Vray Next - Lights and cast shadows

[Anonymous]

Hello there,

I did a quick scene so I can test materials and lights in Vray next. Thing is I don't get cast shadows and I don't know why.

In my scene, I created 3 lights (all with cast shadows option activated😞

- a dome at the top with HDRI

- a plane by the left

- a plane behind

Here's the result. Any idea why there's no cast shadows?

[Anonymous]

For me it is natural result. Object is translucent- there is very soft shadow on the right. If you want it more shapey you should use less light source and the light source should be small. If you have dome light, there is no space for shadow...

[Anonymous]

I created the dome light so I can put HDRI to get better reflections on the glass materials. I don't know an other way to put HDRI without being associated to a Vray Dome Light. But even without the Dome light and adding a simple cylinder with no transparency material on it, I still don't get cast shadows. I do have the reflect on the bottle but no shadows on the wood board.

I don't understand where it goes wrong.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

You sill have no shodow, cause dome light is all around everything (like sky outside).
If you want the dome light to affect only reflections of object then go to modify panel of that light, go to "options" rollout and uncheck "Affect diffuse". 

[Anonymous]

Thank you. It's my first scene so I still don't know about options. I do one thing here, one thing there and check if the result's ok. Anyway, good tip about dome light/HDRI without diffuse effect.

In the end below, I have 3 plane lights (left, behind, right) and the dome. There's indeed some cast shadows, softer than I was looking for but I'll try again with another scene.

Thx.

[Anonymous]

Try manipulate with the light sources size and multiplayers of the lights (lower the multiplayer of right or left light to get more shodow on this side). Smaller light source gives more sharp shodow (like in real world). Good luck.