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Are you using any spotlights or other kinds of lights, or are you just rendering with the default lighting? Also, do your lights, if you are using them, have the shadows turned "on"?
The distant "sun" does have them turned on. Other small lights - point lights - Not. Shader lights (what are they?) Not.
I thought the idea of the Aux Viewport was to give a preview of the render, is that wrong?
In fact, if I switch the shadows off on the "sun" they do in fact disappear on the Aux Viewport.
These are screenshots
Which render engine is selected in the Advanced tab of the Render Settings pane?
Looking closely, it seems to me that the :distantlightsun is not in the render, but is in the Aux Viewport.
3delight
I think this is the key - "Visible in render" is on!
I just noticed I didn't mention using Uberenvironment2 1
Is no-one able to help with this?
Hello,
I am using the Aux Viewport to preview renders. In the Aux Viewport the render has all the lights and shadow, yet when I produce a render there are no shadows - its as though the Distant Light Sun is not in the render even though the "view in render" button is set to on, and shadows are on (tried both Ray Trace and Deep Shadow Map).
If I switch the DistantLightSun off the Aux Viewport and the Render look the same, so I surmise that the render is for some reason missing that one light.
I have enclosed screenshots.
I have gone back and forth over the setting but can find nothing.
I would be grateful for help with this as without the ability to render properly Daz is useless.
I am using UberLight2 1
Merged duplicate thread. Please post a screenshot of your render settings and of the setting for your light (or a lights preset).
What is the Shadow Softness setting for your Sun light? Are there any walls or other obstructions blocking that light from getting to your figure? What does it look like if you turn the other lights on and do a test render with just the main distant light?
Before I send loads of screenshots I would like to ask;-
The render is set in a room which is fully enclosed, and the DistantLightSun (DLS) & shadows show up clearly on the character to be rendered IN THE AUX VIEWPORT ONLY. Should the Aux Viewport give a true representation of what the final render should look like?
As I say, the DLS light & shadows disappear from the Aux Viewport when I switch the DLS off, however the main viewport is only brightened/dimmed by switching the DLS on/off, no shadows appear at any time. Is that normal?
I will take a number of screenshots of the settings and post them soon.
Thanks for your help.
Yes, I think that's normal. If you've got a light and shadows are turned on, then when you render that light cast shadows; in other words, objects in the scene can block the light from reaching other objects behind them. But the viewport doesn't calculate shadows that way.
You could try removing some walls, or hiding them by using the little eye icon in the Scene tab, or selecting the wall and going to the Parameters pane, then turning "Cast Shadows" off.
I can now see that a shaft of light is coming through a window in the roof of the building - beautifully done so that the light falls just inside the doorway. That light is striking the character and giving the light/shade effect. I don't understand why it doesn't show in the render.
\I have included screenshots of the render settings, Uberenvironment & DLS settings. There are a number of other small lights, but it is the DLS that seems to be involved here.
Maybe that will give some clues.
I suggest you simplify things. It seems like you have a scene with multiple objects, environment items, possibly several lights, and one or more characters. There are any number of reasons you could be seeing what you don't expect, and with that many variables, figuring out which one is the culprit can be difficult. Whenever I have something like this happen, I always strip down to the bare minimum and then build back up.
I suggest going into the scene tab, and turning off EVERYTHING but the character you want to render. Everything, even all lights. Then render it. Then turn on ONE light, the one you want to cast shadows. Render again. If you are still not seeing shadows, then it's the light somehow not working right. If you are seeing them, then turn on ONE more thing, render again. At some point you will hit the thing that is messing you up... and then you know what it is.
Also, you might want to zoom out and take a screen shot of your entire scene setup so we can see what you are doing, rather than zooming in on half a leg. I know you are trying to show the shadows, but it can be a very different thing if you just have a character and a light vs. a whole giant scene.
Hello Steven and thank you for your suggestion of stripping the scene back to bare basics. That way I will learn much more - there is even a chance that I will remember some of it!
YET AGAIN PROBLEM!
New scene, 1 distant light, plus ambient.
1 character in a garden, shadows on Aux viewport, not on render. What is wrong with this program?
There is nothing wrong with the program. You have something set wrong.
Again I suggest getting completely down to the basics. Put a Genesis character in the scene, put some clothes on him/her, put a distant light, and NOTHING ELSE. Then go into the shadows menu of the light and turn shadows ON, but change NOTHING ELSE. Then render and see what happens.
I don't know what you mean by "distant light plus ambient light" -- what are you using for the Ambient light? Keep in mind that if you use the UberEnvironment sphere and turn on ambient it's going to obscure a lot of the shadows unless you turn it WAY down.
Of course you are right. I am simply becoming irritated. Millions get good results, I am clearly doing something wrong, I will start from basics and sort it out.
Distant lights do not have location only direction, they are an infinite light source and are meant to replicate the light coming from a source far away like the sun or moon. While the distant lights arrow avatar can be moved around this doesn't mean the light emanates from that location like with spot and point lights.
Yes but distant lights should still generate shadows when shadows are turned on. Something else is going on here. Either the shadows are not turned on, or the shadow intensity is turned down, or shadow softness is turned way up, or something like that. I think the problem is that Patroklos has too many different things and possibly even different light sources in one scene, so we can't troubleshoot what the source of the problem is.
That's why I say, do ONE character and ONE light and see what happens. If there is still a shadow issue, at least we have only a couple of variables to look into.