Shadow Cast Menu Settings

The Shadow Cast menu settings are described as follows. Shadow types are dependant on your graphics card, so you may not see all of these settings.

Shadow Output Type box

Select the type of shadow to output. This setting is repeated in the Render Passes section of the Output menu for a Shadow Output Selection.

Note: When set in the Output menu, this becomes the default Shadow Type for any new Shadow Cast nodes.

Source Shadow Type box

Select the type of shadow cast for the Source node. This setting is available in the Shadow Cast menu only if the Shadow Cast node is a child of a Source node, and is repeated in the Source menu.

Shadow Type box

Select a mapping type for the shadow. Hard Shadows for high precision, hard edge shadows with penumbra. VSM for dark shadows but imperfect topology, CSM for better topology but with ringing, ESM for deep shadows and better topology but extended penumbra. 2.5D for transparent or semi-transparent objects.

Shadow Type:	Description:
3D Hard Shadows	Use 3D Hard Shadows for higher precision shadows when lights are close to the objects in the scene. These are best for hard edge shadows with penumbra effects, but can be slower.
3D Soft Shadows	Use 3D Soft Shadows if you want faster soft shadows with lights further away from your objects. Three soft shadow techniques are available: Variance Shadow Map (VSM): VSM offers good performance, but at the cost of light leaking issues. And while it casts very dark shadows close to the hard shadows, in some cases the shadows actually diverge from the topology of the geometry. Convolution Shadow Map (CSM): CSM limits the light leaking issues found in VSM. However, it can display ringing problems and is somewhat slower than VSM, together with softer shadows. Exponential Shadow Map (ESM): ESM is almost as good as VSM performance-wise, without VSM light leaking. ESM also provides deep shadows compared to the other two techniques. However, it cannot create very thick shadows like VSM can.
2.5D Shadows	2.5D Shadows work best on transparent or semi-transparent objects, for example a shadow projected on a wall by smoke.

Shadow Type:

Description:

3D Hard Shadows

Use 3D Hard Shadows for higher precision shadows when lights are close to the objects in the scene. These are best for hard edge shadows with penumbra effects, but can be slower.

3D Soft Shadows

Use 3D Soft Shadows if you want faster soft shadows with lights further away from your objects.

Three soft shadow techniques are available:

Variance Shadow Map (VSM): VSM offers good performance, but at the cost of light leaking issues. And while it casts very dark shadows close to the hard shadows, in some cases the shadows actually diverge from the topology of the geometry.
Convolution Shadow Map (CSM): CSM limits the light leaking issues found in VSM. However, it can display ringing problems and is somewhat slower than VSM, together with softer shadows.
Exponential Shadow Map (ESM): ESM is almost as good as VSM performance-wise, without VSM light leaking. ESM also provides deep shadows compared to the other two techniques. However, it cannot create very thick shadows like VSM can.

2.5D Shadows

2.5D Shadows work best on transparent or semi-transparent objects, for example a shadow projected on a wall by smoke.

Note: Some of the settings in the Shadow Cast menu differ based on the shadow type you choose.

Resolution box

Select a resolution to determine the quality of the selected casting type. You can select up to 8K resolution, but a message may appear if too much memory is used with multiple Shadow Cast nodes. In this case, you can Confirm to move to the next lower resolution, or Cancel to disable the shadow cast.

Texture Bit-Depth box

Select a 16 or 32-bit quality for the shadow cast. 32-bit offers more precision, but at the cost of memory usage.

Anti-Aliasing Sample box

Select an anti-aliasing sampling level for the shadow cast.

Note: Depending on your graphics card and the size of your Action scene, shadows may not appear or render properly with higher anti-aliasing sampling levels.

Anti-Aliasing Softness field

Displays the softness value of the anti-aliasing sample for the shadow cast.

Note: Jitter on 3D shadows is inherent to the shadow map technique. However, in most situations it can be go completely unnoticed. Some lighting situations which cause stretched shadows, such as lights close to the horizon, are very likely to create visible jittering. To alleviate jittering problems, you can try to use higher resolution, anti-aliasing, and anti-aliasing softness levels. In these cases, interactive manipulations in the image window may become taxing; therefore, you should activate Adaptive Degradation for Shadows.

Red Colour field

Displays the amount of red in the shadow (based on the colour of the attached light). Editable.

Green Colour field

Displays the amount of green in the shadow (based on the colour of the attached light). Editable.

Blue Colour field

Displays the amount of blue in the shadow (based on the colour of the attached light). Editable.

Shadow Colour pot

Displays the colour of the shadow (based on the colour of the attached light). Editable.

Proportional button

Enable to change the Red, Green, and Blue colour fields proportionally.

Transparency field

Displays the transparency level of the shadow. Editable.

Decay Type box

Select the type of decay to apply to the shadow.

Decay field

Displays the rate at which the shadow decreases for the chosen decay type. Editable.

Softness field

Displays the softness of a shadow. Editable.

Density field

Displays the level of height/depth discontinuity in a 3D soft shadow. Use to fix light bleeding issues. Editable.

Dark Threshold field

Displays the distance of the object from a 3D soft shadow. Use to create a spatial offset, and to remedy step-ladder or levitating problems. Editable.

Focus field

Displays the softness of the 2.5D shadow based on the distance from the light. Objects closer to the focus distance are less blurred. Editable.

Colour Bleed field

Displays the amount of colour bleed in the 2.5D shadow from semi-transparent objects in the scene. Editable.

Flattening Mode box

Select a flattening mode for the 2.5D shadow. Most of the time, Best Fit gives the best quality, but if you see clipping artefacts in the shadow, try one of the other modes.

Penumbra field

Displays the softness of a 3D hard shadow. Editable.

Sampling Mode box

Select a softness sampling mode for the 3D hard shadow.

Filter Samples field

Displays the amount of filter samples to take into account when creating softness (X xY) for a 3D hard shadow. Available when Regular sampling is chosen in the Sampling Mode box. Editable.

Caster Details field

Displays the amount of shadow caster samples to take into account when creating softness (X x Y) for a 3D hard shadow. Editable.

Auto Near/Far button

Enable to automatically set the near and far parameters for the 3D shadow based on the objects in the scene.

Near field

Displays the near distance of the start of the 3D shadow. Editable.

Far field

Displays the far distance of the end of the 3D shadow. Editable.

Matte Threshold field

Displays the value at which the alpha casts a 3D shadow. Editable.

Overlap field

Displays the amount of overlap from the light source. Increase to remove imperfections in the 3D shadow. Editable.

Clip Position field

Displays the position of the clipping plane for 2.5D shadows, relative to the depth of the shadow. Use to define at what depth the shadow begins to be shown. Editable.