Ground plane and Ambient Shadows

[sopawilly]

Hi all,

I'm just starting to use Alias and am amazed about the Geo Enviroments and all the possibilities.

I still couldn't find the solution to the next problem:

I can't get casted shadows on ground planes on my renderings. I see it on the working window, but there's no trace of the ground plane when I Direct Render / Render 😞

I have actived Raytracing in Direct Render / Render

activated Cast Shadows on the Lights of my scene.

Chosen all lights to use with the enviroment.

Obviously, i'm missing a thing, can you help a newbie?

Thanks and greets

Guillermo

[ravenzep]

Did you try the diferent renderers?

Are your materials correct?

[sopawilly]

Hi on the screen I see the shadows on the different visualization styles.

On the Render, I use Raytracing and I can see shadow between the different objects, just nothing projected on the ground plane.

Do you have any Idea about what could be wrong?

[ravenzep]

Hi there.

I will have a look very soon, to see what s going on, and i ll get back to you .

[ravenzep]

Hello again,

I had a look into it. There are some settings you should be aware of, for things to behave as we would expect.

The scene is just a big plane for ground. a cube resting on it, and a direct light.

2 scenarios:

1- POWER TRACER render (software renderer)

Open the multilister, and pick your light source.

In my case i picked the direct light, that is created for you automatically when you CTRL + SHIFT +RMB > shade fast.

For both software  and hardware version of the light settings, TURN ON > CAST SHADOWS.

Below, in those settings windows, you can expand and see shadow ratracing parameters, that you can use to tweak your shadow if you wish.

If you render now, you ll see shadows as you would expect.

2- HARDWARE SHADE

To see better what s going on, delete or make invisible the geometry plane acting as ground, that was used for simulating ground.

Open up Hardware Shade settings window and TURN ON > Ground Plane.

Next, click edit environment, and on the hardware tab, expand GROUND PLANE. TURN ON > SHADOWS.

Then, below, Where it says SHADOW POSITION, chose USER DEFINED. This will make the hardware engine use your direct light source, and not the one it puts by thefault that is directly above, and hence it s like there is no shadow, although it is there.

This is just the basics to get you started.

If you follow these steps, you should be able to get what you were expecting to get.

If you have any trouble still, let me know.

Good luck, and have fun 🙂

[sopawilly]

Hi, at first, thanks a lot for your help, I just gave it a try and didn?t
get those shadow.

I tried something additionally that maype you said.

I created a plane al transparent glass where the shadows are projected, but
doesn?t influence de Background. Was also needed or is just a patch?

Thanks a lot
Guillermo

[image: Im?genes integradas 2][image: Im?genes integradas 3][image:
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[image: Im?genes integradas 5][image: Im?genes integradas 1][image:
Im?genes integradas 6]

[sopawilly]

And here the other attachments

[sopawilly]

Hi, did something else came to your mind about where the problem could be?

I´m still missing that point of the shadows on the background

Thanks and greets