trace sets.... shadows?

[super gnu]

ive got a matte surface and i want shadows cast onto it by only some of the objects... obviously i cant use anything crude like excluding objects from shadowcasting...

it would be great if we could use trace sets to control shadows as well as reflections and refractions... is there a technical reason why this isnt a feature?

i guess at the moment my two options are to do 2 separate renders, or have multiple sets of lights, with some careful include-exclude work... not sure how that will work with the interplay of shadows between everything though...


ill probably just do 2 renders... unless there is a better way?

[hermit.crab]

Even with a Shadows trace set, you would need to render twice, since the shadows would be disabled in both Alpha and RGB.

Just a tip - you can easily disable all of your selected objects' shadow casting with this:

$.castShadows=false

[super gnu]

Even with a Shadows trace set, you would need to render twice, since the shadows would be disabled in both Alpha and RGB.

Just a tip - you can easily disable all of your selected objects' shadow casting with this:

$.castShadows=false

i would be fine with the shadows being disabled in both alpha and rgb.. i just want some objects to cast shadows on each other generally (so not turning off shadow casting) but not to cast shadows on the floor, which is a matte object. other objects should cast shadows on the floor normally. ideal job for trace sets, if it were possible for shadows.

[hermit.crab]

Just so you know, I've notified the project manager about it.

[super gnu]

thanks, it seems an obvious thing to include shadows in trace sets along with reflections and refractions.