To start - I’m using Unity Pro and I did read through and this question has been asked before but I have not found an answer that fixes my problem though I’ve found lots of things to check before I post, so here is the rundown:
The object to cast shadows is checked static.
It is checked to cast and receive shadows.
It is receiving shadows.
It is not casting shadows on the terrain.
The terrain is checked to cast shadows, but I’ve found no place to set “receive shadows” as it seems you can set on an individual asset basis - maybe this is not an option for terrain, but it casts shadows on itself, but won’t receive shadows.
check cast / receive shadows on your objects is set
set the shadow casting light to a valid shadow type AND BUMP UP THE STRENGTH (1.0 for testing)
make sure your shadow distance is large enough.
Shadow distance can be problem when using large terrains and viewing them from above (God’s eye view like a RTS). To test if this is your problem, go to Edit/Project Settings/Quality and from there crank the “Shadow Distance” up to something larger. You should be able to see the shadows in the editor scene view as long as you have the scene lighting button toggled.
Here’s an example of a 2000x2000 terrain looked at from above with a shadow distance of 3000:
Were you using Unity 5? Terrain shadows seem to be broken now: the only lights that cast onto terrain are directional. Spot & omni only cast onto objects. Hopefully they will fix this.
Try this: go to terrain settings and lower the Base Map Dist. to 0. Do the shadows appear? Obviously not a valid solution, as it makes the texture look like crap.
Shadows only cast on terrain if you build and run the game. Playing the game in the regular Unity editor does not cast shadows.
To build and run, go to File → Build and Run, and configure your scene and build options. Most of it can be left as default. When you run the game properly in the final compiled form, you will see the shadows on the terrain.
Hi everyone - thanks so much for trying to help me. I’ve tried and checked everything you’ve all suggested, but am still having no luck.
I’ve also watched a couple tutorials where the shadows cast onto the terrain without building just fine for the instructor, but even when I tried the build + play suggestion, I still wasn’t getting any cast onto the terrain, though the objects themselves are casting shadows on themselves just fine.
My PC is a beast - just got it, so that isn’t the issue - but I’m starting to wonder if the trial version of PRO is nerfed despite that they say it isn’t.
I am going to subscribe to PRO and see if it solves my problems. Will let you know in case you (or any one in the future) is interested.
Thanks again kingcoyote, MrSoad, PvTGreg, and hoekkii for all the help so far. You’re awesome for answering regardless of my personal inability to get better results. Far less frustrating to have people who know more to hit up for this kind of thing!
In the Terrain settings switch Material to “Build in Standard”. That is what worked for the terrain in combination with point lights that I am using. Hope it helps you too! My Unity version is 5.0.1f1