# Unlit material that casts shadows

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/unlit-material-that-casts-shadows/319762>\
**Category:** Rendering\
**Tags:** unlit, cast-shadow, unreal-engine, Lighting, UE4, question\
**Created:** [May 26, 2015, 4:53am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/unlit-material-that-casts-shadows/319762 "2015-05-26T04:53:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Anti049](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Anti049](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Anti049)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 4:53am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/unlit-material-that-casts-shadows/319762/1 "2015-05-26T04:53:22Z")

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My character has an unlit material on him, and so far that’s worked great, but now I want to have him cast a shadow. I would simply change the material from unlit to lit, but the problem is that this character doesn’t have any normal maps, and isn’t very smooth naturally, so when full lighting is turned on, he has a lot of edges clearly visible. Is there any way to make a material seem to be unlit, but still cast a shadow?

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_2ed5b4c7](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_2ed5b4c7](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_2ed5b4c7)\
**Post date:** [May 26, 2015, 7:44am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/unlit-material-that-casts-shadows/319762/2 "2015-05-26T07:44:14Z")

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Hi!

You can try to do fake unlit material based on lit material.

 ![44120-unlit_fake.jpg](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/9/a/a/9aac3de9e95ea833b5d010929abe8549f494c0e1.jpeg)

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**Author:** ![Bartosz\_Kamol\_Kaminski](https://d1ap1mz92jnks1.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/forums.unrealengine.com/bartosz_kamol_kaminski/32/1047558_2.png) [@Bartosz\_Kamol\_Kaminski](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Bartosz_Kamol_Kaminski)\
**Post date:** [July 28, 2017, 10:12pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/unlit-material-that-casts-shadows/319762/4 "2017-07-28T22:12:20Z")

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I got the same problem: unlit material cast shadow and second method odesn’t work aswell. I am using 4.16.1

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_f125a5ee1](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_f125a5ee1](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_f125a5ee1)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2018, 6:53am UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/unlit-material-that-casts-shadows/319762/5 "2018-03-04T06:53:33Z")

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You freaking genius. I have no idea why your comment wasn’t marked as an answer. FYI if you have custom ground textures that are also unlit. You will need to make the texture Base Color and Emissive Color for shadows to show up.

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**Author:** ![anonymous\_user\_ffdf71301](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@anonymous\_user\_ffdf71301](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/anonymous_user_ffdf71301)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2019, 7:23pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/unlit-material-that-casts-shadows/319762/6 "2019-08-25T19:23:52Z")

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You GENIOUS! I’m pretty new to UE4 materials (and materials in general) and I had NO IDEA you could do something like that. It still is not perfect but from there I can have the effect I looked after for A MONTH. Thank you SO MUCH!

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**Author:** ![Dimshvaebene](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Dimshvaebene](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Dimshvaebene)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 5:24pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/unlit-material-that-casts-shadows/319762/7 "2021-11-03T17:24:31Z")

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i looked for 2 or 3 days XD very simple and so helpful