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Shadow Casting
Selecting Shadows check box in the Light Editor of a light that supports shadows (point, distant, spot, sky, sun,
projector and goniometric) results in the selected light casting shadows in the scene. Shadows will only be visible
in photorealistic renders; unless you are using a Hardware accelerated OpenGL 1.5 compliant graphics card, in
which case you can preview interactive shadows. See “
Presenter Page” on page 405 for details on how to display
interactive shadows and lighting.
NOTE Enabling shadows on lights should be given due consideration. If you turn on shadows on all lights, then you
may find the effect very confusing and somewhat un-natural, especially if there are many lights in a small scene. This
will also have an affect on performance, during navigation and general refreshing of the Scene Area. You may wish to
consider only enabling shadows on a few strategically positioned lights, to create the effect you require.
In addition to choosing which lights in your model will cast shadows, you may also select which geometry items
in the model should cast a shadow. Each item in the scene has its own shadow casting option.
To set shadow casting from the Scene Area
■ Right-click an item in the Scene Area, click Presenter on the shortcut menu, and then click the shadow casting
option you require.
The available shadow casting options available for a geometry item are:
■ Off. Choose this to disable shadows. The selected item will not cast a shadow from any light source.
■ On. Choose this to enable shadows. The selected item will cast a shadow from any light source that has
shadows enabled.
■ Inherit. Choose this to inherit the shadow casting option from the parent item. That is, the selected item
will use the same option as the item directly above it in the Selection Tree path (see “
Selection Tree
Window
” on page 179 for more information). For example, if you turn shadow casting On for a Group,
and the geometry contained within that Layer is set to Inherit, then the geometry will also cast shadows,
as it inherits the On option from its parent (the Group).
NOTE If all items in the scene are set to Inherit then the default setting is On.
NOTE The item selected will depend on your Selection Resolution setting. See for more information.
To set shadow casting from the Selection Tree
■ Right-click an item in the Selection Tree, click Presenter on the shortcut menu, and then click the shadow
casting option you require.
The available shadow casting options available for a geometry item are:
■ Off. Choose this to disable shadows. The selected item will not cast a shadow from any light source.
■ On. Choose this to enable shadows. The selected item will cast a shadow from any light source that has
shadows enabled.
■ Inherit. Choose this to inherit the shadow casting option from the parent item. That is, the selected item
will use the same option as the item directly above it in the Selection Tree path (see “
Selection Tree
Window
” on page 179 for more information). For example, if you turn shadow casting On for a Group,
and the geometry contained within that Layer is set to Inherit, then the geometry will also cast shadows,
as it inherits the On option from its parent (the Group).
NOTE If all items in the scene are set to Inherit then the default setting is On.
Advanced Lighting
You can use Presenter to apply advanced lighting effects.
Shadow Casting | 315