Vray Light material - possible to create shadows with matte object/shadow catcher?

[matthew_fear]

I'm trying to light a scene with an internal 360 HDR image. I'm modelling out the space using a similar technique to - https://cgpress.org/archives/cgtutor...inside-3ds-max
This is for an application we're working on where we can integrate 3D objects within virtual tour imagery. I'm trying to avoid having to model a full 3D scene and add a load of lights, instead I'm looking to just use the 360 images to light my objects.
So far this is working perfectly by modelling up the rough geommetry and then appling a Vray light material with the HDR 360 image spherically mapped onto it. I'm getting great lighting/reflections and excellent integration. However it seems that I can't use the matte/shadow catcher material to "catch" the shadows of my objects in the scene. I found a forum post about something similar where Vlado has commented that vray needs physical light sources to work out the shadows so this doesn't work for self illuminated materials however the wording to describe a vray light material includes - "it also allows to turn an object into an actual light source" so I was hoping this would work, however no joy? Is this just a limitation of the vray light material? Are there any workarounds?
Many thanks

[^Lele^]

I can confirm the limitation.
The claim has to do with the ability of the lightMtl to cast direct (not just GI) lighting, unfortunately that doesn't extend to matte/shadow.

One workaround that comes to mind would be to use the vrayShadows RE.
You'll need a slightly higher min AA for the RE to clear up properly (3 to 6, no more.).

[matthew_fear]

Thank you for clarifying. I had presumed this was the limitation but I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed anything.
I'll have a look at using the render element but I think I may need to change my approach slightly