Some Duplicated models are casting shadows even though cast shows is disabled for them. This happens after i build lighting.

Some Duplicated models are casting shadows even though cast shows is disabled for them. This happens after i build lighting.

Seems it happens with geometry i duplicated that was already in the scene… just duplicating more lights and stuff…Some of the meshes that are set to not cash shadows dont… but as u can see… some do… possibly duplicates… (shadows appear after lighting is built.)

Hi Kurylo3d,

You mentioned that this issue only occurs with some of the meshes. Could you possibly narrow down this issue to a specific situation and ideally reproduce that situation in a blank project with only the broken assets.

What specific steps are you taking that leads to this issue, for example did the mesh already have cast shadows off when you duplicated or did you duplicate then change the cast shadow settings?

Also, could you provide the settings on the lights producing the unwanted shadows in a screenshot.

!

Here is a screenshot of light settings… nothing special. It will take time to reproduce since its only baking the lights… that shows the problem…

After some testing… the issue seems tied to that map. It uses level streaming… and a lot of its content was grouped, copy pasted in… etc… No known way to replicate it…

The reason i say its tied to that map is because when i copy and paste the meshes and light from that section into a brand new map and hit build it behaves correctly… Not sure how i can fix my issue.

I have a few suggestions but essentially at this point you would have to start removing/simplifying content in order to narrow down the problem. Here are the steps I would take to narrow things down.

  1. Make a copy of the problem map and sublevels.
  2. In the copied map delete/remove everything but the section where the issue is occurring and leave only the problem assets.
  3. Once you have narrowed it down to just the chandelier, Stationary light, and the surface the shadow is being baked on incorrectly we can work with that.(You may have to delete unecessary assets that are linked to the chandelier in a group. Also this should also help with the light building taking forever when testing)
  4. From there I would swap out the chandelier with an asset dragged in from the content browser and not copied or grouped. Just to see if the issue still occurs. Then swap out the light …etc

Hopefully by following that process you can uncover some more information on what is causing this strange issue. Just be sure to build lighting along the way fairly often so you can see when it fixes itself if it does.

Good luck!

this actually is happening with way more light objects then that chandelier… ranging from table lamps… to ceiling lamps… tall or small… desk lamps… some are good… some arent… the chandelier was just an exmaple of 1 location. theres like 8 different locations this is occuring on… maybe more…

in either case ill do some of ur suggestions tomorrow if i get time.

Hi Ed,

I tried copy and pasting the map file in windows explorer to another directory. I then opened that copied map and deleted everything but the light, lamp, and some walls… saved… Problem now is build crashes unreal editor.

Also trying to go to the HLOD window crashes unreal editor (when in this copied map)… did notice an HLOD directory was created next to my new map as well… so yea… i cant build… and i cant even say delete all hlod (if they are in fact there somewhere)…

What do i do from here to test?

Okay here are some steps you can try to fix this issue.

  • Right click your folders and fix up redirectors
  • You can double check that all sub levels were copied as well
  • Perform a map check for the problem map (take a screenshot if you get warnings or errors and submit it here)

If all else fails let me know and we will proceed to more a thorough investigation.

Ok i duplicated every level and sub level copy and paste in windows… into another directory… (HLODs are already gone since i plan on regenerating them either way this time)… deleted everything in level except the light source, lamp and some walls near it… Did a build lighting and the problem is gone for this light… seems to have built correctly.

Should i just do a copy and paste to fix this issue and work out of another directory? or is this not advised…?

That’s good you are now on your way to figuring out the source of the problem.

Now that you confirmed the issue goes away when you remove all the extra assets next start testing the level when it has all of the assets and start removing things that you know aren’t the problem.

Make sure you build often so you can catch when the issue goes away and that way you will find specifically what you deleted that made the issue

If you aren’t experiencing the issue at all with the copied directory I don’t see an issue with working out of that.

Apparently the whole duplicating into another directory thing didnt work… so there must be something else at play…

Question… what would u want me to delete? what would be the point of that … the scene is just a bunch of lights and static meshes. No gameplay… nothing special… no code… wouldnt make sense for me to delete the level when i spent so much time building the ■■■■ thing.

Plus i got other issues too… some lights dont even cast shadows on anything after bake… stationary lights that arent even casting dynamic shadows even though they are set to cast dynamic… wtf?

I even have moments where the light is working correctly where the lamp doesnt cast shadows, but as u back away… suddenly the combined hlod version of geometry has the lamp casting shadows… wtf?? man this engine is so freakn broken.

Actually the copy and paste thing didnt work… i just thought it did… in fact im seeing even other problems… some lights for instance are marked as stationary and should be casting shadows on everything else in the environment… but dont… see the screen shot… In the screenshot hte only thing that shouldnt cast shadow are the table lamps… yet 1 light behaves correctly… the other does not even want to cast dynamic shadows…

Its getting to a point where im definently afraid of having chosen unreal… it feels like im using very early alpha software… which is more concerned with adding new features then it is making the old old old most BASIC and required stuff work proper…

I’ve also moved onto version 4.13 now.

I noticed in your screenshot that you have too many overlapping stationary lights. That’s why there is a red “X” on the light and that is also why the light isn’t behaving as desired. You can check this guide for more info:

The purpose for deleting assets from the level is to narrow down the issue so that you are able to reproduce the problem with the smallest amount of stuff possible. That way you can figure out what is actually causing the problem, and if the problem goes away while removing content that may lead you to what the problem asset actually is. It isn’t meant as a solution but as a means to gather information.

If you are unable to reproduce this issue in a blank project with only the assets needed for the bug then we cannot continue this investigation.

I thought that if there was a red x it would turn it into a dynamic light with shadow casting. Is that not the case?

Hi kurylo3d.

I’m sorry you’re having some frustrations getting your expected results with lighting. The Lighting Troubleshooting Guide that Ed linked to above should be a useful resource for you to troubleshoot many issues and learn the best practices. Another good resource is the Lighting Documentation.

For any other development questions you may have, please feel free to make other posts throughout the Answerhub or Forums and others in the community are likely to offer assistance.

For this particular bug report, I’d appreciate if we could please stay focused on the original report of “Duplicated models casting shadows while the setting is disabled”. We are investigating this to determine if there is a widespread bug in the engine code, but so far this appears to be an isolated case possibly due to the setup of either your project or map. If you have any additional information to lead us to a reproduction case, please let us know.

for your time.

Hi Kurylo3d,

We have not heard back from you in a few days, so we are marking this post as Resolved for tracking purposes. If you are still experiencing the issue you reported, please respond to this message with additional information and we will follow up.

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