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Deep Shadow VS Ray Trace

ghastlycomicghastlycomic Posts: 2,531
edited December 1969 in Daz Studio Discussion

What exactly are the differences?

When I render a scene with Ray Trace and shadows on it actually seems to render shadows but as far as I can tell when I render with Deep shadow it doesn't look any different from doing on OpenGL render with shadows, there are no actual shadows cast. Am I setting something wrong on my renders?

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,833
    edited December 1969

    Deep Shadow Maps, as the name implies, generate a map showing where shadows will fall. That map has a fixed resolution so if you have a large environment or very widely spread smaller items in your scene it's possible for individual items to be too small to get shadows. Ray tracing actually checks the line of sight from the light to the surface, so it does a much better job of creating shadows (and it also supports features like soft shadows), but at the expense of increased render times (especially where there are transparency mapped surfaces).

  • adamr001adamr001 Posts: 1,322
    edited December 1969

    Fwiw, I believe the resolution on Deep Shadow Maps is a measly 1024x1024 and it is cropped to perspective. So if you're using a 1920x1080 resolution in your scene, your DSM map is only 1024x576 pixels.

  • 2getit2getit Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    is there any way to increase the shadow map size? I know maya has this feature but idk about daz

  • adamr001adamr001 Posts: 1,322
    edited December 1969

    Not to my knowledge. You may be able to do it with the external 3Delight Renderer though.

  • wancowwancow Posts: 2,708
    edited December 1969

    Deep Shadow maps also have a tendency to leave artifacts in a render, especially with transparencies over sss...

  • MorpheonMorpheon Posts: 738
    edited December 1969

    I would highly recommend getting yourself a copy of "Digital Lighting and Rendering, Second Edition" (New Riders - 2006) -- it doesn't discuss DAZ Studio (not that I've found, anyways), but it has an excellent section covering ray-traced and depth map shadows, among many other topics.

  • MorpheonMorpheon Posts: 738
    edited December 1969

    2getit said:
    is there any way to increase the shadow map size? I know maya has this feature but idk about daz

    Here are a couple of items in the documentation center that discuss changing sample sizes for deep shadow maps. Hope this helps.

    Basic Lighting in DAZ Studio
    http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/tutorials/dazstudio/studio-lighting00

    Standard Shadows [Light]
    http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/interface/panes/shader_mixer/bricks/dzshadowbrick/start

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    I wish someone would do a speaking book for “Digital Lighting and Rendering, Second Edition” so I could get benefit from it. If I had a pound for every recommendation for that book I have seen I would be well off by now. Many folks swear by it.

  • MorpheonMorpheon Posts: 738
    edited December 1969

    Szark said:
    I wish someone would do a speaking book for “Digital Lighting and Rendering, Second Edition” so I could get benefit from it. If I had a pound for every recommendation for that book I have seen I would be well off by now. Many folks swear by it.

    It's awesome, even as dated as it is. I believe there's also a third edition, but I haven't gotten around to picking it up yet. It's written in a pretty general way that can apply to many different 3D applications, and then it has examples of how specific applications might implement a particular concept. I really can't recommend it highly enough.

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