I found the Shadow Catcher in Poser 12 reflects the light in the scene when it shouldn't.

Here is an example of the problem.

I created a scene that only has an HDR file in the Background material for the light source.

I set a square prop as the shadow catcher, (Checked Shadow_Catch_Only)

As you can see, Victoria is brighter like something beneath her is reflecting the light.

Here is the scene with the Shadow_Catch_Only unchecked.

When comparing the checked and unchecked images, Victoria is lit up the same.

Is there another way to setup the shadow catcher? If not, this is a serious bug and a big disappointment. A proper shadow catcher was the feature I really wanted.

I've never used the shadow catcher. Is it an object?

W10, Ryzen 5 1600x, 16Gb,RTX2060Super+GTX980, PP11, 11.3.740

It's a material setting applied to an object. In this case, a square prop. It's supposed to only catch the shadows in the scene. I use them all the time in Octane Render.

OK. a couple of thoughts. 1 the square has shadows turned off so it's passing light up at your figure. 2 The square's normals are funky and that's why it passing light up at your figure.

W10, Ryzen 5 1600x, 16Gb,RTX2060Super+GTX980, PP11, 11.3.740

The shadows are turned on and I get the same result with the High-Res Square or the Construct.

You noted "(Checked Shadow_Catch_Only)" but I'm wondering if the shader needs to be otherwise black. (I don't have P12)

There's no telling how the feature was implemented. Maybe it's still adding the diffuse and specular reflections into the GI calculations.

---

Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

When I set the diffuse to black, the shadows disappear. I'm submitting a bug because shadow catcher is not working properly in Superfly.