Upgrade from 2019.4.14f to later breaks shadows/lighting

Hi!

I am looking for some guidance/tips on a problem that occurs when I try to upgrade Unity version.
I have been developing on 2019.4.14f (LTS) up until now, but is now trying to upgrade to later versions.

When I open the project in later versions of Unity the following happens:

• Lost shadows cast by objects
• Overall color of objects changes
• Brightness in scene changes drastically.

The migration is done through the UnityHub where I have a number of different versions installed.
I have tested the following upgrade paths, given me exact same problematic result.

• 2019.4.14f1 -> 2019.4.23f1
• 2019.4.14f1 -> 2019.4.26f1
• 2019.4.14f1 -> 2020.3.9f1
• 2019.4.14f1 -> 2021.1.7f1
  

I am looking for guidance what is causing this issue.

1. Did something change specifically after 2019.4.14f that causes this behavior?
2. In which component lies the problem to get an effect as above? Material/Shaders, Lighting etc.
   
3. Is there some procedures that can be tried to pinpoint the problem?

Any tips or recommendations are greatly appreciated and I am happy to provide any information needed.

Thanks in advance
Anders

 

"I have been developing on 2019.4.14f (LTS) up until now, but is now trying to upgrade to later versions."

This has been said so many times here on the forums:

Once you start a project, DO NOT upgrade for the life of the project, and always use a LTS build. You shot yourself in the foot. Pick an LTS version and DONT UPGRADE until you finish the game.

 

Hi @warthos3399 and thanks for your reply.

I am using an LTS build 2019.4.14f and if I should stay on that then I will do that.
I might have gotten confused as I believed the LongTermSupport was attached to the full 2019.4 release line?
I thought I could at least upgrade to later 2019.4.X versions, assuming backward compatibility was kept for those releases. But what you are saying is that 2019.4.26f being a new independent LTS product.. Or?

When I reported a crash (separate issue) to the Unity support I got the answer to use their latest release where it has been fixed, which makes this a little confusing.

Long term support means that a software of that release line should get continuous bugfixes for a set period of time.
If you say I should stay on my current version (2019.4.14f), which releases contains bugfixes for 2019.4.14f?
The only releases I can manage to find are 2019.4.15-26 (which shows the problem described in this thread).

Thanks in advance
Anders

 

Its just a good practice to never update or change the version of Unity you use for the life of your project, unless, theres a feature, or bug fix that you require, but changing versions can cause other problems.

So sounds like you need to update to correct a bug, etc. If you do update, pick a LTS version...and hope for the best.

 

Hi!

Thanks @warthos339 for taking the time to respond. I will keep this in mind for the future.
Also, I reached out to the Unity support as well, to get their view on this particular upgrade path (will update thread if I get something tangible).

I might try and start a new project on latest Unity version and try to manually import everything from scratch to see if I get the same result.

Thanks for the support

 

Hi!

I write a last post as the issue I have described here got resolved with the help of Unity Support.
The problem lies in the Environment Lighting and Reflections.
This got automatically enabled during upgrade.

In order to get back to my original visualization I needed to perform the following steps.
1. Set the Window/Rendering/Lighting/Environment/Environment Lighting/Intensity Multiplier to 0
2. Set the Window/Rendering/Lighting/Environment/Environment Reflections/Intensity Multiplier to 0
3. Change the Window/Rendering/Lighting/Environment/Environment Lighting/Source to Color and assign a black ambient

Big thanks to Unity Support taking the time to analyze this issue!