I'm getting spotty and harsh dark shadows in my renders. I think it started happening after Poser crashed. I've attached a screenshot of my render settings.Can anyone help? Thanks!

You should lower min shading rate to 0.25 or 0.20 to start off. That's probably not the entire problem (I'm quite sure it isn't), but please post your light settings (both the dials and the properties) so we can assist you further.

I had a problem similar to that at one point. I think I fixed it by increasing the size of the shadow maps on the lights that are casting shadows.

(change the default 256 to 1024 or 2048)

Make sure you have the latest SR for Poser installed, then you should see a "shadow samples" dial in the light's properties. Turn that one up to increase the quality of ray traced shadows.

Quote - Make sure you have the latest SR for Poser installed, then you should see a "shadow samples" dial in the light's properties. Turn that one up to increase the quality of ray traced shadows.

Which version of Poser? I have poser 7 and that is what  the image looks like and I think Poser 8 changed a few things. On Poser 7 there is a shadow blur radius dial and a shadow min bias dial and that is it.

Quote - I had a problem similar to that at one point. I think I fixed it by increasing the size of the shadow maps on the lights that are casting shadows.

(change the default 256 to 1024 or 2048)

Or better still, avoid depth mapped shadows entirely, since they are garbage.

To the OP: Try adjusting Shadow Min Bias.  A setting of around 2.5 generally gives good results.  That's in Poser 6, btw, I dunno if anything has changed with the shadow handling since then.

I'm using Poser 8 with the latest fix. The shadow thing started  after a sudden and bad crash which destroyed the file I was working on. I thought it might be that..but I was playing with the dials too before that so it could be that too. Anyways, thanks so much. I'll try yr various suggestions and post back here.

Cheers, Jackie

in addition to using only ray-traced lites, if using P8 (final patch): do not use AO.  use IDL instead.

Miss Nancy..how do I use IDL and not AO?

**Thanks for all your suggestions. I tried them all but the problem remains. I'll try reinstalling Poser + the fix. Fingers x'd!
**

**
**

Damn well I hope that fixes it for you.

to use IDL, check "Indirect light" in attached window in poser 8.  to not use AO in poser 8, do not select AO on any lite, and check that all surface materials have AO disabled by default . it takes time to learn these things.  poser 4 took about 6 months; poser 8 takes about thrice as long for new user.

I'm ashamed to own up to having been a poser user for about 6 yrs and I still get lost with the technical stuff. I'm more of a click and create kinda gal :-) Thanks for your help.

Quote - to use IDL, check "Indirect light" in attached window in poser 8.  to not use AO in poser 8, do not select AO on any lite, and check that all surface materials have AO disabled by default . it takes time to learn these things.  poser 4 took about 6 months; poser 8 takes about thrice as long for new user.