# Shadows looking splotchy on terrain

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/shadows-looking-splotchy-on-terrain/379265>\
**Category:** Rendering\
**Tags:** Terrain, Shadows, shadows-problem, lighting-build, unreal-engine, lighting-problem, question\
**Created:** [December 14, 2016, 2:02pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/shadows-looking-splotchy-on-terrain/379265 "2016-12-14T14:02:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_acddd78d1](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_acddd78d1](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_acddd78d1)\
**Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 2:02pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/shadows-looking-splotchy-on-terrain/379265/1 "2016-12-14T14:02:32Z")

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Well… I’ve been working on a map for my game. The problem is that every time I build my lighting I get these weird splotchy shadows. When I go and un-click cast shadows and re-click it it becomes gorgeous again. Please give me an idea how to get the prebuilt shadows to show after their final lighting build!

 ![118619-good+shadows.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/a/a/b/aabd1583785a58366c523af7fffa079faa326f08.jpeg)

These are the good shadows before I attempt to build them.

 ![118620-bad+shadows.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/5/f/3/5f3d4ab3386842b3282b3b6d4cde786cc3c862bf.jpeg)

And after :'((((

Let me know what you think!

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_afa92833](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_afa92833](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_afa92833)\
**Post date:** [December 18, 2017, 1:35pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/shadows-looking-splotchy-on-terrain/379265/2 "2017-12-18T13:35:06Z")

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Check out this awesome lighting guide I found to solve this problem:

> **[A new, community-hosted Unreal Engine Wiki](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/a-new-community-hosted-unreal-engine-wiki/141494)**
>
> After over a year in maintenance mode, the official Unreal Engine Wiki is now permanently offline. These resources now live on a new community-run Unreal Engine Community Wiki — https://unrealcommunity.wiki/! You will be able to find content from...

There is a specific section on splotchy shadows near the bottom. For me, I had bad lightmaps, so “force no precomputed lighting” in the world settings as described in the beginning of the article worked for me. Really, you should read the whole guide as I think great lighting is a holistic approach.