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Old thread, but new problem:
I tried Rob's instructions....I'm having a weird problem where my shadows are not darker than the surrounding space. Also the plane is catching the light from the spotlight... Odd.
Has something changed in Iray maybe?
-P
Did more testing... It appears the only light source that cast shadows onto a background is "Distant Light." But it produces a hard shadow which is not very realistic, nor modifiable... Hmmmm....
-P
There are two ways to test this.
In the first experiment try turning the Environment Map or Environment Intensity down, it might be overriding the shadow and causing it to be pale, like a fill light. The second way would be to increase the Ground Shadow Intensity which will make the shadows on the ground darker.
In your second experiment I would turn down the Distant Light Luminous Flux or decrease the Ground Shadow Intensity until I got the shadow intensity I wanted.
No go. Turning the Env Intensity down does nothing. I even tried turning it off (switching Scene Only), as shown in the image below.
Increasing Ground Shadow intensity also does nothing to casted shadows.
-P
The shadows under the spheres in the second image are darker than they are in the first one. It is difficult to see if the fall off shadow is darker as it is on the grey background and not on the floor of the first image. I use the shadow intensity a lot when using HDRI backgrounds to try and match the shadow intensity of the background image. I also use it when using HDRI by turning it up to see where the the shadows are and which direction they are extending in so that I can match the sun direction with the HDRI sun and I get the shadows going in the same direction, then I turn them back down to match the intensity of the HDRI shadows.
No, there is definitely something not right here. If the spotlight was working correctly, it would cast a dark shadow. But in this case, its just a negation of the reflection.
To help better illustrate this, here is what happens when I turn the lumens all the way up;
(notice Ground Shadow Intensity is also jacked up to 5)
Well, that's odd, couldn't replicate your problem, but my shadows are black even with GI 5.
Did you adjust the Tone Mapping to account for the extra/less light?
I did some test renders using different settings.
Image 1) 60:4.0:400; Scene only; Luminous Flux 15000; Environment Intensity 1.00; Shadow Intensity 1.00
Image 2) 128:8.0:100; Dome and Scene; Draw Dome OFF; Environment Intensity 0.50; Environment Map 0.50; Ground Shadow Intensity 1.00; Luminous Flux 15000.
Image 3) 128:8.0:100; Dome and Scene; Draw Dome OFF; Environment Intensity 0.50; Environment Map 0.50; Ground Shadow Intensity 1.00; Luminous Flux 15000.
Image 4) 128:8.0:100; Dome and Scene; Draw Dome OFF; Environment Intensity 0.50; Environment Map 0.50; Ground Shadow Intensity 1.00; Luminous Flux 150000.
Image 5) 128:8.0:100; Dome and Scene; Draw Dome OFF; Environment Intensity 1.00; Environment Map 2.00; Ground Shadow Intensity 1.00; Luminous Flux 15000.
Is that plane in your render converted into a Shadowcaster, or is it just an "ordinary" (default) plane? I don't have problems with ordinary planes. It's only when I convert it to a shadowcaster that things get weird with spotlights. See images below;
IMAGE #1 (BELOW): Non-Shadowcaster plane with spotlight (works as expected)
IMAGE #2 (BELOW): Same scene, but with shadowcaster plane + spotlight (weird)
IMAGE #3 (BELOW): Same scene, but with shadowcaster plane + Distant Light (as expected)
-P
The plane is not an Iray surface...
What are the surface settings on the spheres? Because in image 2 it looks like the larger one is an emitter and THAT is what is blowing out the shadows.
The Shadowcatcher plane is an Iray surface. That is one of the first things I checked.
The surface settings of the spheres do not matter in this case. If I turn emission to 0, still same results...
(I feel like I am the only one to have this problem... maybe there is an issue with my driver or something.)
-P
The plane that has the surface settings showing in the screenshots is most definitely NOT an Iray surface..it is the Daz Studio Default shader...the basic 3DL shader.
The plane you are refering to is a different plane I was testing with, not the shadowcaster plane (note that it is hidden in the "4.jpg" screenshot).
-P
In that case it would be of much more help to you if you posted images that showed the relevant detail. Select the plane in question so its the one with its suface settings shown. What's the use of a screencap showing the shader for a hidden object?
Your examples show a 3DL surface (plane3) in an Iray scene. Remove unnecessary variables from your troubleshooting by converting it to Iray using the Uber base shader, rather than relying on it being auto-converted every time you render.
I think I have figured this out. The Iray Matte Plane is for catching the shadow on an upright face and not on a flat ground face. I tried it vertical with an HDRI and a cylinder with a distant light. The Iray Matte Plane, which rendered invisible, caught the shadow cast by the cylinder and made it look as if it was on the HDRI. Laying the plane flat only showed a shadow beneath the cylinder even with the Distant Light Lumens cranked away up.
Here are a couple of images using the Iray Matte feature using a plane.
The first one has the two planes turned off. One for the back of the bench and one for the seat. The background is an HDRI. The second image has the planes turned on and the third the Iray Matte feature turned off to show the planes.