like this?

**Paloth :
What you see is Ambient occlusion beeing way to harsh.
Same goes for Chip room. Ambient Occlusion and/or self shadowing is not very pronounced in the real world as you say, it is however another light model, one that interacts with direct and indirect illumination/shadows very well if calibrated.
One could benefit rendering out the Ambient occlusion as a seperate pass and do an aditive blend post.
The umbra ( shadow place thats completly blocked from an opauge object like this ball ) is just natural. you can see the penumbra ( soft edge of shadow ) is more profound on the last image chip posted.
The Antrumbra ( area that is hit directly from source) seems to be smaller on the first image but its not, as the source hasnt changed in size, only intencity.

You will find that Chips image contains 2 very normal shaodw phenomenas as they would apear in our own world, Ambient occlusion and the interaction between mesh and a direct light.

The ambient occlusion is still present in the 2nd image, this is the shadow you see under the ball which reach out under neath it. that will always be there.

note : you can easily check if a shadow is having the correct amount of falloff in the penumbra ( the area between full shadow and no shadow ) by knowing th fact that for each 100cm the sun travels the penumbra increases 1cm ( beeing our own sun's dimentions )

Sun's distance from earth (center, but the few kilometers to the surface aren't going to matter much as we'll be taking averages elsewhere destroying superaccuracy anyway): 1.49610^11m
Sun's diameter: 1.39210^9
Disc angle: atan (1.39210^9 / 1.49610^11) = 0.533°

Project back to the distance between our object casting a shadow, and the surface receiving it:
penumbra = 1m * (1.39210^9 / 1.49610^11) = 1m * 9.3048110^-3 = 9.3048110^-3 ~= 0.00930481m, or 9.30481mm****

you can see a small example i made here with both light models in action.
Note the big penumbra sweeping over the floor and then note the legs on the chairs at the dinner table.

**

I realised looking through this thread, that ive spend too much time at my work.
My studio at home isn't that cozy at all. Tho I live of making images and music I dont have one single bit on my walls. Its very minimalistic.
However here is my 35mm film rig, used it a few times in junction with vue ( tracking footage yada yada ) Its one of the props I got close to me when working, including music gear ~

I use Boujou and Syntheyes at work, works flawless with vue as well

that totaly depends on the render engine and nothing else.
I belive that people here leaves an indication that the render engnie is alot faster in v7 than it is in v6 on some specific stuff

heh :)

yeah, its down as its moving to a new server.
Autodesk just bought e-on and are relocating all files to autodesk.com

watching the election, sleep long, go to work, eat lunch...leech v7 xstream, close mobile..close administration, pour 1½ liter cola in jug, add headphones to head, adjust volume..play

Thanks bruno021

!

Direct shadows are needed.

General includ/exclude list are still better tho. lets see what we have to play with in vue7 xstream

I am well aware what AO is.
Ambient occlusion is not controled by materials but by pr object in general Rutra
though -
You can have special shaders that couter than but thats not every render that supports that.
Some renders has AO maps and does not need a general AO switch.

Thank you,

Its deffinalty something they should look into, espessially when you comp alot of stuff