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Ground Shadows not rendering

ThorThor Posts: 43
in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

Is there any way to render ground shadows while using "Scene only" environment settings WITHOUT adding a floor plane to the scene?

I'm using Scene Only settings for the lighting, but this seems to disable the ground shadows. "Draw ground shadows" is on, and ground shadow intensity is set to 1.0, but no ground shadows are rendered.
If I add a floor plane, I get the shadows, but then I can't use the transparent .png for compositing the ground shadows.

If I use Dome and Scene settings, I get the ground shadows, but it screws up my scene lighting.

Is there another setting I'm missing?

Comments

  • kenshaw011267kenshaw011267 Posts: 3,805

    There has to be a ground to cast shadows on. If there isn't one there can be no shadows.

  • ThorThor Posts: 43
    edited December 2019
    kenshaw011267 said:

    There has to be a ground to cast shadows on. If there isn't one there can be no shadows.

    If you choose dome only, shadows are rendered on the built-in default ground plain. This implies that the default ground plain can receive shadows. Why doesn't the same ground plane receive shadows if "Draw ground" is turned on in a scene only environment?

     

     

     

    Post edited by Thor on
  • kenshaw011267kenshaw011267 Posts: 3,805
    Thor said:
    kenshaw011267 said:

    There has to be a ground to cast shadows on. If there isn't one there can be no shadows.

    If you choose dome only, shadows are rendered on the built-in default ground plain. This implies that the default ground plain can receive shadows. Why doesn't the same ground plane receive shadows if "Draw ground" is turned on in a scene only environment?

    It's scene only, I have no idea why draw ground is an option, and would be plenty mad if it actually worked. When I select scene only rendering that's what I mean.

  • ThorThor Posts: 43
    kenshaw011267 said:
    Thor said:
    kenshaw011267 said:

    There has to be a ground to cast shadows on. If there isn't one there can be no shadows.

    If you choose dome only, shadows are rendered on the built-in default ground plain. This implies that the default ground plain can receive shadows. Why doesn't the same ground plane receive shadows if "Draw ground" is turned on in a scene only environment?

    It's scene only, I have no idea why draw ground is an option, and would be plenty mad if it actually worked. When I select scene only rendering that's what I mean.

    Well, if it's off by default, why would you be mad if there was an option to turn it on for those who needed it? I explained why this would be a very useful (and expected) behavior, and why, based on the available settings it looks like it SHOULD work.

    Very simply put, if I've set up lighting for a scene, and I want to use the render (without the dome) for compositing, the lights currently don't cast ground shadows. In fact, since the default render settings are Dome & Scene, ground shadows ARE rendered on the ground plane by default. But turning off dome turns off ground shadows. Doesn't make sense to me. frown

     

  • GoggerGogger Posts: 2,416

    Admittedly, I just got this and have not tried it out yet, but it might be a solution to your problem, even if not the ideal solution you asked for, still....

    https://www.daz3d.com/iray-hdri-toolkit

    ​Use, or lose, as you see fit.  I wish you luck in your quest.

  • ThorThor Posts: 43
    Gogger said:

    Admittedly, I just got this and have not tried it out yet, but it might be a solution to your problem, even if not the ideal solution you asked for, still....

    https://www.daz3d.com/iray-hdri-toolkit

    ​Use, or lose, as you see fit.  I wish you luck in your quest.

    Hmm.. the ground catcher or plane catcher seem to be exactly what I would expect the default ground behavior to be. Thanks for the tip, I may have to check that out.
    If you try it out, it would be cool to see a test render.

  • Catherine3678abCatherine3678ab Posts: 8,388
    edited December 2019
    Thor said:

    Is there any way to render ground shadows while using "Scene only" environment settings WITHOUT adding a floor plane to the scene?

    I'm using Scene Only settings for the lighting, but this seems to disable the ground shadows. "Draw ground shadows" is on, and ground shadow intensity is set to 1.0, but no ground shadows are rendered.
    If I add a floor plane, I get the shadows, but then I can't use the transparent .png for compositing the ground shadows.

    If I use Dome and Scene settings, I get the ground shadows, but it screws up my scene lighting.

    Is there another setting I'm missing?

    I used default settings, Scene Only, Ground on. Scene has figure and light. Shadow exists. Transparent .png

    Draw Ground is on.png
    815 x 768 - 97K
    Post edited by Catherine3678ab on
  • nicsttnicstt Posts: 11,715
    edited December 2019

    You need an hdri to catch shadows; it needs to be a value above 0.0

    Post edited by nicstt on
  • ThorThor Posts: 43
    edited January 2020
    Catherine3678ab said:

    I used default settings, Scene Only, Ground on. Scene has figure and light. Shadow exists. Transparent .png

    Yes, that's what I'd expect, but that is not what I get:

    Image removed
     

    Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
  • AbnerKAbnerK Posts: 718
    edited January 2020

    I found myself in too many pickles over these setting so I understand your frustration. If you want shadows on a trasparent background coming only from your scene you need to use a shadow catcher. 

    Is this what you're after? If not I've missunderstood?

    Don't forget you will probably need to toggle the plane off and on in the Scene tab. Oh, and I'd turn gloss off on the plane you can see the reflections on mine. The shadow coming forward in mine is from a scene spot. The Shadow to the left is from the Dome which you'd have set to off. 

     

     

    Screen Shot 2020-01-08 at 15.22.36.png
    2880 x 1800 - 744K
    Post edited by AbnerK on
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