[Section 5] [Animated Lamp] Eevee shadows problem

[WitherCode]

Hello.

I am using Blender 3.0 for this course.
Recently I started Section 5 - Animated Lamp.
I recently finished “Lighting Cycles vs Eevee” video and I stumbled upon following problem.

I added lights to my scene and shadows in Eevee are really blurry.
I was looking for the solution on the Internet. Unfortunately I couldn’t find.

I came up with idea of importing project from resources for this particular movie(thanks to Git versioning)
When I import project as it is - there is no problem:

But when I create new project and import Objects only from previously mentioned import - shadows starts to break:

Questions are:

• Did someone happen to have the similar problem and found the solution for it?
• If not - is it possible that some options related to rendering are hidden in preferences/system options?

I will try look for this problem further, but if I won’t find solution - I will continue course using previously mentioned import.

Thanks in advance for the answers!

[FedPete]

First of all, using the latest version of Blender can lead to new errors and strange behavior.
Currently, 3.1 has been released, maybe it solve the problem.

Eevee is relatively new, based on quick rendering. This means a lot of 3D math functions which slows down the render, are minimized or disabled by default. Like the behavior of shadows.
Eevee has, like Cycles, also a render ‘Samples’ option.
Like low sample rate, lesser lamp simulations are used (your first image).
Higher samples, more lamp light simulations are used (your last image).

Have fun!

[WitherCode]

Thanks for the answer!

I compared these options between new project and imported one.
And didn’t see difference.
Below are screenshots from options from both projects.
Numbers on screenshots represents following projects:

1. • New project in Blender 3.0 with imported Objects
2. • Imported project from this link:
     https://github.com/CompleteBlenderCreator2/05_Animated_Lamp/tree/9516fde822444ae3c7ed716dc1351b870792239a

For anyone interested in this problem I uploaded two project on my GDrive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bwFKJBU37AKJ2y_7gxPsEF-Nj3eFPM8K?usp=sharing
Names should easily suggest which project is which.

[WitherCode]

I see images are somehow unreadable.
I will add them to my GDrive - the same link.

[NP5]

Left one has area lights, they blur shadows.
Right hand one I suspect has spot lights. But they do not show in the image, that sharpen shadows.

[NP5]

Select the bulb in the lamp and turn the radius down, try zero then move up as desired.

[zeRgenTa]

The third picture shows that the one on the left has soft shadows turned on. See if flipping it fixes the issue.

[WitherCode]

You were right, @zeRgenTa
Turning off soft shadows seems to fix all the problems.

Thanks a lot for the help!

[NP5]

Very well spotted!
My zero size solved it I suppose by denying any angle to soften the shadows from!
But was not solving the cause.

Hate Eevee not worth the bother, stick to Cycles!

[WitherCode]

On the longer term I will stick with Cycles

But I want to grasp as much as possible if I will stick with creating assets to the game more than creating animations and stylized renders