For reasons I cannot understand, figures that I render in firefly have stopped casting shadows on the extensive assembly of props I've set up as a backdrop. The figures will cast shadows on each other if the lights are set up right, but not on those props.

I recently reparented those 100+ props (which are all from the Poser Primitives folder) around a central prop so I could rotate the entire assembly around the figures. Could that have anything to do with why they won't take shadows?

Also, I tried exporting the whole assembly as an .obj, but my figures do not make shadows when I render them against that, either.

This happens with both raytracing and depth mapping. I've double, triple and quadruple checked to be sure the lights and figures are set to cast shadows.

I'm using poser 7, on a windows xp pc.

I'm at my wit's end,and any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

First thought is could it be a memory issue. Have you tried just importing one of these props into a new scene to see if the problem exists? Also, (sorry for the stupid question) but the prop materials have a diffuse component and not only ambient or alt-diffuse?

A single figure will cast shadows on that conglomerate prop I described, but not the collection of 5 that I need for several scenes.  That suggests memory problems. I've reduced bucket size and raised shading rate, to no avail.

I confess I'm clueless about diffuse components, but I went to the advnaced panel of the material window for that prop and took the attached screen shot in the hope you can perhaps interpret it.

Is there any way to change those values to something more likely to show a shadow?

With that shader you will not see shadows because the object is pure black and will look the same in light and shadow.

Reflection_Lite_Multi, turn that off.