General

The VRayShadow plug-in can be used to achieve raytraced shadows with standard 3ds Max lights and V-Ray. Note that in most cases the standard 3ds Max Ray Traced Shadows will not work with V-Ray. You must use the VRayShadow shadow generator instead. In addition to supporting blurry (or area) shadows, they will also cast correct shadows from objects with V-Ray displacement, as well as from transparent objects.

Parameters

Transparent shadows - this option determines the behaviour of the shadows when there are transparent objects in the scene. When this option is on, V-Ray will calculate shadows regardless of the light's Object Shadows settings (Color, Density, Map, etc.), however the color of shadows from transparent objects will be correct. When this option is off, the shadows will take into account the Object Shadows parameters of the light, but shadows from transparent objects will be monochromatic (shades of gray only).

 

Bias - optionally, V-Ray can compute the shadows at a point that is slightly displaced towards the light from the actual surface being shaded. This may be useful to prevent "surface acne" (black spots on the surface because of incorrect self-shadowing).

 

Area shadow - turns area shadows on and off.

 

Type - determines the way in which the area shadows are calculated:

Box - V-Ray computes the shadows as if they were cast by a light source with the form of a box.

Sphere - V-Ray computes the shadows as if they were cast by a light source with the form of a sphere.

 

U size - the U size of the light source V-Ray takes into account when computing area shadows (if Sphere light source is selected U size corresponds to the sphere's radius).

 

V size - the V size of the light source V-Ray takes into account when computing area shadows (this parameter has no effect when Sphere light source is selected).

 

W size - the W size of the light source V-Ray takes into account when computing area shadows (this parameter has no effect when Sphere light source is selected).

 

Subdivs - this value controls the number of samples V-Ray will take to compute area shadows at a given point. More subdivs mean less noise, but will render slower.