I’ve been using Unreal Engine for over a year now but what I struggle most with is the static lighting setup for proper shadows… I’ve looked at guidelines and tips and I think I’m doing things right for the most part but I just can’t get this right. It’s a problem that occurs sometimes but it almost feels random and I can’t figure out what the cause is or what I’m doing wrong. When creating the 3D model in Blender I make sure the second UV channels UV’s are not overlapping of course, that the UV’s are not too close to each other, I’ve tried letting UE generate lightmap UV’s on import, I’ve tried different resolutions on the lightmaps, some other settings in the lightmass settings but on this level in particular I get so many weird shadows on my static meshes I don’t know what to do. Often I also get this weird black shadow triangle right on the wall(s) for no apparent reason. I HATE static light and baked lighting but on this project I have to use it. Sometimes I just want to cheat by setting the static mesh to moveable to avoid the lightbaking on that object. I really wish that setting up lights and getting at least fairly decent or expected results/shadows would be a simpler process for an artist but instead it feels like a need to be a lighting technician with intimite knowledge about all the the thousands of minor and major workings of how the light and shadows are coded/calculated. I know the programmers will get angry with me and say you just have to learn, everything can not be easy. Yeah but I don’t have time to study the intricate workings and algorithms of how lights and shadows are coded and work under the hood in UE. All I want is just normal/expected shadows… And focus on the artistic side of lighting. I can’t remember having this problem when I rendered my first 3D artwork in 3D Sudio MAX r2 back in 1999…
The pictures are taken on a draft lightbuild. I don’t see how a production lightbuild would make these problems go away.
Thankful if anyone can see what I’m doing wrong or can identify the problem.