Poser Pro 2014 (click picture for full view)

The shadows in my preview looks really weird, do yours look any better?

I have a Geforce GTX 660 graphic card but i dont know if that is the problem, maybe my settings in Poser are all wrong.

Increase Preview Shadow Map Size in the properties of the light

Wim, this is the preview, not a render, so the shadow map likely won't do a thing.

I don't have Hardware shading or -shadows on. I'll try turning it on and see if mine looks like that

Changing the Shadow Map Preview Size - which defaults to 512 and will go up to 4096 - does improve the look of shadows in the preview window on my system :)

Quote - Wim, this is the preview, not a render, so the shadow map likely won't do a thing.

Look again at the original picture. On the left. "Preview Shadow Map Size" and it absolutely will affect the preview shadow. This is PP2014 - new features.

As the others said - that settings defines the size of the shadow maps in preview - like Preview Texture resolution does for textures in the Render Settings for Preview

Not sure which version it was introduced

Ah duh! As I hadn't used the hardware shading myself (until now) I'd missed that little thing.

so the preview shadows use a shadow map? Live and learn :D

Thanks for that, a feature I had n't spotted, on a related topic is there a "Force 2-sided" option available for preview/comic book tone renders?

Quote - Thanks for that, a feature I had n't spotted, on a related topic is there a "Force 2-sided" option available for preview/comic book tone renders?

Remove backfacing polygons in the Preview Render Settings should do that trick

quote from Wimvdb:  Increase Preview Shadow Map Size in the properties of the light

Thank you, that did indead solve the problem with the "blocky" look on the shadows.

Im still not fully satisfied, if one looks at the face and the position of the light i dont understand why there are black spots in the face (one light in scene).

I have increased the depth bias (in preview tab)  to 1000 but they still wont go away, it gets better but nod good.

And thank you to the other posters for their input in this matter

Point lights will not yield desirable results in the preview, no matter how high you set the shadowmap size. Use either Infinite or Spot lights instead.

Quote - > Quote - Thanks for that, a feature I had n't spotted, on a related topic is there a "Force 2-sided" option available for preview/comic book tone renders?

Remove backfacing polygons in the Preview Render Settings should do that trick

 

Got it, Many thanks!

Quote from R_Hatch

Point lights will not yield desirable results in the preview, no matter how high you set the shadowmap size. Use either Infinite or Spot lights instead.

I see, indeed you are right!

Point light has been my "weapon of choise" for years now, guess its time to go back to the old spots again :-)

Thank you!

Not so sure I agree.  The shadows from the point light in this image look pretty good to me (except the one sided ruler prop doesn't cast any unless turned away from the light at which point it can't be seen).

Upon further investigation, it looks as if I may have found the only effective use conditions for the pointlight in preview.  My image looks OK because while the surface casting the shadow is complex, the surfaces receiving the shadow are both flat.  I added a point light to a more complex scene containing actual props and the result are not so good...  That tells me Poser has no trouble creating a shadow volume from a point light, but then is not so good at determining what parts of other objects are within the shadow.

I see..

Have decided to stick with point lights, just have to live without shadows in preview mode.