Hello 2147,
I have set up a scene that uses fully dynamic shadows with Ray Traced Shadows enabled to help you better understand how to adjust your shadows and possibly why you are seeing artifacts.
Steps to follow:
- In your project settings within the “Engine” section, click on “Rendering.”
- Check the box that says “Generate Mesh Distance Fields”
- After enabling this option, Save and Restart the Editor for the changes to be made.
- Now within your “Directional Light” under the “Distance Field Shadows” check the box that says “Use RayTraced DistanceField Shadows.”
- The two settings within that same section will increase your shadows quality by either softening them, or the reverse.
- Increasing the “Light Source Angle” will increase your shadow soften.
- Another section that gives you more control over your shadows with “Ray Traced Shadows” enabled is “Cascaded Shadow Maps.”
- There is one setting that could help resolve your issue within here, it is called “Cascade Distribution Exponent.”
What this does: "Controls whether the cascades are distributed closer to the camera (larger exponent) or further from the camera (smaller exponent). An exponent of 1 means that cascade transitions will happen at a distance proportional to their resolution"
There is one checkbox within the same section that also pertains to the inset shadows you mentioned.
Use the images posted as reference to set-up your scene. All of these settings are specific to your own level and scene so try changing the values and observing the differences in shadows and and their softening/sharpness.
Enabling the “Distance Field Shadows”
Directional Light Moveable Settings
Here is some great documentation on improving your shadows using dynamic lights with raytraced shadows enabled as well as ambient occlusion. Keep in mind this is a fairly new technique for lighting and shadowing and is not perfected, so you will have to tweak things to get them the way you would like to look.
Ray Traced Shadows:
Distance Ambient Occlusion:
Regards,