Hi Everyone,
I’m pretty new to Unreal Engine 5 and struggling to get rid of the weird shadows in the screenshot below. Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks in advance for your help.
If you’re using DFAO (Distance Field Ambient Occlusion), it can sometimes produce harsh dark blobs or shadows near objects, especially around the base of trees where the geometry intersects the ground. Temporarily disable DFAO in your post-process volume or project settings to see if it changes.
If you’re using static lighting, these black patches might be bad lightmap UVs, overlapping UVs, or too low lightmap resolution on the terrain or tree meshes. Check your lightmap UVs on the tree meshes. Enable UV Channel 1 preview and ensure no overlaps. Increase lightmap resolution on your terrain and tree meshes. Test with dynamic vs. static lighting: if switching to dynamic removes the artifacts, it’s likely lightmap-related.
If the trees are slightly floating or sinking into the terrain, AO might exaggerate the contact area with dark smudges. This could also be a pivot issue, where the mesh origin is slightly off.
With dynamic lighting, incorrect shadow bias settings can cause either gaps or overly dark areas around contact points like tree roots.
Great answer, thank you, I also learn a lot