Lumen & Nanite Shadow Artifact FIXES in Unreal Engine 5

[@tiedtkeio]

Hope someone finds this useful! 😊

[@pawprinting]

Messing with the normalbias is never a good idea as it doesn't _actually_ fix anything but instead just masks a problem to make it less apparent. In my personal experience with UE5 this has been the case for all areas of features and altering the bias to make things look better. For NANITE based meshes, VSM's are always gonna be your BEST solution for shadowing and there are plenty of reasons for that. Hardware Raytracing for one thing is pretty much deprecated and the Devs are changing things to where hardware raytracing is going to be more of an assisting factor to software raytracing in future releases. The Hardware Raytraced Shadow solution doesn't work right with Nanite because the rays trace ONLY against the NANITE interpretation of the mesh and not across the surface of the original. When a mesh gets converted into Nanite the geometry becomes altered to work with the micro polygon system, so once you convert your mesh over or if your using Megascans (which usually come in as Nanite meshes anyway) the Hardware Raytracing system simply wont know how to read it anymore. This is why VSM's are the best solution because along with providing way more accurate results, they also support things in the scene like GI and the micro polygon details in your mesh after they become converted. Many people try to avoid VSM's in their projects ive noticed but from what ive witnessed, the problems they mention and their reasons why can easily be fixed. I corrected all of my problems with the Virtual Shadow Maps and don't have any issues with them anymore. You can improve VSM's GREATLY by using console commands to get rid of the flickering, correct the delayed shadow smearing across frames in the sequencer or for animations in the editor and even up the amount of rays and resolution to avoid artifacts or pixilation. The new 5.0 branch in github has many improvements in the area of shadows over the EA version of UNREAL. The VSM's seem to work better in 5.0, more in correlation with the new Super Temporal Anti-Aliasing system and there is barely any pixilation anymore. And I noticed that areas with the VSMs that are pixilated are properly blurred out and barely noticeable now.

[@tiedtkeio]

@@pawprinting Thank you for the comprehensive comment! Interesting! I will make sure to read up on VSM as that's something I'm not that familiar with! I come from a VFX background where the "masking the problem" solution almost always is the fastest/most affordable way to go for projects, but yeah, doesn't really fix the problem in most cases. 😄👌

[@pawprinting]

@@tiedtkeio UE5 just went into preview bro!

[@vision_s8867]

Console command? Who would have thought, I spent the whole day to understand what it is and why it gives out these artifacts, and the solution was hidden in only 1 console command (I'm a beginner, apparently that was the whole problem), thank you very much you helped me a lot! But I would like to understand why this is happening. At the moment I have a small exterior scene in which the lighting is completely dynamic, and I noticed that my megascance assets have disgusting shadows, they are all transferred to nanite and by disabling it I got disgusting performance. So that's the whole question, why does dynamic lighting work so badly with nanite, is it a flaw of the manufacturer or did I do something wrong? Working on UE 5.1 latest build

[@imonedesign]

It's 2023 and I did, thank you so much! (r.RayTracing.NormalBia 5) worked for me.

[@justpeachyrl]

Thank you! 2 years into the future and my nanite assets were having the same shadow artifact issues. The normalbias 5 command resolved it for me.

[@DabberooftAnimation]

DUDE THANK YOU SO MUCH I HAVE HAD THESE WEIRD SHADING FOR SUCH A LONG TIME AND THIS TUTORIAL HELPED SO MUCH THANKS!!

[@tiedtkeio]

Glad I could help! 😍

[@vancityr6485]

Wow! normalbias command instantly resolved this for me.. Thank you!

[@tiedtkeio]

That's fantastic! And don't forget, you can add commands to the engine.ini so it loads that command everytime you open up new Unreal projects. 😃

[@DigitalPulse]

Thank you so much man! This drove me nuts for weeks without knowing how to resolve it.

[@tiedtkeio]

Great! Be careful with the normalbias though, as it offsets the shadows too. So use low values. 😊

[@DigitalPulse]

@@tiedtkeio Believe it or not but I have to use a normalbias of 15 to get rid of those spots. If I use 5 I still have decently big spots on canyon assets. From your experience, is this something everyone is currently facing, or just few of us lucky ones? 😅

[@silent_j6198]

Solutions still work in UE 5.2! Had some really weird shadows on my plants with nanite and raytracing enabled, the command line solution only solved some of it. But shadows from other plants would be all distorted. The second solution with changing the light completely resolved it, thanks!

[@tiedtkeio]

Glad to hear that it helped! And sad that the issue hasn't been fixed yet in UE5. 😅

[@_JonathanTait]

I confirm this works in 5.3 too. Thanks @@tiedtkeio

[@AbhijeetKale-qx7oe]

getting the same issue but these two things not working out with my project. and getting more cuked shadow on walls.

[@FPChris]

2:29 What if you're using Ultra Dynamic Sky and getting those harsh shadows?

[@Overwatch04]

Thanks! I have been trying to figure this out for about an hour!

[@3dystopia606]

Finally a command that really solve the problem ! Thank you 😁

[@tiedtkeio]

Wow that's so great to hear! 😍

[@adamkovarik]

Thank you so much, have been searching for hours

[@tiedtkeio]

Happy to hear that it worked! Have a great day! 🙂🙏

[@yoshiboy721]

Finally, thankyou so much man that's exactly what i needed

[@burakdag4931]

Thank you for your services man🙏

[@tiedtkeio]

No worries! I appreciate you watching my videos! 🙂🙏

[@SoftwareAcademy]

Awesome, 1st solution saved my day

[@tiedtkeio]

Perfect! So happy to hear that!! 🙂

[@ginho3848]

OMG this works! I didnt have much hopes. Thank you so much! ❤

[@tiedtkeio]

Wow, I'm so happy to hear that!! 😍🙏

[@RmaNYouTube]

This literally saved us, Thanks.

[@tiedtkeio]

So glad to hear! 😍😍

[@reffect5338]

This was VERY usefull! The problem came up for me with UE5 preview. Thank you!

[@tiedtkeio]

Nice! Glad it helped! :D

[@Arcipellaggio]

This was what I needed, thank you!

[@tiedtkeio]

Awesome, glad I could help!! :)

[@JCapioso]

works like a charm thanks.

[@tiedtkeio]

Awesome! Thanks for watching! 🤗

[@irwandianto4857]

thank you , it's been 5.1 released and this issue still around

[@tiedtkeio]

Happy to hear I could help! 🙂🙏

[@Xavwanderboy]

Thanks for clear and concise info! Perfect :)

[@tiedtkeio]

Glad I could help Xavier! 🙏🙏

[@seanposkea]

Hi. Thanks get a strange comb-like effect on shadows with mesh with rolling curves, either a landscape mesh or a static mesh brought in from Blender. I've looked everywhere and tried dozens of failed fixes. Nothing helps. Shadows have hard triangles and fingered edges--similar to z-fighting but there are no overlapping faces. No idea.

[@houzetear]

This solution only works on a working session? On a new startup, the artifacts will still appear?

[@tiedtkeio]

You can write this cvar in the config file in the project folder and it will apply when you start Unreal. ☺️🙏

[@sadreddineneili1314]

Hi Object in mirror is not correctly showed with lumen !!!! did you have a solution?

[@tiedtkeio]

They improved lumen reflections with the 5.1 update, I would suggest updating to that version. There are videos showing you the reflections with 5.1 on KZbin, try searching for that - "Unreal 5.1 reflections". 😊

[@mytzplik]

All problems solved, thank you!

[@tiedtkeio]

Awesome! Glad I could help! 😊

[@ImeCoulter]

"Since Unreal 5 is in early access, this will probably be resolved." Wishful thinking. UE5.3 is released about a year later and there are still plenty of lighting issues. EG really needs to focus on fixing existing features, rather than adding new ones.

[@tiedtkeio]

Haha yes I was wrong. 😂

[@ImeCoulter]

@@tiedtkeio Nice video. Still helps me when I forget!

[@OfficalEilikoSkye]

i have something like this issue, but its on an inported FBX that seens to be fine in unity and blender but not unreal engine. sadly this didn't fix it any more things i could do?

[@Jiggy...]

A better fix is running the command r.RayTracing.Shadows.EnableTwoSidedGeometry 0

[@tiedtkeio]

Thanks Jiggy, I will try it out! 😍

[@GilGuminski]

Yep, this is actually better as we can keep those nice proper "contact" shadows. Thanks for this !

[@jamescunningham2035]

yes, I am using ue5.03 and this solution works much better. I have large hills exported from Houdini via fbx and USD and both had these awful black self shadows.

[@Bjoershol]

I agree. Changing the shadow bias actually moved my shadows so they don't line up with my object anymore. This command fixed the issue while keeping shadows correctly placed. Thanks!

[@mioeu5399]

I think this solution should be highlighted as the more appropriate one

[@k-storm-studio]

It works but its not permanent. Once the project is reloaded the problem appears again even writing this line in the DefaultGame.ini... how can i fix it permanently please?

[@jakubjodlowski8416]

THIS SAVED MY LIFE!!!

[@tiedtkeio]

Haha so happy to hear that Jakub!!

[@JM_3D]

Thank you so much - your video saved me today!

[@dreamchris]

Thx, it's help me so much 💪

[@tiedtkeio]

Awesome to hear!

[@rasdasa]

This helped solve the problem, thank you! Even in full release it's still an issue. Is there an updated option somewhere during import that now negates this?

[@arthemos4627]

I wonder why they didn't make the fallback relative error to zero by default, considering that every single model I own has this error and I have to manually change that parameter for all of them!

[@tiedtkeio]

Yeah I agree, it's really strange.

[@whovisionsCGI]

I've got a weird issue where the shadow from a nanite rock is too far infront of the object.

[@zmicierkarpau4075]

Thank you! its help me👌

[@tiedtkeio]

So glad to hear that! Thanks for watching! 🙂

[@tillgiermann3796]

I tried the first tip but after reopening the scene it is the artifacts are back.

[@tiedtkeio]

Yes, this is because the console command are session based. If you want the setting to be permanent you can add the same codes into the engine.ini file in your project folder. 🙂🙏

[@tillgiermann3796]

@@tiedtkeio AH I see, thank you! Found another way to possible solve it via fallback realtive error in the mesh settings. but this only works when you are close to an object. In the distance the artifacts are stil visible.

[@tiedtkeio]

@@tillgiermann3796 Perfect! ☺️

[@tillgiermann3796]

@@tiedtkeio well not perfect, because as I said, in the distance the artifacts are back. But I'll keep investigating:)

[@arashtehrani7726]

tnks for this great tutorial.. useful

[@tiedtkeio]

Glad I could help! :D

[@ThoRCX]

Thank you for this video! It helped me for my issue. By the way, setting the NormalBias to 5 actually removed some of the useful shadows casted by smaller objects for me. Setting to 1 didn't fix all the nanite shadow artifact. 2 seems to be the right amount, at least for my scene.

[@tiedtkeio]

Thank you for watching my video! Glad I could help! I've actually learned after making this video that it's more of a temporary fix and not a permanent one as it does cause other issues like you said. Unreal is difficult to master fully haha.

[@roulettebagerisystem8242]

Thanks, worked great!

[@vladimirharamincic1204]

Its not working :( My console seems to ignore my commands

[@phananhvu1804]

thank you very much, i hate lumen shadow for a long time

[@danyilbulavskyi8395]

Thx! Version 5.1, still no fix

[@tiedtkeio]

Thanks for watching! Yeah, hoping it's better in 5.2.. 😊

[@unlugarenmisideas6106]

hello bro.... nice video, i love to see an ocean tutorial for unreal engine 5.... Att new suscriber greetings from colombia

[@tiedtkeio]

Hi there friend! Awesome, actually working on an ocean tutorial right now! 😄

[@randomtopology]

I am your new biggest fan

[@tiedtkeio]

Haha nice! 🥰🙏🙏

[@nedteus6686]

If you don't work that, just turn off the cast shadow of the geo

[@stuartdoyle99]

Thanks for the video. Has anyone come across the flickering issue?

[@ginho3848]

HAve you solved it? Up final gathering in post processing volume may help.

[@procentpisz]

5.4 and we still ave this in engine...anyway thx for solutions!

[@mistelko1799]

Thank you!

[@tiedtkeio]

Glad to help! Thank you for watching!! 🙏

[@ruslancgi3220]

Спасибо мой друг!!!!!

[@magnusnilsson8427]

Great!