Hi guys. I'm currently working on Houdini Tutorials(ones downloadable in this site) In “LIGHTING” tutorial, it seems that one .rat file is missing in the “lighting_scene_files” folder. “key_light_shadow.rat” should be in “shadow maps” folder. (Page7 “4. Create an output file for Z-depth map”) I just sent E-mail to SideFX as well. Please someone tell me if you know something. Thank you guys!

p.s. I wonder if I can built the file myself in Houdini??

That file should be autogenerated by a light, since it's a depth map, so I suspect you just need to render (but I don't remember for sure)

Cheers,

peter B

I'm having trouble with the shadow maps. No matter what I do, Houdini won't create a rat file when I click render, and all I get is a weird shadow map in the shape of the cone light. (I have Autogenerate Depth map toggled on).

If you have Autogenerate turned on (on the KEY light only for this tutorial) then the shadow map will be created and stored in the shadow maps folder. One way of verifying this is to go into the shadow map folder and look at the date and time that the file was created. Your shadow map - when viewed in Image Viewer might initially look white, but click on the “adapt to full pixel range” button at the bottom right (above the timeline in Image Viewer) and it should look as though you are looking through the key light. This depth map is used by mantra to render the shadows for the final image.

Another way to see how your depth map (shadow map) will render is to go to the Camera Menu pulldown in the Viewer pane in Houdini and choose the key light to look through it. As long as all objects in the scene are within the view of the key light, they will cast shadows in the render.