# Problem with Distance field shadows still appearing on foliage instances that have been culled

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/problem-with-distance-field-shadows-still-appearing-on-foliage-instances-that-have-been-culled/1516469>\
**Category:** Rendering\
**Tags:** culling, Shadows, distance-fields, unreal-engine, Lighting, question\
**Created:** [December 11, 2023, 7:13am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/problem-with-distance-field-shadows-still-appearing-on-foliage-instances-that-have-been-culled/1516469 "2023-12-11T07:13:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Chadwise](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Chadwise](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Chadwise)\
**Post date:** [December 11, 2023, 7:13am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/problem-with-distance-field-shadows-still-appearing-on-foliage-instances-that-have-been-culled/1516469/1 "2023-12-11T07:13:22Z")

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Hey there.

I am having a problem with my foliage shadows.

Its a very simple problem where the distance field shadows of my foliage remain visible despite the foliage itself being culled.

Obviously I am culling my foliage at a certain distance for performance reasons and I would also like their distance field shadows to be culled too.

I have a giant forest of large trees that don’t get culled by distance that I want to keep projecting distance field shadows out to a certain distance, but for all of my smaller foliage I would like their shadows to cull with the foliage instances.

Is this a bug or is their something that needs to be rebuilt? I am using dynamic lighting.

Note: Setting “affect distance field lighting” to “false” in the static mesh’s LOD settings should be the logical solution but It doesn’t change anything.

Thanks in advance

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**Author:** ![Chadwise](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Chadwise](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Chadwise)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2023, 1:20am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/problem-with-distance-field-shadows-still-appearing-on-foliage-instances-that-have-been-culled/1516469/2 "2023-12-29T01:20:05Z")

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For anyone reading this in the future

I believe distance field shadows cannot be removed or altered in any way at runtime. Because of this I have no choice but to remove distance field shadows from my foliage as all my trees and bushes etc are choppable/harvestable which would leave the distance field shadows in place even when the actual actor/foliage instance is destroyed.

Correct me if anyone thinks im wrong but for now I am going to use distance field shadows only for indestructible terrain pieces like cliffs and boulders etc and have all my foliage use only dynamic shadowing.