Lumion Support Center

Support for unlicensed users => Post here if you can't find your License Key => Topic started by: Member4170 on September 24, 2011, 12:26:25 am

Title: |
Post by: Member4170 on September 24, 2011, 12:26:25 am
|
Title: Re: Super soft shadows
Post by: Member4144 on September 24, 2011, 03:35:33 am
Very nice renders . . . amazing
Title: Re: Super soft shadows
Post by: Morten on September 24, 2011, 12:08:27 pm
What we're using in Lumion at the moment is called cascaded shadow maps.

They're operate in steps using different resolutions depending on the distance to the camera, ie a crisp and high-resolution shadow texture close to the camera and blurrier and more low-resolution shadow "steps" further away where less detail is needed.

What the Shadows -> Range slider does is to change the resolution and the distances where the various "steps" kick in. When the Range slider is set to its maximum value, the shadows near the camera will be rather low-resolution (pixelated) and all we can do is to filter and blur them on the final renderings, so the shadows at least appear to be smoother than they really are. That setting is obviously only meant for aerial point of views.
Title: Re: Super soft shadows
Post by: Morten on September 24, 2011, 10:08:57 pm
No, SSAO (screen space ambient occlusion) is not connected to the "solid" shadows. It's another real-time 3D approximation technique which for each pixel on the screen calculates the distance to other objects nearby and adds subtle shading based on those distances. It has its drawbacks though since this technique can't "see through objects" so to speak, so as you probably have noticed the SSAO shading will appear and disappear as the camera moves around your scene.