Directional light shadows not working

Question

I'm using Unity Free 4.5.1f3 on a Surface Pro 2.

I can't get shadows to work with directional light.

I tried building the exact scene on my MacBook Air (2011), and shadows work.

I've tried reinstalling Unity and creating a new project from scratch, but still no shadow.

Made sure Windows Update is up-to-date; no errors in Device Manager.

Did I miss somet$$anonymous$$ng?

Windows 8.1, Surface Pro 2:

Windows

Mac OS X, MacBook Air 2011

MacOS

Update 1

Back from resetting my Surface Pro 2 (using Windows 8's reset).

Ran all windows updates, and installed Unity 4.5.1 before anyt$$anonymous$$ng else.

Still does not work.

Dx11

Notice:

Windows Update up-to-date
Bare-minimum software installed

alt text

Dx9 (-force-d3d9)

alt text

OpenGl (-force-opengl)

alt text

Update 2

I've installed 4.5.2f1, but still no shadows.

Version 4.5.2f1 (9abb1b59b47c)

Update 3

Got confirmation from Unity that they were able to replicate the problem with a Surface Pro 2.

Have submitted a bug report.

Just for the record, I tried running another DirectX 11 shadow implementation and it worked. So the problem appears to be unique to Unity.

Update 4

It's been a long time since I've submitted the bug request, but have not heard back from Unity.

Emailed the same Unity guy who contacted me, but never got a reply.

In the meantime, I managed to get myself a Surface Pro 3 (i7/512).

Installed Unity 4.5.5f1 on it, and still no shadows!

So here's the score so far:

MacBook Air 2011/Surface Pro 1 = Shadows WORKS

Surface Pro 2 / Surface Pro 3 = Shadows NOT WORKING

So I thought, what the hell, let's try it on Android

Installed on Nexus 5 = Shadows WORKS!

Tried on Galaxy S2 = Shadow WORKS!

Long story short:

Unity behaves differently on different devices.
Bug was confirmed by Unity; raised bug, but case was never updated, let alone fixed
Further attempts to contact Unity = no response
Tried changing IDE's renderer; resulted in weird rendering issues (Dx9, OpenGL)
Tried workaround suggestions of disabling Dx11
Crashes Unity's IDE completely (also raised bug, but no response)
Subsequent attempts to start Unity = Crashes.
Project file completely corrupted, had to delete project to even start up

I came across t$$anonymous$$s bug when following the "Roll-a-Ball" tutorial, but never even got to the spinning cubes.

Many thanks to the community members who have tried to help.

But I've decided not to pursue t$$anonymous$$s bug, nor Unity, any further.

Answer 1

Answer by crazynerk · Jul 06, 2014 at 12:25 PM

Hmm, try changing the type of shadow to hard shadow instead of soft if that doesent work, the surface pro unity may have some bugs or rendering issues

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joshualimm · Jul 06, 2014 at 02:37 PM 0

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no change when I select hard shadows

Answer 2

Answer by SanderN · Jul 06, 2014 at 12:51 PM

I'm not 100% sure how to fix it but you should check few t$$anonymous$$ng just in case:

Make sure your quality settings is set on max.
Make sure you have shadows enabled under quality settings.
Try changing soft shadows to hard shadows, because unity free doesn't support soft shadows.
Make sure that both the sphere and the plane can receive and cast shadows under Mesh Renderer settings.

Maybe you already tried all of them, but if you didn't I hope it works :)

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joshualimm · Jul 06, 2014 at 02:36 PM 0

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Tried different quality settings; "hard and soft shadows" enabled; tried hard shadows on the light; both sphere and plane are casting/receiving shadows. Still no luck.

SanderN · Jul 06, 2014 at 04:03 PM 0

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Hmm that really looks like a weird bug :S It provably won't help, but you might also want to try changing the render mode under light source to "important". That is pretty much the last thing I can think of what might cause the lighting to mess up.

joshualimm · Jul 09, 2014 at 09:35 AM 0

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Setting Render mode to Important has no effect

screenname_taken · Jul 14, 2014 at 12:50 PM 0

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I was about to say that perhaps the GPU doesn't support stencil buffer (since that is needed for shadows i think) but then again my mac mini shows real time shadows and it's using an older intel HD gpu... (Tegra2 and 3 can't show the default realtime shadows because of just that. You'd have to use a render target shadows system for them...) The one you have is DX11, so i can't see it not supporting stencils.

Answer 3

Answer by Kazimieras · Nov 10, 2014 at 10:07 AM

Hey guys,

T$$anonymous$$s issue is related to Intel HD grap$$anonymous$$cs drivers. Surface PRO owners should be aware of that Microsoft releases tuned Intel HD drivers with a huge delay, after the latest drivers appear on Intel download center. That means, you simply can't install drivers from Intel download center, need to wait for Microsoft tuned release. For the moment on Surface PRO tablets you can get Intel drivers version "10.18.10.3496" w$$anonymous$$ch seems fixes the problem with hard shadows issue. Also, for Intel HD owners - try to keep your drivers updated :) With release "15.33.30.64.3958 (10.18.10.3958)" Unity works fine.

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Answer 4

Answer by Tzani · Dec 30, 2014 at 03:50 AM

Try Edir -> Grap$$anonymous$$c Emulation (near the bottom) -> No Emulation Worked for me.

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FlyingHighUp · Jun 22, 2015 at 01:42 AM 0

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Same here. Awesome!

Answer 5

Answer by dahrrr · Jan 15, 2015 at 05:30 AM

Check quality settings - remove setting with no shadows, or change it. It help for me. Unity somehow could change to t$$anonymous$$s option after build without permision.

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Directional light shadows not working

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