Hello everyone,
I’m facing two critical issues with stationary lighting (Stationary Directional Light
) in a fresh Unreal Engine 5.6.0 project using the standard First Person template. I am confident that the problem is not related to basic settings, as I have exhausted all common solutions.
Problem #1: Complete lack of dynamic shadow from the character. After baking the lighting (Build Lighting
), the dynamic shadow from the character’s Skeletal Mesh
completely disappears. However, if I switch the same light source to Movable
, the shadow appears and works correctly. This proves the issue occurs specifically within the hybrid operational mode of a Stationary
light.
Problem #2: Catastrophic FPS drop after light baking. After generating lightmaps, the performance drops by approximately 50% (e.g., from 120 FPS down to 60 FPS). This is completely counter-intuitive, as baked lighting should be cheaper. A scene with a fully Movable
light source shows significantly higher FPS than the scene with a baked Stationary
light.
Below is a comprehensive list of all settings and actions I have already checked to show that all standard solutions have been attempted.
List of Checked Settings and Actions:
I kindly ask not to suggest checking these items, as I have verified them multiple times.
1. Project Settings (Project Settings -> Rendering
):
Allow Static Lighting
:Enabled
Generate Mesh Distance Fields
:Enabled
(also tested withDisabled
, no effect)Shadow Map Method
:Shadow Maps
(not Virtual Shadow Maps)Dynamic Global Illumination Method
:None
(Lumen is disabled)Reflection Method
:Screen Space
2. Directional Light Settings (Stationary
):
Mobility
:Stationary
Cast Dynamic Shadows
:Enabled
Dynamic Shadow Distance StationaryLight
: Set to a large value (20000
)Num Dynamic Shadow Cascades
:4
Distance Field Shadows
:Disabled
(also tested withEnabled
)Affects World
:Enabled
- A
Lightmass Importance Volume
is present and covers the entire playable area.
3. Character Blueprint Settings (BP_FirstPersonCharacter
):
- Skeletal Mesh Component (
Mesh
):Mobility
:Movable
Cast Shadow
:Enabled
Affect Dynamic Indirect Lighting
:Enabled
Single Sample Shadow from Stationary Lights
:Disabled
(also tested withEnabled
)
- Capsule Component:
Mobility
:Movable