dealing with large meshes.
Hi Adnoh
Here’s an example. It’s not the dark shadow thing I was talking about, but it is an example of how there’s very little relationship between static and dynamic lighting:
Contrived scene with dynamic lights ( skylight: 1, directional: 7 ):
So, you can see into the shadows, I’ve a strong contrast ( which is what I wanted ), it looks pretty good. And it’s at times like this that I think “well I’ve heard how good static lighting is, maybe I’ll just try doing that here…” So, all I do is switch both lights to static, no other changes ( apart from building light ):
Lightdensity:
Meh?
