Usually, when I import 3DS or OBJ items into Poser, they don't cast shadows in the environment when rendered. Some items do and some items don't. I always make sure "cast shadow" is checked in the object properties and it doesn't seem to effect the items that don't cast shadows to begin with.

Why am I wondering about this? I was looking at the D&D Motel and I REALLY REALLY want it! It looks like all the items included cast shadows in the environment, which is FANTASTIC... unlike the Lava Bar set, available at DAZ3D. I saw the Lava Bar in action on a friend's machine and when I saw that the stools and tables and such did NOT cast shadows, it lost all value and appeal to me.

QUESTION IS, if anyone knows, why do some items cast shadows while others don't? Is there another shadow setting somewhere? Does the program of origin affect the model's behavior in Poser?

Also, does anyone have the D&D Motel? Is it as sweet as I think it is?? =) Thanks for any ideas.

Did you double click item to check shadows. That is all I can think of.

You can enable and disable shadows from the Render Options panel in the Render menu. You can also enable and disable shadows for individual lights, by selecting that light and going to its Properties panel. I'm not sure why some items won't cast shadows when imported. I haven't seen this problem myself. Can you name an example (from 3D Cafe, for instance)?

I hadn't made the connection, but now that you mention it, a lot of the props I have shadow problems with are imported meshes, too. Perhaps all of them. - I wonder if it has to do with the geometry being contained in the prop file, not an external "Geometries|*.OBJ" file? - Never thought about it til now, but is there a way to extract the geometry from one of these props so the prop file calls an external geometry? (Obviously there is, but I can't recall anything covering the procedure) Anyone?

Yes, mostly trouble with 3DS objects, but then I noticed it happens on OBJ stuff too. Specific examples: the sink and toilet that USED to be available in free stuff here. They come packaged with both 3DS and OBJ formats... no shadows on either. Also, if anyone owns the Lava Bar, they should be able to see what I'm talking about. Forget about the render and light settings... they are fine.

All models can cast shadows. There are however, about a half dozen things in Poser that can cause no shadows to appear. Got a free model that you are having this problem with so we can check what is going wrong for you?

Save your 3ds or OBJ prop to the Prop Library as a PP2 file. (That will embed the geometry in the PP2 file.) Then bring it out of the Library, place and render. This has worked for me. Sometimes some objects don't even show up in a render. By trying a new camera angle they often will "reappear." There is a way to extract the embedded geometry from a PP2 prop and reroute the reference to a Runtime/Geometry file. Fairly innvolved. If enuf interest, I will knock out a Tutorial (in a coupla weex...)

I will definitely try saving some of the objects as props and inserting them back into the scene. I hadn't tried that since I saw the trouble with the Lava Bar (where you can either load the PZ3 file OR add everything individually, no shadows no matter what on those objects). Just to clarify, not having trouble with shadows, period. Just shadows on specific things. I even tried putting a primitive "inside" the imported mesh (to at least get SOME kind of shadow) and it STILL didn't cast a shadow. Those things are damned black holes! =) The only free stuff I can name off the top of my head was that toilet and the sink, and even the toliet-paper roll... but they seemed to have disappeared. Dont remember the artist off the top of my head, but it was Nojasto or something like that. See, these objects won't cast shadows while other objects in the scene (specifically Poser people and basic objects like cubes used for walls) will without any problems. I will definitely try saving these objects as props and reloading them. I had neglected to try that since I assumed it wouldn't work, based on my experience with the Lave Bar. Can you tell I'm sour on that? hehehe

Don I'd definitely be interested in such a tutorial - can't guarantee I'd understand, but it's something I have wanted to try for a while. The biggest problem I had with Shadows, was understanding how many places they can be influenced. I know of 3 now, each mesh can have shadows turned on or off, each light can have shadows on, off, or adjusted by percentage of penetration, and the Render Options has a check-box for casting shadows during render, which always seems to default to off on bootup. Until I understood that, I had no handle on them at all. In total, they give the user a lot more control over special situations, but it's not exactly intuitive.

My only problem with shadows was the Poser ground plane's strange behavior with shadows cast by transparent objects. It doesn't matter if i'm using the transparency settings alone, or combined with a transmap; the ground plane treats all shadows as if they were cast by totally opaque objects. I rediscovered this "feature" today while creating a cardboard-cutout figure using transmaps and a square prop. No amount of fiddling could produce a realistic shadow; it was always rectangular. Then I remembered the problem I had before with transparent windowpanes and the ground plane. The only solution was to turn off the ground plane and use another prop for the ground. Does anyone know why the ground plane behaves this way?

Alot of the problems explained here have to do with the imported geometry and it face normals. More precisely, the direction the quad, or triangle was created in. Sound strange? Think about draing a square. You caan start on any corner, and make a square. But on a quad, it does depend on which side the square is started. Can't explain it, don't know how to fix it, just know that it's true. Amapi does this too. Not so much with the shadows, but with the direction of the quad, causing the mesh to interact differently. I would recommend trying to run the object through "detriangulate" (I think that is what it's called) andd see if this corrects the problem. Worked for me before. It's available in free stuff, under utilities, or at least it used to be.