UDK lighting issues

Hi guys (and girls)…

I’m VERY new to Unreal level creation… But I’ve been giving it a go and I find the hardest part to get right so far is lighting & shadows…
I’m hoping one of you experienced chaps can shed some light (no pun intended) on my issues:

Issue 1: My lighting in UDK, and with production build looks like this:

://i.imgur/uWz8cKQ.jpg

But, when I actually CLICK on the light, I get some really nice shadows, cast by my static mesh onto the wall:

://i.imgur/hPEXbno.jpg

Why aren’t these shadows staying put when I’ve not got the light selected?

Issue 2: This wall is made out of similar panels, but as you can see the light simply decides to STOP working on certain panels without explanation:

://i.imgur/3oaFZ7v.jpg

You can see both on the right hand side and to the left of the pipe, that whole areas are in shadow that shouldn’t be.

Any ideas as to why these issues are happening and how I can fix them would be greatly appreciated! :slight_smile:

When you click a light it shows you Preview shadows, after that you need to build your lighting where it will bake the lightmaps.

Also, are you using UDK or UE4? They aren’t the same thing

I’m using UDK. I build the lighting with production settings but still get the same type of shadows (I.E. None)

These are questions better suited to the UDK forums, most people here probably haven’t used that engine in quite some time now.

But, from what I recall, the shadows “issue” is because the UDK has trouble with dynamic shadows from multiple lights at once, so it’s probably prioritizing the one you’re selecting at the time. If there’s a closer dynamic light to the object though, it takes priority.

As for your second issue, that’s just lightmass being weird with meshes when things get a bit too modular. Try merging the panels into a single object and you’ll get a nice, smooth bake out of it. You’ll save on drawcalls as well, which is always nice.

Cheers for the info

As already mentioned, ask this question in the UDK forum: https://forums.epicgames/forum.php or into the new sections at the bottom of the UE4 forum (they added some UDK sections) :slight_smile: