Thanks! that might be it.
I could really do with a fix for this as well. Voted, but @Tim, do you know if anyone is looking at this yet?
Cheers,
Chris
Sorry Chris, but the issue is still backlogged. Maybe one day. The reality, also is, that not all features/bug will be added or fixed by Epic. With source availability, we do leave open the option for teams to resolve some of these on their own projects as needed. Unfortunately, not every bug or feature will be addressed by Epic.
@Tim I completely understand, no problem 
- Iâve voted for it anyway, so weâll see.
Unfortunately itâs not the kind of thing we can fix as we donât have a programmer (thereâs only two of us). Weâll come up with a work around for now.
This is still backlogged? Daammmmn son. Everytime I try to get a isometric style game idea into UE4 this bums me out and make me throw the project into Unity -_-
Using 4.17.1 and shadows are still not visible through orthographic cameras.
Setting the camera to Perspective with a low FOV (something like 10) and moving the camera waaay back produces terrible results: blurry shadows (even with Lighting Quality set to âProductionâ), and the shadows look warped because theyâre perspective shadows, not âorthographic shadowsâ.
Epic, please fix this. This thread is 2.5 years old! Just like my (soon to be abandoned, apparently) 2.5D side scroller project that looks like absolute dog â â â â , completely flat. Come on! If you guys are not going to fix this, then you might as well remove the Side Scroller/Side Scroller 2D/Top Down templates.
I believe this is a completely different scenario.
Even if the orthographic shadows were working.
You are using the orthographic camera from the side, so you canât even see the surfaces that are receiving the shadows.
You canât see the floor because the camera is completely parallel to the ground surfaces.
To see them you would have to angle the camera a little bit.
I havenât tested this bug in a long time, so I donât know if itâs been fixed, but I doubt it.
Hereâs the âSide Scroller Templateâ example project from UE 4.17.1, with an orthographic camera:
You can barely make out the platforms. You canât even tell that the character is standing on something!
I tried building the light (light quality set to âProductionâ) and not even the âbakedâ shadows show up. Theses âbakedâ shadows are supposed to be greyscale textures placed on UV Channel 2, right? Then why arenât these âtexturesâ being displayed in orthographic view?
Thereâs a default directional light (from the âSide Scroller Templateâ) in the scene. Shadows are being rendered both in the editor viewport AND with the camera set to âPerspectiveâ when I click the âPlayâ button, but as soon as I hit âPlayâ with the camera in âOrtographicâ, everything looks washed out, because of the missing shadows.
Here, I rotated the camera by 15° on Y and Z, for a better look:
I even tried setting the render output to Forward Rendering (from the project settings). It didnât add any shadows.
I feel like Iâm maybe highjacking an older thread from 2015⌠But the OPâs issue still doesnât seem solved in 2017, in Unreal Engine 4.17.1.
Yes
thatâs sort of the point on this whole thread. Itâs still not fixed.
And it probably wonât be fixed unless Epic makes a game that uses orthographic cameras in 3D.
But I thought that Forward Rendering would make it work
Another thing to check might be that your camera is too far. Try setting it closer.
Another workaround is to use a very very narrow field of view, but this also requires the camera to be farther and you have to adjust the shadows accordingly.
Another non-optimal solution would be to create your own shadows, in the same way that epic did in the Showdown demo.
Itâs actually good for the performance, but it wonât look as good as actual shadows.
I canât find the description of how they did it, but basically using decals under the characters feet that changed the darkness according to foot distance to the floor.
But yeah, in general, this bug is sad 
I wouldnât count on epic fixing it. Someone with a good knowledge of rendering has to come to fix it.
Guess what? 4.18.1 still not working.
Câmon Epic, please fix that, or just like Andrei Despinoiu says remove these nonfunctional templates.
This is so sad, really sad.
Just spent 3 weeks trying to figure out why I donât have any shadows in my game, banging my head against the wall repeatedly. Turns out it was this issue all along. 4.18.2. Please fix it.
Please donât remove the orthographic camera completely! Iâm still using it. 2D is going to be in vouge soon again, Iâm sure. Just look at âno truce with the furries.â
Just adding that getting shadows in orthographic is quite important for me as well.
4.20 and itâs till not working. Please fix this.
Second most voted issue to fix and almost 4 years later ⌠still broken. Iâm not a numbers guy but maybe itâs really hard or impossible to implement into the engine correctly ?
and now itâs the most upvoted thing, I donât think they even look at that oneâŚ
Please Epic, let us know why this hasnât been fixed yet.
Last thing we heard this bug was not a priority.
This is the highest rated bug and itâs still backlogged. Itâs almost 4 years old!
Why do you even have a voting system if our priority is not your priority?
it seems to be broken even for 4.21.
This is the most voted issue⌠I think it is extremely hard to fix otherwise they would have already provided a patch. â â â â âŚ