The Optimizations rollout provides additional controls for Advanced Ray-traced Shadow and Area Shadow generation.
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Create panel > 
(Lights) > Create a light. > General Parameters rollout > Shadows group > Choose Adv. Ray Traced or Area Shadows. > Optimizations rollout
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Select a light. >
Modify panel > General Parameters rollout > Shadows group > Choose Adv. Ray Traced or Area Shadows. > Optimizations rollout
Interface
Transparent Shadows group
- On
- When checked, transparent surfaces will cast a colored shadow. Otherwise, all shadows are black. Note: Shadows will generate faster with this value turned off.
A stained glass appears solid with the transparency optimization turned off.
- Antialiasing Threshold
- The maximum color difference allowed between transparent object samples before antialiasing is triggered. Increasing the value of this color will make the shadow less sensitive to aliasing artifacts and improve speed, decreasing the value will increase the sensitivity, improving quality.
Antialias Suppression group
- Supersampled Material
- When on, only pass 1 is used during 2-pass antialiasing when shading a supersampled material. Note: When off, rendering time can increase without resulting in a better image.
- Reflect/Refract
- When on only pass 1 is used during 2-pass antialiasing when shading reflections or refractions. Note: When off, rendering time can increase without resulting in a better image.
Coplanar Face Culling group
- Skip Coplanar Faces
- Prevents adjacent faces from shadowing each other. This is of particular concern at the terminator on curved surfaces such as spheres.
- Threshold
- The angle between adjacent faces.
Range = 0.0 (perpendicular) to 1.0 (parallel).