Lighting LOD issues on Static Meshes

Incomitatum

All my meshes have good 2nd UVs for Light Map info, or in some cases the unwrap was unique enough to only need the first.

The problem I am having is.. what I can only call Shadow LOD.

I have my Light Map Res turned up high on some larger objects, but this setting is not my problem it would seem, by scientific method. It affects all my models regardless of size or Light Map Res.

As I get about 3 feet from ANY static mesh, the shadows shift (sort of downgrade a little); about 10 feet later they shift one more time. Getting closer they have to POP back into their higher, cleaner, resolution.

How can I control how far, and how smoothly this transitions? My meshes look good up close, once the highest shadow level has popped in.

I did a test video a few days ago. And [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTORNyzRKbE"]HERE[/ame] at 720 and about 40 seconds you can see it happen, it shifts in, and then one more time, and then looks it's best.

rasmus

Oh not this again As far as the collective knowledge of these here interwebs go, there is currently no way to deal with this niggle, save for possibly setting each and every lightmap to "nomipmaps" after each bake. Perhaps in future updates of UDK?

Incomitatum

So, then why don't I see this happening in games like DCUO or Arkham Asylum? Currently I am doing a bake that includes some Dev Meshes, not mine, to see if it does it on those too.

Like when I did my skydome. I am trying to, rather than bother you all, compare my settings to those in the Dev Kit to see what the differences are. I know how to turn of MIP mapping on my sky textures, but, how do I do it on the lights?

O_O Wait, you mean to say I have to go to the lightMAPS and tell THEM to not MIP EVER time. Wow, yeah, that WOULD be a pain the in ass.

::EDIT::

Well I have gone into my level, selected ALL the lightmaps there, and then gone to properties > NoMipMap. And even though I saved them, the problem persists in previews.

knak47

So I am having the same issue, is Rasmus right? I am just surprised that there wasnt more talk about this issue.

beancube

Hey guys, could you try something for me?

Go into "Lighting Build Options" ( The lightbulb icon)
Un Check "Generate Building LOD Textures"

Then rebuild your lighting solution.

knak47

EDIT:beancube- OK I'm a dumb ass, I found the icon, I will try that right now.

beancube

start at the Green triangle play button - count 9 icons to the left - next to the build bsp/ geometry cube.

knak47

beancube- no that didn't help, thanks for the suggestion though.

sprunghunt

did you try enlarging the distance field scale on your dominant directional light?

knak47

sprunghunt wrote: »

did you try enlarging the lod distance scale on your dominant directional light?

I just went into the properties of my dominant directional light and didn't see that option, where might I find it?

EDIT: Did you mean the Trace field? I tried increasing that, but I am still experiencing bad popping of shadows on all static meshes based on distance. Its really annoying. Its probably just some setting I'm overlooking.

knak47

Man I am sick of this, is there just a way to turn off LODing for shadows, I don't care about performance at this point.

knak47

So I decided to check all the maps that come with UDK to see if the same issue is occuring. And it is!! Not on all maps can I find the issue but definitely in the ExampleMap.udk. On the large canisters along the wall by the vehicle and on the boarder of the large Hanger door you can see the same issue I am having. What setting do I have to tweak to fix this? Anybody Please!

knak47

So here is a video of the ExampleMap.udk this is in game and this issue is really obvious. you can even see the decal on the wall snap in quality as well. I am experiencing the same thing anybody know how to fix this?

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfj7jRQ6IAk[/ame]

Kawe

I'd like to know too...

Just to make sure. What version of UDK are you running?

knak47

I am running the February 2011 build. I have tried downloading the May build and that didn't help.

beancube

bUseMaxQualityMode in the UDKengine.ini

try this, my scene was lodding all my lightmaps - now it isnt. Ive fiddled with so much shit in the .ini file im not sure whats done it haha

rasmus

Interesting, beancube, will try that - is there a documentation of what this setting actually does somewhere? All I can google up quickly is along the lines of "makes gfx gooder"...

beancube

Not 100% sure of the extent of this command. Though as its name suggests - Renders the scene with the most it can without taking performance into account. Mainly effecting the automatically Mipping/LOD'ing/Shader levels set by the engine.

I like the way you put it "makes gfx gooder" - thats good enough for me

sprunghunt

I think that is the same as putting "MAXQUALITYMODE " in the game shortcut.

It forces all your bitmaps to be rendered at full size all the time. There's a description of how to use it here:

http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/CapturingCinematicsAndGameplay.html

knak47

Yessss!!! I finally got the crappy shadows to go away. I tried setting bUseMaxQualityMode to True in the UDKengine.ini but that made everything worse in my case. But I did set bUseTextureStreaming to False in the UDKengine.ini and that fixed it, no more popping of the shadows. Thanks yall!

beancube

sweet dude!

NomadSoul2501

This solution is BRILLIANT!!!
Thank you so much for this bUseTextureStreaming finally solved everything

Hourences

This solution is also incorrect.

It is not a good idea to turn that off at all. If the problem is lightmap lodding then the correct solution are following settings in Engine ini

LightmapStreamingFactor=0.04
ShadowmapStreamingFactor=0.04
MaxLightmapRadius=2000.0

Increase or decrease streaming factor.

If the streaming issue exists in specific textures, set just those textures to never stream.

NFEX

Hourences said:

This solution is also incorrect.

It is not a good idea to turn that off at all. If the problem is lightmap lodding then the correct solution are following settings in Engine ini

LightmapStreamingFactor=0.04
ShadowmapStreamingFactor=0.04
MaxLightmapRadius=2000.0

Increase or decrease streaming factor.

If the streaming issue exists in specific textures, set just those textures to never stream.


Hi Hourences,

your solution might seem vital to solving one of my lightmap streaming problem, may i know the exact steps to take, to set a specific  texture to never stream?

Thanks.