Shadow problems with UE4's own Mesh actors? + no shadows after build?

Development Rendering
1

Shadows Manual:
What to do when shadows look buggy and blurry?:
1: In Your mesh settings editor you can set the Lightmapresolution. But also by clicking on your mesh in the viewplane you can set your lightmapresolution by clicking in your details tab on Lighting>Overridden Light Map Resolution> set these to at least 1024 for good results. Higher is better.

Okay it works but my tree has no moving shadows?
2: Click on your light you use in your level, under transform in the details tab click it from stationary to ‘‘Movable’’

Follow start of discussion below:
''Hello, i wanted to use some ue4 meshes that are found under the Basic tab for building, but the shadows look horrible! And now when i build the shadows are totally gone!

Somebody has an clue what is happening? The shadow resolutions are high enough, and, i did not had this problem before?

http://s15.postimg.org/ruqpzno23/Strange.png

http://s15.postimg.org/4uk2nbq8b/shadowsgone.png

2

It looks like your lightmass is either too large or your lightmap resolution is too low. Those are the only issues that I can think of when looking at those screenshots. Can you post your lightmap settings?

3

I don’t know what i did wrong but i placed a new meshactor in the scene, one you find under the basic tab. But after building this cube changes into a black box? And still no shadows…

http://s16.postimg.org/tl8s506cl/Stranbe.png

4

I have included the light settings, this mesh is the one delivered within UE4 itself, the one you find under the basic tab. Well after another build the cube starts to show white lines also!! I don’t know what is happening here but it is very frustrating! I also included the mesh settings for the lighting.

http://s14.postimg.org/w7podybj5/stsgfs.png

http://s14.postimg.org/dgnr3sgyp/sett.png

6

I have solved the black box problem, had changed in the Meshactor Lightmapresolution from 4 to 32. And i changed Lightmapcoordinate from 0 to 1. Now everything looks like the first image in my post again, there is light and shadows, but very strange shadows!

7

I have replaced the floor with the floor you get in an empty map, also on that i have a very strange shadows… I don’t understand this shadow lightning. These are basic meshes from the editor itself, why are the shadows so strange?

See how it looks now, i created some abstract painting again out of the shadows. It looks funny at first but i changed my mind already,

http://s14.postimg.org/ffm15q6ap/hdhdh.png

8

I have found a new problem. When moving away, or arouond a new placed mesh the shadow disapears. After build the problem stays! Some strange bugs, or, i did something wrong? See pictures of this happening;

With shadow

http://s30.postimg.org/n4ijwmekx/shadownn.png

When turning around the cube it’s shadows disapear?

http://s30.postimg.org/ulrrbu441/no_shadow.png

9

You have simply to increase the light map sizes, when they are to small they have not enough space to show you the shadows correctly.

Here are the basics you should know…

10

‘‘I have found the lightmapsize, i thought 64 was enough but when i looked into the examplemap they where most of them on 1024. Well the shadows look better now. But i got one last problem, the trees i have ingame have wind, but the shadows are not moving? What could cause this?’’

OK:When you want dynamic shadows, set the light you use in your map on Movable. This makes it realtime in rendering shadows. It asks an higher performance but is sometimes necessary, i don’t know if there are other solutions, (mayby a fade out from dynamic to static shadows? Shadow Casting mayby?. Well to get shadows work properly;
’
Shadows Manual:
What to do when shadows look buggy and blurry?:
1: In Your mesh settings editor you can set the Lightmapresolution. But also by clicking on your mesh in the viewplane you can set your lightmapresolution by clicking in your details tab on Lighting>Overridden Light Map Resolution> set these to at least 1024 for good results. Higher is better.

Okay it works but my tree has no moving shadows?
2: Click on your light you use in your level, under transform in the details tab click it from stationary to ‘‘Movable’’