Forum: Bryce

Subject: Soft IBL Shadows?

MKruczek opened this issue on Mar 29, 2008 · 8 posts

MKruczek posted Sat, 29 March 2008 at 11:24 AM

Can somebody help me out with this?  Is it it possible to get soft shadows using Bryce IBL?  All I seem to get are multiple hard shadows when I use IBL lighting. 

dhama posted Sat, 29 March 2008 at 12:17 PM

Try 'link sun to view' or adjust the falloff.

dan whiteside posted Sat, 29 March 2008 at 12:29 PM

 If you turn on Soft Shadows in the Premium render setting you'll get IBL SS but only a small amount. I'd say it's about the regular lighting equivalent of setting SS to about 5-10%. Needles to say it really slows down the render.

You may be better off upping the IBL quality. The guy that did the IBL algorithm that Bryce uses recommends a minimum of 512 lights (the Quality setting in Bryce) with 1024 being preferable.

MKruczek posted Sat, 29 March 2008 at 12:51 PM

I've tried SS in premium with 1024 quality and couldn't really see a difference.  I'm wondering if it has something to do with the position of the IBL light itself.  I changed the default position to one that has the light coming somewhat from the side.  In the default position I have one hard shadow, after changing I get several overlapping shadows.  Thanks for the suggestions.

sackrat posted Sat, 29 March 2008 at 1:27 PM

Yeah,...........it's Bryce,............If  you have a plain  Ground plane (flat color, no texture) you can try rendering an object mask of it and use an image editor ( PS, PSP, etc.) to add blur to soften the shadows. The IBL function in B6.1 is great on certain object and landscapes however,.......the shadows are by and large going to be hard edged.

"Any club that would have me as a member is probably not worth joining" -Groucho Marx

dan whiteside posted Sat, 29 March 2008 at 7:35 PM

 It really depends a lot on the IBL file. Here's an example of the two settings used with the kitchen_probe.hdri file. Edit: be sure and click on the image to see it full size.

FranOnTheEdge posted Wed, 02 April 2008 at 4:35 AM

I've got some nice effects when using a lightdome or light *sliver* for a directional soft shadow.

This image actually used a dome of lights. Sunlight was disabled but the sky was still there and set to "soft sky" - and this was in Bryce5.5.

Measure your mind's height
by the shade it casts.
 Robert Browning (Paracelsus)

Fran's Freestuff

http://franontheedge.blogspot.com/

http://www.FranOnTheEdge.com

FranOnTheEdge posted Wed, 02 April 2008 at 5:59 AM

Here's the same scene in B6 using the backporch IBL - but still using the lightdome as well:^^^

Measure your mind's height
by the shade it casts.
 Robert Browning (Paracelsus)

Fran's Freestuff

http://franontheedge.blogspot.com/

http://www.FranOnTheEdge.com