Better shadows

[gadzooks]

How can i get sharper shadows in my renderings without setting the IR Map presets to very high. I have gone over the help file but either cant find the information or just dont understand it. It seems unless i render useing the "Very High" setting in the IR map presets i dont get defined shadows. And to render with the high IR Map settings is takeing hours per iamge. Thanks

[GoncaloP]

Did you try to use Vray lights?

Gonçalo

[gadzooks]

goncalo all lights in the scene are vray lights except direct light acting as the sun. all lights have vray shadows. The scene is a interior scene of a chapel with about 100 chairs. The shadows of the chairs on the floor will not render out crisp unless i render useing the the "Very High" settings.
I would like to be able to balance long render times with quality. Is thier a setting in the Irradiance map settings to control this.

[GoncaloP]

Can you post a image and your settings?

Gonçalo

[gadzooks]

unfortuntley i cant ,i dont have any web space on the office web site.

[percydaman]

yea im a lil confused without a render...

all lights in the scene are vray lights except direct light acting as the sun

Unless I missed something, aren't vray lights the area lights that are not going to have crisp shadows unless the area light is very small?

all lights have vray shadows.

Since vray shadows are essentially raytraced shadows using the vray raytracer, how are they not crisp?

If you want, email me the image at percydaman@yahoo.com and ill up it for ya

[cocolas]

yeah, as percydaman wrote, you need very small areaLights to get crisp shadows w/ vray ligts - i don't have problems like that w/direct lights.

it's just like in real life: a large light panel won't cast sharp shadows - viceversa a small strong light surface will.....


paul.

[PATER]

hey gadzooks

If you have "store with Irradiance Map" on in your vray lights, they tend to blur out a bit. If you want ultra-crisp shadows turn this otherwise very nifty feature off. Sure... the rendering times will increase, so be careful

Oh, but Screenshots and a bit more information would be better!