2009

DisadvantagesAdvantagesShadow Type
many lights or
faces.
Supports differ-
ent formats for
area shadows.
Not as accurate
as ray-traced
shadows.
Can be quicker
than ray-traced
shadows with
mental ray
Shadow Maps
the mental ray
renderer.
Can be slower
than shadow
maps.
Does not sup-
port soft shad-
ows.
Supports trans-
parency and
opacity map-
ping.
Processes only
once if there are
Raytrace Shad-
ows
no animated
objects.
Uses a lot of
RAM. Does not
Produces soft
shadows.
Processes only
once if there are
Shadow Maps
support objects
with transpar-
no animated
objects.
ency or opacity
maps.
Fastest shadow
type.
See Also
Shadow Parameters on page 5099
Advanced Ray-Traced Parameters Rollout
Create panel > Lights > Create or select a light. > General Parameters rollout
> Shadows group > Shadow type > Advanced Ray-traced Shadows
5118 | Chapter 18 Lights and Cameras