Hello, I’ve been having problems with object shadows disappearing when zooming out a bit. The distance gets even smaller when trying to render it with cine camera actor. a lot of details in the water materials also disappear and look like they’re glitching out. I’m not sure what the issue is.
I’ve tried doing that when I was watching a tutorial for Ultra Dynamic Skies, but for some reason it doesn’t matter what number I put in for shadow distances or distance field shadows. For me nothing at all changes.
Just a defensive-programming tip, but I made sure to do my edits inside the UDS blueprint, then compiled it to make sure it wasn’t getting overwritten by the construction-script logic.
Are you using Lumen? If you disable, do the shadows come back? We can try and pin it down to a given lighting system.
I disabled lumen in the GI but it’s still the same, just some changes with the lighting. I’m pretty sure there’s some distance value that I need to change but I don’t know what.
After creating a separate file, I know this is UDS’s fault. I edited in the blueprint, compiled it, still the same. I set the shadow distance at a billion or something, literally nothing changes. doesn’t matter how small or big the number is. field shadows just don’t work as well.
Sorry I took so long to reply, but I don’t know then.
When I was mucking around I had a distinct directional-light I was mucking with for settings, outside of UDS. When I went into the Sun component and made my changes in the BP, they stuck.
Try and see if you can get what you want outside the package to confirm it’s UDS. And to be clear, there wouldn’t be anything UDS is ‘doing’ to break lighting or whatnot, the app uses the same components the engine does, just packaged up for us. Thus, it’s very likely a setting we need to adjust.
EDIT: this chap seems to be having a similar issue, check my response to see if it applies here?
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[quote=“Virtual Height Field Mesh no Cast Shadow, post:1, topic:1690973”]
By helping:
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Check Shadow Casting Settings. Ensure that shadow casting is enabled for the objects or actors in your scene, including the VHM. You can check the properties of the VHM and any other relevant actors to verify that they are set up to cast shadows.
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Lighting Setup. Review your lighting setup to ensure that it is configured correctly for casting shadows. Experiment with different lighting configurations, such as directional lights or skylights, to see if they affect shadow casting on the VHM.
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Material Setup. Check the material applied to the VHM to ensure that it is set up to receive and cast shadows properly. Sometimes, incorrect material settings can interfere with shadow casting.
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Debugging: Use the debugging tools in Unreal Engine to diagnose the issue further. This could involve inspecting the shadow maps, visualizing light sources, or checking for any errors or warnings in the console or log files.
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Community Support: Reach out to the Unreal Engine community forums or other online resources for assistance. Other users may have encountered similar issues and can provide insights or solutions based on their experiences.
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Alternative Approaches: If shadow casting on the VHM continues to be problematic, consider alternative approaches to achieve the desired visual effect. This could involve using dynamic objects or other static meshes to cast shadows instead of relying solely on the VHM.
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Blueprint Workarounds: Since you mentioned you can only use Blueprints, explore whether there are Blueprint-based solutions or workarounds that can achieve the desired shadow casting effect. This might involve scripting custom behavior or manipulating existing components to achieve the desired result.
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Update Unreal Engine: Ensure that you are using the latest version of Unreal Engine, as newer versions may include bug fixes or improvements related to shadow casting and lighting.
I think this might help. Thanks.
I’ll see to it once I get back to the project, thanks. In the end I just tried to take a more close-up render as a work-around.
For me it ended up being Hidden Shadow on the landscape.
that the landscape was set to Never Render in the main pass, only to RVTs, somehow the shadow-settings were mucked up and I had to reset the landscape. Once the landscape was casting shadows, the distance stuff was resolved.
the cutoff I (we?) were seeing was due to the distance on ray-traced shadows (only goes out so far). when there was no landscape shadow to fall back to, it had that line across the view.