Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2720747

Hey, gang. The story has a happy ending, so if you're having problems with lighting in Poser, check out the last chapter at the link above:

Oh! I just figured out what your Latin quote says. And I never even studied Latin. That's one of my maxims as well.

Sam! Thanks! I looked again under body parts for "Plymouth" and found "plymouth." I selected "casts shadows." I went to render and selected manual render. And selected render shadows. At last I have exactly what I wanted when I began this madness two days ago. It works. Ignorance is so exhausting.

The body parts of the car don't include the roof! they only include the moving parts. I'm gonna try to contact Schurby and see if he has any clues.

P.S. * Shadow caching turned on. Scenario: User generated shadows at some earlier time, unknowingly with shadow caching turned on. Shadow caching means Poser skips recalculating the shadow map unless you explicitly tell it to, but user doesn't know that. Since then user added a prop, but it wasn't included in the calculation. Moving the prop or adjusting shadow related settings have no effect because Poser is still using the same shadow map from days ago. WHERE DO I GO TO EMPTY THE SHADOW CACHE?

Wowwwweeee. Bagginsbill. thanks thanks. How incredibly useful. I'm gonna print it out and hang it up. All these traps are things I can and do fall into. Believe me, I'm not laughing. Wow. Clear and so helpful. I see that "objects" can cast shadows. My car is a figure and honestly, I can't find any settings in its properties that will enable me to make it cast shadows. So it will all have to be done with the lights. Pardon the massive ignorance. And you'll hear more and more and more from me about it. With screenshots. With gratitude to everyone.

Rance, that's BEAUTIFUL. My car is one of Schurby's also. thanks so much everybody. Getting an education is rough and frustrating. But rewarding to hear from all of you. I'm gonna write down all the details of what you did, Rance. And thanks, Angel*. I guess the manual is wrong. I've also been having some sucess with "infinite" lites. Once I turned OFF "animating," things got a lot better.

yeah, but that shadow is falling on the ground, right? My problem has been that my guys are inside a car.

Thanks, Nancy. Slooooowwww going. P.S. I did post an awful lot of info (see above).

> Quote - How have you learned you can not use Infinite Lights?

See attached: Page 83. Under Help, Poser ref. manual "Infinite lites are comparable to the sun or moon.....etc. If you have multiple figures and or props in your scene infite lights shine on each item equally. You cannot place any scene element beyond an infinite light's range, and no figure/prop can be lit differently than another." It goes on to say that point lites are what you want when you want to use a lite source that interacts with objects and casts shadows. This is the reference manual. Please offer another source. I'll jump on it.

WAIT, WAIT. I think I'm actually getting somewhere. I turned OFF "animating" in the light's properties. Could that make all the difference??????? It looks a lot more REAL. !

Okay, all the settings are as follows: Render options: firefly>cast shadows>raytracing Lite 1. (only effective light) infinite>Visible>animating>on>shadows>ray Trace Shadows. figure: Plymouth>visible>visible in Raytracing figure body part>car paint >transparency=0 figure: James Hi res faceroom skin (custom)>transparency=0 James Hi res>body part>head>visible>visible in raytracing>Casts shadows P.S. Shadow blur and Ray bias are set as outlined by Sam Therapy, but the last thing I'm worried about at this point is "grain" in my shadows. I'd just settle for some shadows. as you see from the screen shot, Lite 1 is directly overhead.

Quote - straight, post a screencap of yer lite settings, that the experts might better assist ya.

Yeah, all the stuff told me (above) I have done, and it still doesn't work. The light goes right thru the figure (car roof) and lights the figures inside. I would LOVE to have the faces of the guys lit by light thru windshield, and the roof of the car reflecting light from above. BTW, the manual says that if you want a light to be blocked by a figure you HAVE to use a point or a spotlight. It says that infinite lights lite everything in the scene, regardless. I'll post a screen shot and lite parameters later today. THANKS. I would be so grateful for help.

Quote - Your purchases are found in the "Account" area. Close to the top of the page there is a "members" icon. In there you will find "My Account".

The list will preview as orders, but if you want to see what you have purchased, click on "List" and it will show all items instead of just the order group.

Thanks.  I figured it out.  There may be some info down there pointing you to what to do, but I didn't see it.  Thanks, again.

store@renderosity.com

It's late Friday night, and while there is 7 day customer support, if you order in the middle of the night or on a weekend, the process is a bit slower and will take longer, but you should have the links by morning :)

Hello, everybody.  I've reached Schurby!  We're discussing it all.  thanks for all your help.  Laurie