Forum: Poser - OFFICIAL


Subject: Poser Pro 2014 not rendering shadows

zaqxsw opened this issue on Nov 29, 2013 · 7 posts


basicwiz posted Sat, 30 November 2013 at 9:21 AM

Quote - Thank you for your reply... I recreated the light set in Poser Pro 2014 and it seems to work, but I'm still fumbling around with its new features.

Here is my very best advice to anyone in your shoes:

  1. A great many issues that you think are lighting are not lighting. They are shader node issues. Get Snarleygribley's EZSkin2 and Scene Fixer at: http://snarlygribbly.org/3d/forum/index.php They are free. They take care of fixing all that is wrong with your old content to make it ready for the new system. You need to run Scenefixer with all the top set of options selected and "Whole Scene" checked. Then run EZSkin and take the defaults. (You'll learn about the many options later.)

  2. If you are rendering outside scenes, get BB's Envosphere at: https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/environment-sphere. This free tool makes the new lighting system work right when there are no walls to bounce against.

  3. Realize that lighting has changed in a fundimental way. Place your lights where lights would actually BE in your scenes. As a rule, you no longer go with the old "Key", "Fill", "Back" scheme we all knew and hated. This means:

      - All lights... make sure you have "Raytace Shadows" selected in the light properties screen. Depth mapped shadows are the source of many, many "why the heck did THAT happen" issues.

      - Outside. The dome itself will light your scene. Place a single (infinity) light where the sun would be. Set it at about 50% brightness. Your scene is now lit. Use the "Render Firefly" script to actually do the renders. This is located under Scripts>Partners>Dimension3D. Make cure "Gamma Correction" is checked. Check the "Enable Indirect Light" box. Set the Intensity at about 63%. Set the "Precalculation Scale" at about 50%. Click "Render Background."

      - Inside. Place point lights wherever you would have a light source... like at a lamp, or lighting fixture. Set them all at about 20% for starters. Go to the "Render Firefly" script above.

This doesn't make things perfect, but if you start with simple scenes you are going to learn what things do and where the controls are very fast.

Good luck!