diff --git a/docs/src/progress/renderertodo.md b/docs/src/progress/renderertodo.md
index 5ae11047..0a3917d1 100644
--- a/docs/src/progress/renderertodo.md
+++ b/docs/src/progress/renderertodo.md
@@ -1964,6 +1964,7 @@ Performance improvements
  - Block entities are back to using same mesh for all blocks, will eventually just have closest ones ONLY on client use multi-mesh
  - Accumulator draw calls do not use bones
  - LOD skipping in realm simulation
+ - Shadow map pipeline only considers entities that are nearby
 
 
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/electrosphere/renderer/pipelines/ShadowMapPipeline.java b/src/main/java/electrosphere/renderer/pipelines/ShadowMapPipeline.java
index 0cd59c95..a475b796 100644
--- a/src/main/java/electrosphere/renderer/pipelines/ShadowMapPipeline.java
+++ b/src/main/java/electrosphere/renderer/pipelines/ShadowMapPipeline.java
@@ -31,6 +31,11 @@ public class ShadowMapPipeline implements RenderPipeline {
      */
     public static final int SHADOW_MAP_RESOLUTION = 4096;
 
+    /**
+     * Cutoff for adding to shadow map pipeline draw accumulator
+     */
+    public static final double DRAW_CUTOFF_DIST = 30f;
+
     /**
      * The eye of the camera that is used to render the shadow map
      */
diff --git a/src/main/java/electrosphere/renderer/target/DrawTargetEvaluator.java b/src/main/java/electrosphere/renderer/target/DrawTargetEvaluator.java
index 4926d3ca..56453f35 100644
--- a/src/main/java/electrosphere/renderer/target/DrawTargetEvaluator.java
+++ b/src/main/java/electrosphere/renderer/target/DrawTargetEvaluator.java
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ import electrosphere.entity.EntityTags;
 import electrosphere.entity.EntityUtils;
 import electrosphere.renderer.actor.Actor;
 import electrosphere.renderer.pipelines.MainContentPipeline;
+import electrosphere.renderer.pipelines.ShadowMapPipeline;
 
 /**
  * Evaluates the draw targets
@@ -61,10 +62,12 @@ public class DrawTargetEvaluator {
             //fetch actor
             Actor currentActor = EntityUtils.getActor(currentEntity);
 
+            //get distance from camera
+            posVec.set(position);
+            double dist = posVec.distance(cameraCenter);
+            
             //evaluate LOD level
             if(currentActor.getLowResPath() != null){
-                posVec.set(position);
-                double dist = posVec.distance(cameraCenter);
                 if(dist < LOD_CUTOFF){
                     currentActor.setLodLevel(Actor.LOD_LEVEL_FULL);
                 } else {
@@ -88,7 +91,7 @@ public class DrawTargetEvaluator {
                     if(MainContentPipeline.shouldDrawSolidPass(currentEntity)){
                         mainAccumulator.addCall(currentActor.getModelPath(), position, modelTransformMatrix);
                     }
-                    if(shadowList.contains(currentEntity)){
+                    if(dist < ShadowMapPipeline.DRAW_CUTOFF_DIST && shadowList.contains(currentEntity)){
                         shadowAccumulator.addCall(currentActor.getModelPath(), position, modelTransformMatrix);
                     }
                 }
@@ -96,7 +99,7 @@ public class DrawTargetEvaluator {
                 if(MainContentPipeline.shouldDrawSolidPass(currentEntity)){
                     mainQueue.add(currentEntity);
                 }
-                if(shadowList.contains(currentEntity)){
+                if(dist < ShadowMapPipeline.DRAW_CUTOFF_DIST && shadowList.contains(currentEntity)){
                     shadowQueue.add(currentEntity);
                 }
             }