I have been using Unreal Engine 4 for almost 5 years now and I usually find the solution to issues without having to ask, but this one has really baffled me.
I have followed the instructions carefully using the docs step by step but DFAO simply doesn’t render.
The scene is a floor, a box and a SkyLight, that’s all. I can see the objects in the scene because of the cubemap in the SkyLight.
The Distance Field Ambient Occlusion settings are available in the SkyLight, but they have no affect whatsoever.
Toggling Show > Visualize > Distance Field Ambient Occlusion also has no affect. It simply doesn’t change the visualization.
I have seen many questions posted on the forums regarding DFAO due to shadows being too dark, resolutions being too low, but I cannot even see the DFAO in any of my projects with any version of UE and I haven’t been able to find anyone else with a similar issue.
Additional information along with things I have already tried:
Specs: Windows 7 64 bit, AMD Radeon graphics card with the latest drivers, 16 GB ram, pretty high-spec and runs Unreal Engine 4 very well. DirectX11
Enabled Generate Mesh Distance Fields in both the project settings and for each individual mesh.
Scalability settings set to Epic, most importantly for shadows.
Confirmed that distance field meshes have been generated by visualizing the Distance Field Mesh.
SkyLight set to movable, cast dynamic shadows along with a specified cubemap for indirect light.
r.DistanceFieldAO = 1
I tried uninstalling unreal engine and the editor and performed a clean install. Didn’t work.
Run DXDiagnostics, found nothing as usual.
At this point, I am open to any suggestions that might resolve this issue or at least provide me with some clues.