Shadow

• Use Baked Shadows - Uses baked shadows, instead of real-time environment shadows (SSAO, Raytraced Ambient Occlusion, Raytracing Environment Shadows), in rasterization. As of 2026.1, this option is applied per shadow material and no longer globally applied.

• Occlusion Color - Sets the color of the pre-calculated ambient occlusion or environment shadows.

• Occlusion Intensity - Controls the intensity of shadowed areas.

• Shadow Color - Sets the color for shadows from light sources (like point lights).

• Opacity Mode - Sets the mode used for opacity. Choose one of the following options:

  • Transparent - Renders the Shadow transparent by default.
  • Solid - Renders the Shadow white by default.

• Sort Key - Only supported in OpenGL mode. Changes the order in which transparent materials are rendered in OpenGL. Transparent surfaces with the same sort key are sorted back to front.

• Visible in Screen Space Refractions - Only supported in Vulkan mode. Determines whether or not the material is visible in screen space refractions. When enabled, transparent objects behind the shadow material might not be sorted correctly. When disabled, transparent objects behind the shadow material will appear in the correct order.

• Reflection Mode - Sets the reflection mode. Choose one of these reflection modes:

  • Diffuse Only - Shows only the diffuse reflections.

  • Glossy Only - Shows only the glossy reflections.

    Note:

    As of version 2026.1, raytraced glossy reflections are supported in Vulkan.

    

  • Diffuse + Glossy - Shows the diffuse and glossy reflections.

• Diffuse Color - Defines the base color by setting the shader diffuse reflection color. This is the color the shader takes on when the light reflection of the surface is spread in many directions. Use the slider to change the brightness. Click the color field on the right to open the color chooser. Assigning a texture to the diffuse color projects it onto the surface. The appearance is a combination of the defined color and the assigned texture.

• Glossy Color - Sets the material’s color for surfaces glossy reflections. Use the slider to change the brightness. Click the color field on the right to open the color chooser. Assigning a texture to the glossy channel defines areas in which different gloss intensities appear with the help of a texture. The glossy color depends finally on both the defined color and the assigned texture file.

• Reflectivity - Sets the material reflectivity intensity. The higher the value, the more reflective the surface.

• Roughness - Defines the amount of diffuse reflection and its complement specular reflection. The higher the roughness value, the more diffuse reflections are rendered.

  Low Roughness	Higher Roughness

• Material ID - Sets the ID of the material for Renderpasses rendering.
• Override Illumination Mode - Overrides the global illumination modes for rendering.
• Override IBL Sampling Quality - Overrides the global IBL sampling quality for sampling the environment map for rendering.
• Override Reflection/Refraction Sampling - Overrides the global sampling quality for reflections and refractions for rendering.
• Override Trace Depth - Overrides the global trace depth values during rendering.

As of 2022.1, we added OpenGL support for light sources illuminating the shadow material.

To achieve this, in the Light Editor's Properties section, enable Illuminate Shadow Material for the lights, which allows the incandescence light to illuminate shadow materials. Set the Reflection Mode of the shadow material to Diffuse, Glossy, or Diffuse + Glossy.