Question about shadows ray traced vs soft settings

[alex321]

Hi,
I m trying to render an outside scene with a bright sun as my main light source.
I expect the shadow to be raytraced and not soft. How do I go about in getting the desired result. I went through all the tutorials on your web site but I don t think I have found wich is the setting that affects it.
I tried in the light property of my sun by enabling the shadow option. But what does bias , radius means and if it s these parameters I have to play with what would be the proper multipliers ?
Thanks

Alex
www.alexandregalin.com

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Question about shadows ray traced vs soft settings

Well with most of the default light settings your going to get a hard, sharp or raytraced shadow (whichever you want to call them). With a simple directional light, then the radius value will get you where you need to go. Keep in mind that chances are that this relates to the scale of your scene, so do a few tests first. If you are using the new Vray sun thats in the v4 beta, then the sun size multiplier will be the setting you will need to adjust. Usually 10-15 is pretty good in my book, but again test for yourself. In both cases the bias is going to shift the shadow towards or away from the light source, and I never really use it. If you are using area lights then the softness of your shadows will be determined by the size of your light. Small light=sharper shadows Large light=softer shadows. Hope this helps

[Micha_cg]

Re: Question about shadows ray traced vs soft settings

Radius mean the size of the light source. It's difficult to understand what the size of a sun is, but if I use directional lights, than 0.02 was a good value. Best you test.

[alex321]

Re: Question about shadows ray traced vs soft settings

Thanks for your help guys
I appreciate your quick responsiveness

Alex
www.alexandregalin.com

[joe_b]

Re: Question about shadows ray traced vs soft settings

Radius mean the size of the light source. It's difficult to understand what the size of a sun is, but if I use directional lights, than 0.02 was a good value. Best you test.

For the direct lights the radius is actually an angle I believe. I can't recall exactly what the angle it is its representing...but for the other light types it just represents an actual radius in scene units.