Forum: Poser 11 / Poser Pro 11 OFFICIAL Technical

Subject: No Shadows in Preview Mode

weiesnbach opened this issue on May 31, 2022 ยท 13 posts

weiesnbach posted Tue, 31 May 2022 at 11:46 PM

I know I used to have shadows in Preview Mode,  but since I've had 11 on this machine(about 2 years now) my shadows are gone in Preview Mode.  I've been working by doing a render in preview for the Cartoon/Comic Book,  then  a render in Firefly for shadows(shadows only setting),  and then  compositing in PS...

...well I'm sick of doing that, I just  want my shadows back in preview mode, what  gives?

I've tried every setting I can think of,  OpenGL is enabled everywhere, settings for hardware shadows are ticked on in preview, shadows are enabled on the lights(raytrace shadows,  tried every bias setting between 0-and-40)...

...nothing I do will produce shadows in Preview Mode. 

I know this used to work--I know it did--so  what gives???

Any help pin-pointing the root cause of this would be greatly appreciated. 

RedPhantom posted Wed, 01 June 2022 at 7:11 AM Site Admin

Here's where I checked for shadows.

I would also check to make sure there aren't too many other lights in the scene that might wash it out.

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RedPhantom posted Wed, 01 June 2022 at 7:18 AM Site Admin

Here's the same scene with one infinite light added.


Available on Amazon for the Kindle E-Reader Monster of the North and The Shimmering Mage

Today I break my own personal record for the number of days for being alive.
Check out my store here or my free stuff here
I use Poser 13 and win 10

weiesnbach posted Wed, 01 June 2022 at 8:13 AM

1 area light(all light types refuse to produce shadows) shadows on,  light in OpenGL preview,  OpenGL on everywhere...

....no shadows. 

I've gone back to old files where the renders have shadows, open up  the file, untouched,  and no shadows.  Everything shades just fine, but nothing casts or catches shadows. 

Could this be a hardware issue? I know it happened when I switched from  10 to 11--I remember catching it early on, and thinking it really wasn't important, because I wasn't using the comic book  render very much, if at all,  but I use it a lot now, and it's becoming a serious time waster having to  render shadows separately and then  combine them in Photoshop. 



JoePublic posted Wed, 01 June 2022 at 10:32 AM

Poser 11.3.818 here.

2yr old Acer Nitro 5 Laptop with a Geforce GTX

Windows 10, up to date.

One infinite light with shadows. (Plus one IBL and another Infinte "Fill" light without shadows)


Both Hardware and Ground Shadows work fine.


Preview settings:


weiesnbach posted Wed, 01 June 2022 at 9:00 PM

JoePublic posted at 10:32 AM Wed, 1 June 2022 - #4439404

Poser 11.3.818 here.

2yr old Acer Nitro 5 Laptop with a Geforce GTX

Windows 10, up to date.

One infinite light with shadows. (Plus one IBL and another Infinte "Fill" light without shadows)


Both Hardware and Ground Shadows work fine.


Preview settings:





Thanks for the screen shot,  but toggling hardware ambient occlusion, and/or back facing polys, isn't helping,  neither is setting the shadows bias all the way up to 150...


...again I ask,  could this be a hardware related issue? I have Poser 11 currently on an older Dell Optiplex 9020 with an onboard graphics card. 

primorge posted Wed, 01 June 2022 at 9:07 PM

Check that your shadow casting lights do not have their shadow parameter value set as 0

primorge posted Wed, 01 June 2022 at 9:09 PM

...Also please post a screenshot of your preview render settings.

weiesnbach posted Wed, 01 June 2022 at 11:38 PM

https://live.cdn.renderosity.com/forum/comments/4439460/agGhKaESWPslbfaIVz8rEXySHejkIC70IjYpdZHz.pnghttps://live.cdn.renderosity.com/forum/comments/4439460/agGhKaESWPslbfaIVz8rEXySHejkIC70IjYpdZHz.pnghttps://live.cdn.renderosity.com/forum/comments/4439460/agGhKaESWPslbfaIVz8rEXySHejkIC70IjYpdZHz.pngprimorge posted at 9:09 PM Wed, 1 June 2022 - #4439448

...Also please post a screenshot of your preview render settings.

See above...

...repeated below:


RedPhantom posted Thu, 02 June 2022 at 8:14 AM Site Admin

I've been trying to recreate your problem by copying what I see in your screenshots and the only way I can make the shadows disappear is either to set the light angle low so the shadows are off-screen, turn on the ambient node for the ground, setting the fly to not cast shadows, or setting the light intensity to 10000000.0%.

Out of curiosity, are you using the construct or the flat ground? I've been testing with both and it hasn't made a difference yet.

Available on Amazon for the Kindle E-Reader Monster of the North and The Shimmering Mage

Today I break my own personal record for the number of days for being alive.
Check out my store here or my free stuff here
I use Poser 13 and win 10

RedPhantom posted Thu, 02 June 2022 at 8:22 AM Site Admin

okay, I did manage to do it. Having the light well in front of the fly and pointing almost directly down did it. Try changing the location or angle of the light

Available on Amazon for the Kindle E-Reader Monster of the North and The Shimmering Mage

Today I break my own personal record for the number of days for being alive.
Check out my store here or my free stuff here
I use Poser 13 and win 10

weiesnbach posted Thu, 02 June 2022 at 11:14 AM

RedPhantom posted at 8:22 AM Thu, 2 June 2022 - #4439479

okay, I did manage to do it. Having the light well in front of the fly and pointing almost directly down did it. Try changing the location or angle of the light

It's not just  this file, or this lighting angle.  Shadows have disappeared from  the preview render across the board(every file,  every  model,  every ground type,  every  light type,  every  setting on those lights, every time),  and it happened when I upgraded from  Poser 10 to Poser 11,  this was about two years ago  now. 

I assure you lighting angle has nothing to  do with it.  I have files from  years ago that have shadows in the renders(I have the renders--they have shadows),  I can open the files up,  not change a single setting,  but they no longer have shadows, not in  preview,  not in the preview render.  They  simply stopped working in preview when I upgraded to Poser 11.  I am  seriously thinking it's a hardware issue,  as none of the settings I have tried have produced shadows. 

I appreciate you trouble shooting this,  but I'm really-really leaning towards the fact that  something in Poser 11's preview  is not playing well  with the graphics card on this older PC. 

shvrdavid posted Fri, 10 June 2022 at 5:08 AM

Have you tried completely uninstalling the integrated graphics driver and reinstalling it in safe mode?

Integrated 4000 and 5000 series graphics and Windows 10 don't get along real well, and the drivers have to be re done in safe mode if there is a problem..

I would run a driver wiper like the MajorGeek Display Driver Uninstaller in safe mode as well to make sure all the reg keys and control sets are removed.

Windows update will break the driver thinking it needs to update it to a newer one, which is easy to stop..

Before you do anything, set windows to not update (and break) any system driver, or it will just break it again by installing a Windows driver update....

Download every version of the driver from both Intel and Dell then progressively work from newest to oldest until it works. Start with the Dell ones.

It is a tedious process, and a royal pain, ask me how I know...

The older drivers have a better and more exposed graphics settings in Windows, incase your wondering where all the settings went. 

No clue why Intel nerfed the newer drivers, or why Microsoft started and continues to break opengl on older integrated gpus....

Hope this helps.


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