I keep running into this problem - any time I use transmapped hair on a character, the shadows cast have gaps in them that seem to correspond to the hair's transparency. So light appears to shine straight through the head and hair onto the body. I'm pretty sure it's not a bias setting or anything like that as I've tested various options. Anyone have any solutions to this issue?

I always turn off "cast shadows" for the hair.

I think I just discovered the answer to my problem - depth mapped shadows instead of raytraced ones. Must be some kind of difficulty that Firefly has with raytracing and transparency.

Quote - "I think I just discovered the answer to my problem - depth mapped shadows instead of raytraced ones. Must be some kind of difficulty that Firefly has with raytracing and transparency."

I am gonna have to assume that too. I bumped into this same problem a while ago and posted a thread at a few sites, including here. The upshoot seems to be nobody knows why it happens. Occasionally somebody else will post a thread here(like yours) on the same issue. The threads I have seen have always ended inconclusivly. I will be overjoyed if you find a fix! :-) (heres hoping)

With ray traced lighting, firefly calculates shadows based on the first surface a light ray runs into, so if that first surface is trans mapped and the ray gets through the transparent part then running into other objects afterwards won't block the ray and create a shadow, even though it should. Until EF gets around to fixing the problem, we're all just going to have to go back to depth mapped shadows when transparency is involved I'm afraid.

Quote - With ray traced lighting, firefly calculates shadows based on the first surface a light ray runs into, so if that first surface is trans mapped and the ray gets through the transparent part then running into other objects afterwards won't block the ray and create a shadow, even though it should. Until EF gets around to fixing the problem, we're all just going to have to go back to depth mapped shadows when transparency is involved I'm afraid.

Well.... thanks for finally clearing that up :-(

It really stinks for me though, since my major attraction to poser 5 and 6 was the realistic shadowing as opposed to the poor/inaccurate depth-mapped shadows in Poser. (Daz studio is MUCH better at this)

Now it seems we are back to poor Poser depth-mapped shadows again. (Figures that appear to be floating above the ground, anyone?)

 Great! :-(

"Now it seems we are back to poor Poser depth-mapped shadows again. (Figures that appear to be floating above the ground, anyone?)"

There are always the options of decreasing shadow bias, increasing shadow map sizes, reducing the shadow blur radius  and tweaking the shadow cams.

Now it seems we are back to poor Poser depth-mapped shadows again. (Figures that appear to be floating above the ground, anyone?) AO takes care of that.

Quote - "Now it seems we are back to poor Poser depth-mapped shadows again. (Figures that appear to be floating above the ground, anyone?)"

There are always the options of decreasing shadow bias, increasing shadow map sizes, reducing the shadow blur radius  and tweaking the shadow cams.

 

Yep. At one time or another (especially in my P4 days) I have played with all of that. But its always been an albatross for me. An extra couple of minutes tweaking and fiddling with something that should really work on its own. Like having to spend ten minutes tweaking the engine of your car before you can drive. Sure it can be done..... but....... (bleah) :-)

I was hoping that was all pretty much a dead issue with poser 6.

Oh well: I will cross my fingers and hope for a fix. Otherwise, I will be looking at P7 with an EXTREMELY wary eye.

I mean, really. Between P5 and P6 I have now spent a couple of hundred dollars on programs that seem unable to handle something even the absolutely free Daz studio seems to handle easily...

Not the end of the world. It's after all just a hobby, but I AM disappointed.

Quote - Now it seems we are back to poor Poser depth-mapped shadows again. (Figures that appear to be floating above the ground, anyone?) AO takes care of that.

Yep lots of fun! :-)

I have gotton some interesting effects. In fact I should probably play with it a bit more, but I cant see it being for regular use right now. (to slow) :-)