User Manual

Lighting Options
Most nodes that generate geometry have additional options for lighting. These options are
used to determine how each individual object reacts to lights and shadows in the scene.
3D objects have individual lighting controls that let you
control how each object interacts with light and shadows.
 Affected By Lights: If the Affected By Lights checkbox is enabled, lights in the scene
will affect the geometry.
 Shadow Caster: When enabled, the object will cast shadows on other
objects in the scene.
 Shadow Receiver: If this checkbox is enabled, the object will receive shadows.
Shadows
The only light that can cast shadows is the spotlight. Spotlight nodes cast shadows by default,
although these shadows will not be visible in the viewer until shadows are enabled using the
viewer toolbar button. Shadows will not appear in the output of the Renderer3D unless the
Shadows option is enabled for that renderer. If you want to prevent a spotlight from casting
shadows, you can disable the Enable Shadows checkbox in the node’s Inspector.
An image with spotlight casting a variable soft shadow
For more information on shadow controls, see the “Spotlight” section of Chapter 81, “3D Light
Nodes” in the DaVinci Resolve manual or Chapter 30 in the Fusion Studio manual.
Shadow Maps
A shadow map is an internal depth map that specifies each pixel’s depth in the scene. This
information is used to assemble the shadow layer created from a spotlight. All the controls for
the shadow map are found in the Spotlight Inspector.
The quality of the shadow produced depends greatly on the size of the shadow map. Larger
maps generate better-looking shadows but will take longer to render. The wider the cone of the
spotlight, or the more falloff in the cone, the larger the shadow map will need to be to produce
useful quality results. Setting the value of the Shadow Map Size control sets the size of the
depth map in pixels.
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