4.7 release mobile shadows

Hi!

Just updated to the launcher version 4.7.
I have one moveable dynamic directional light, in all preview modes (mobile included) shadows are cast as expected, but deploying and running on the device there are no shadows at all.

Things are working much smoother now in this release overall with mobile lighting, my lights finally actually light things! But no shadows on the device itself. iOS in this case.

Any help would be much appreciated,

Thanks!

I should add that this is on windows, so any previous “resolved” questions I’ve seen stating its a Mac only issue are not true for me.

Any suggestions?

Hey JayP,

What device are you using?

Thank you,

Currently testing on iPhone 5S running iOS 8.1.3

Hey JayP,

I just tested a Blank Third Person BP project with Dynamic Shadows enabled on the 5S ,and was able to see the shadows as expected.

Would you mind testing within the same parameters as myself to see if it is your project set up?

Also a screenshot of your Directional Light Source selected within your scene with the details/properties?

Cheers,

Sure, Thanks. I’ll get back to you a bit later with the results

Having issues now with mobile provisions making it impossible for me to launch to device so I will have to get back to you about this, hopefully it just works tomorrow sometime.

No problem, let me know if you need help with anything.

Finally got things deploying again!
I ran the test you suggested, and yup, the shadows perform correctly on the device.

Things have actually gotten worse for me and now not even the mobile preview shows the shadows…So here’s a screen of my directional light settings.

Thanks for any tip you can give.

Hey JayP,

Just to clarify, your shadows are working now when deploying to the device, but your mobile preview is not rendering the shadows?

the shadows perform correctly on the device.

Be sure to check the option ‘Mobile HDR’ found in the ‘Rendering’ section of your Project Settings.

Cheers,

no, the shadows work in all cases using the third person template project with movable enabled.

But shadows in my own project still dont work on device or mobile preview.

ill run through and compare to see what im missing :frowning: any ideas? light settings seem fine?

I have two movable (but don’t cast shadows) point lights in one of my blueprints, could that be causing issues? (These don’t actually work on mobile preview or device either btw). I can’t check right now, will need to wait until tomorrow

Hey JayP,

Unless I have your project in front of me it would be hard for me to give specific suggestions. Did you attempt to check the setting I mentioned within your Project Settings?

I think if you took some time to read over the ‘Mobile Development’ documentation you will get a better understanding on how to develop for mobile platforms, specifically with rendering.

Mobile Development Documentation

Aside from that, let me know what you end up discovering about your issue and if you have any other quesitons.

Cheers,

Yeah I have read through those docs. I’ll just start comparing piece by piece because nothing seems obviously wrong to me. I’ll update if I find the cause.

Thanks again for your help.
Cheers

Ok, let me know what you discover.

Still struggling with this and I’m starting to suspect there’s still issues in this release version when it comes to lighting and shadowing spawned static meshes in blueprints ( which is what I’m doing).

There is very little information on problems with blueprint spawned meshes and how lighting is affected. As I understand it movable meshes should work correctly with dynamic directional lights. Will keep investigating but it’s very frustrating :frowning:

Hey JayP,

Do the two movable lights you mentioned you had in your Blueprints earlier still exist?

Also, do you have some reproducible steps or a project for me to test where this issue is occurring?

Keep in mind, if you spawn in an Instanced static mesh it will take on the properties of the parent, and if the parent blueprint has lights in it, then they will also bring the lights with them. Even if the lights do not cast shadows, they will still illuminate your objects within the radius of the light component.

Please let me know if you find out anymore information.

Regards,

Ive tried with and without those movable lights in the scene with no luck. Those lights arent working either, they dont cast light on anything at all in mobile preview or device (cast shadows is disabled) but i can live with that for now.

Ill try and reproduce the steps in an example project when i have some time.

Thanks

Hey again JayP,

Just a quick note about supported lights on Mobile.

There can only be one Directional Light source in your scene, either set to Static or Stationary.

All Point and Spot Lights need to be Static.

This is why your movable point lights do not work in ‘Mobile Preview’ or on the device. Try changing the lights to Static to see if this helps.

Cheers,

Hmm I can’t make them static as they are attached to something movable. I thought that only applied to casting shadows, not to actually illuminating other object :frowning: that’s very limiting but thanks for clearing that up.

But even without those point lights the one directional light doesn’t behave properly on blueprint spawned geometry.

I will try replicate this in another project when I have some time. I’ve had to park this for now.

Thanks for your help so far!