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Mantra refuses to render the shadows

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Pasto
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Hello,

Just begining here, but I am pretty stuck with mantra refusing to render shadows when I launch a complete animation render.
The shadows (of one area light) are rendered in the render view though but not in the final anim.

Here is the scene, sorry if it turns out to be obvious, I have tried a ton of things in the mantra node.

Many thanx for your help.

Jérôme

Attachments:
DONJON_02.hipnc (2.0 MB)

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stu
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I just looked at your file - is there a reason that you've set the shadow type on the light to depth map as opposed to raytraced?

Regardless, there were a few things - the light needs to be able to “see” the objects casting a shadow if you're going to use depth maps (I looked through the light and rotated it to see your objects), the bias and shadow blur were too high. See attached.

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donjon_02_577_fixed.hipnc (2.0 MB)

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Pasto
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Thank you so much,

But is it normal that I could render in the render view without any problem ?

I wanted to get smooth shadow, I thought raytraced shadows wouldn't allow it.

Thx again.

Jérôme
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Netvudu
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the render view always raytraces no matter what. That´s why you might see something there and not on the final render.
Javier Meroño
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Pasto
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Oh ok, but the shadows were pretty smooth then in the render view, and really different from ray tracer shadows.

Many thx anyway.

J
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stu
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Personally, I'd think that you're usually better off using raytraced shadows/PBR mantra output driver (see attached). Shadow softness is directly proportional to the size of the area light - the larger the light, the softer the shadows.

Attachments:
donjon_02_577_pbr.hipnc (2.0 MB)

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Pasto
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Yes sorry I just figured it out just after I answered.

Anyway the results of mantra on even such a simple scene are really elegant.

Thanx again for your help.

Jérôme
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anon_user_37409885
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There's a cool trick to making the IPR viewport use Depth Map Shadows. You can add the ‘Preview’ tab to the MantraIPR Rop and control all those little details. Just uncheck ‘Always Use Raytraced Shadows in Preview Mode’


Even without that tab you can usually switch the micropoly or other rendering engines by simply unchecking ‘Preview’ in the IPR viewer.
Sometimes it's stubborn and one needs to press the red stop button first, then render button, to switch.

Edited for clarity

Attachments:
Non-previewshadows.png (73.9 KB)
IprMicroPolygon2.png (174.2 KB)
Preview equals raytrace.png (81.9 KB)
No Preview allows other engines.png (80.9 KB)

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Pasto
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Wow thx a lot, nice trick Marty, Mantra is just infinite…
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