Attached Link: http://www.stiffbiscuit.com

Is there anyway to get the shadow edges in poser to be blured and not have ugly and undefined pixelated ones. Tried larger shadow maps but it didn't help any. Are there Plug-in Renderers that will work with poser 4 to alleviate this problem? Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks

...if on ground or surfaces Set Shadow maps to 2000 ...if from hair use Daz complex Global lighting ... make sure under render options "anti-alias" is checked

Also, it may seem obvious, but check that the Shadow isn't set to a value of 1.00. If you want soft shadows, anything from 0.100 - 0.500 should be good. mac

Read Dr. Geep's tutorial on shadows. Definitely recommended :)

Attached Link: http://www.stiffbiscuit.com

Thanks for the info everyone

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1100126

Tisk-Tisk! Replies from some of our best and brightest, yet none even mentioning ShadowCam control for him??

ShadowCam adjustments permit a much more radical effect on shadow edge-feathering than adjusting the Shadow Map size, and are a more efficient use of system resources as well.

The link above starts out on a different lighting topic, but has some examples toward the end regarding manipulating the lights' ShadowCams to affect the cast shadows' edge softness.

Hmmm ... Sorry 'bout that ("Tisk-Tisk!") Maybe they could try [ THIS ONE.](http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1641181&Form.sess_id=4339977&Form.sess_key=1075478706) cheers, dr geep ;=]

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1361737

Dat's da one! See the last frame in post #39 in Doc's thread stiffb. Unfortunately both he and I combined the Map Size and ShadowCam adjustments when illustrating our examples, so we don't really compare the relative effects of one to the other, but you'll see it quickly with a little experimenting. With regard to system resources, keep in mind that increasing the Shadow Map Size will increase memory usage as well as render time, while adjusting the Shadow Camera's scale will not. Also, for way more than you wanted to know, check the link above, especially starting at post #23 by lesbentley regarding unhiding each ShadowCam's Z-Trans dial. There are a few misconceptions later in that thread though, regarding changes in an object's ability to *accept* shadows cast upon it when it's Cast Shadows option is turned on or off. What is really happening there is that when changing this setting on any object in your scene, the shadowcams positions are reset by the app to include within their field of view all the objects with Cast Shadows turned on. This change in the ShadowCams' field of view will usually alter the resolution of the shadows cast upon the objects -- but it is only the ShadowCams that are changed, not really anything about the prop's inherent ability to accept cast shadows as the thread suggests.

I didn't mention shadow cams because I was trying to KISS. mac

nance, Here's a pic to show what I've found with switching 'casr shadows' on/off. As you can see, the floor for the room I built gives a much better shadow when 'cast shadows' is switched on for that body part. With the ground, it doesn't seem to make a huge difference, although I haven't really tested this, since I never use the ground plane. You say that changing this setting resets the shadow cams. I can't get this to happen at all. Weird.... Moral of the story seems to be that 'cast shadows' should be left ON for non-ground plane objects. Hope this helps someone. mac

While we're talking lighting, maybe someone can solve a conundrum. I've discovered that if you parent a light to a cr2 and save it, poser kills the Shadow and Map Size channels. I was making a new figure which comes with a parented light and I noticed the channels were missing. I pasted them back into the cr2, opened and resaved it, and on re-opening, they were gone again. Any bright ideas? ('scuse the pun) mac

Hi Mac, The only thing I can think of is the fact that Poser prolly only saves parameters that pertain to a figure and lights don't qualify so they are not saved in a .cr2 file. cheers, dr geep ;=] P.S. The problem with shadows on Poser's "GROUND" may be due to the fact that the GROUND is located at yTran = -0.001 (a negative value). If you "Create New Prop" (using Grouping Tool) from the GROUND and do a "Drop to Floor," the NewProp will be at yTran = 0.000 and shadows work ok. Just a thought. ;=]

hi doc, It's a plausible theory, but there's a problem. The lights are spotlights and the cr2 saves with all the other parameters, like AngleStart/AngleEnd, etc. It's only those two which are missing. I tried your other theory, by exporting the ground plane as an obj, the re-importing it and raising it slightly. But I didn't see any difference. Maybe I have a weird floor. I mean, everything else I have is weird, so.... mac

Maybe ya gots da rong brand of Posa? ;=]

Re post #10: Nance, I was very interested in what you had to say in post #10, but I think you are reaching mistaken conclusions. Certainly the field of view of a shadow cam associated with an INFINITE light will act as you discribe. Hoever a shadow cam associated with a SPOT does not seem to act in this same way. My experiments in the thread you refered to were done with spotlights. I just now did a further experiment. There is one light in the scene, a spotlight. I used a Poser square for the floor and set "Casts Shadow" off for the square, I then selected the shadow cam and used copy from the Edit menu. Here are the results pasted directly into this document: Shadow Cam Lite 5 0 hither Spline 0.0156 Shadow Cam Lite 5 0 scale Spline 1.0000 Shadow Cam Lite 5 0 xtran Spline -0.0049 Shadow Cam Lite 5 0 ytran Spline 0.1249 I then set "Casts Shadow" on for the square, rendered again, and again copied the shadow cam. Here are the results: Shadow Cam Lite 5 0 hither Spline 0.0156 Shadow Cam Lite 5 0 scale Spline 1.0000 Shadow Cam Lite 5 0 xtran Spline -0.0049 Shadow Cam Lite 5 0 ytran Spline 0.1249 As you can see the scale and translations of the shadow cam have not changed, though the shadows on the square have (see pic above). I also did a visual comparison of the view from the shadow cam before and after shadows had been enabled for the square, with no apparent diffrence. I'm affraid the diffrence in shadows can't be acounted for by a change in the shadow cam, as there does not seem to be any change.

Whoopsie! ...it WAS indeed I who was profoundly mistaken in #10. As Mac & Les both correctly point out, it IS only infinite lights that reposition automatically, and spotlights remain unaffected, so the phenomenon remains unexplained AFAIK. (Deducting 10 penalty points for presumptuous pompous posting!)