Soft shadows on IES light

[gardeler]

Is there any way to get soft shadows on IES lights? In the manual it says:

"Soft Shadows - sometimes the .ies file contains information about the physical shape and size of the bulb. When this option is on the light will cast shadows according to this information. Otherwise the light will cast shadows as if it was a Point Light."

It would be great to be able to control the softness of the shadow when using the point light shadow type. So far I have been unable to get nice soft shadows with the IES files I have. Anybody out there who has a solution or tips for this?

Thanks

Marre

[Neilg]

Search is in the top right!

http://www.chaosgroup.com/forums/vbu...oft+shadow+ies

[gardeler]

Sorry, I missed your post somehow. I'll try to dig deeper next time. However, thanks for posting a link to your work around. I think it should be in the manual as the shadows you get now destroys any hope of photorealism, and the manual is the first place I would look for an answer for this.

It would be great to get an override check box in maya to be able to change the value without having to change the text file every time you would like to change the softness.

Thanks

Marre

[timdog]

My IES doesnt look like that at all in the textfile..
Theres alot of numbers but not in that order.
Did you guys actually try it out and made it work?

[Neilg]

Can you post the contents? All the ones i've used have been like that.

[timdog]

www.timjan.org/trans/10.IES

[Neilg]

You do have that bit.

Mine says TILT=NONE
1 900 1 19 1 1 2 -0.051 -0.051 0

Yours says
TILT=NONE
1
2200
2.2
19
1
1
2
0
0

[waaazoo]

Yes, you have to change the values, and try out a bit. For sure, the more the light has soft shadows, the more it's long to render (and you need more subdivs)

[timdog]

Ok Ill try it, thanks!

It works! Thanks again!