Tunnel Lighting

Development Rendering
1

I have a character walking through a tunnel. I am trying to get lighting that I like but am having a hard time. I put another question on this forum about shade shadows but couldn’t get the suggestions in the responses to look any good.

So, to get nice shadows in the tunnel, it seems I either have to add a light to the character blueprint, or add lights down the tunnel.

The first option isn’t working out because the although the shadow renders the way I want, the attenuation from the light, lights up the ground around it in a ring. I’ve tried so many combinations of sizing and positioning, intensity etc but I can’t seem to get around this.

The second option, although not preferred should be doable but is giving me problems. I’ve added 7 pointlights down the length and the tunnel and when I ‘play’ the game in the editor it looks fine. Of course it tells me I need to build the lights. But when I do, then play, all the lighting from the point lights is gone. I have to select them all, change something about them, then can even change them back, and the lighting comes back. But then, again it tells me I have to build lighting etc.

Any help would be appreciated. Even if I could somehow allow the shadows on the tunnel mesh but not have the light show up somehow that would be fine. I tried lowering the specular to 0 but that did nothing.

2

Do you specifically want static lighting? If you switch to moveable, this problem goes away…

3

This post could really benefit from a screenshot of your result and an example of what you’re trying to achieve.

4

Ok switching them to moveable did fix it, thanks.

But what about what I ask about in the first option? Is it possible to get the shadows from the light but not have the light brighten the mesh it is creating the shadow on? This would be my preference as placing lights all through the long, windy tunnel, I need a lot of lights to constantly have shadows on the character.

Even with 7 as it is now, he only has shadows now and then as he walks through it.

5

Is this what you’re looking for?

6

Not really. Imagine he puts something above that light in the video you reference. It would cast a shadow on the ceiling. In my project, I want to see the shadow on the ceiling, but not have the ceiling, walls, etc get brighter or change at all.