Forums Technical Discussion Karma XPU, Matt Shadow catcher

Karma XPU, Matt Shadow catcher

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Tser
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My XPU Shadow Catcher is created in the Object level, so the shadows and AO are present in the scene for other scene objects to react to, so you can see the shadows in reflections/refraction's in the beauty pass, no compositing needed, it works just like all other Renderers Shadow Catcher, you also have full control over the shadow quality. It works with any 360deg HDRimage, the ones I use are from https://polyhaven.com/hdris [polyhaven.com]
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Tser
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Did some more work on the shader and some more tweaking, left is XPU, right is Arnold.

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Arnold_XPU_Comparison_4.png (5.2 MB)

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Mirko Jankovic
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Does your shader handle matte properly??
Currently there is problem with shadowcatcher in H21,I;ve submitted bug a while ago:



In this case, grid is shadowcatcher and torus is matte. But instead having full matte torus still show shadows on it.
Does your shader handle situation like this properly?

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shadow_matte.png (1.4 MB)

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Tser
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Hi Mirko Jankovic, My Shadow Catcher has no issues related to the Shadow Catcher which comes with Houdini 21, My Shadow Catcher is in the Object level and is rendered with all the objects in the scene so the scene reacts to the shadows as they are really there, no compositing required, it's all in the beauty pass, my Shadow Catcher is a hda and is a single node, all the environment mapping, catcher grid and material are included, just select your hdri, select the objects you want to cast shadows from, import the ShadowCatcher node and your Objects into the Stage and Render with XPU, very easy, also you can store Recipes of the ShadowCatcher node with all your settings and HDRI to recreate any time, I have parameter settings to adjust the Shadow/AO, Light, Environment, Grid etc to suit any HDR image environment, I've been working on this for a couple of years on and off, but now I'm pleased with the results, no need for my Arnold Renderer any more.

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Ford_1934_AbandonedGH_Front_Latest_1.png (9.6 MB)

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Tser
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Seems to work fine...

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Matte_Torus_Test_1.png (4.3 MB)
Matte_Torus_Test_2.png (4.3 MB)
Matte_Torus_Test_3.png (4.3 MB)

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Tser
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Same scene but with the parameters of the AO/Shadow tweaked

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Matte_Torus_Test_4.png (4.1 MB)

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Tser
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The Matte torus shows up in reflections, is this normal?

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Matte_Torus_Test_5.png (4.1 MB)

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Mirko Jankovic
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That actually looks perfect!

Ok @SideFX... buy this and implement!
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Tser
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It's very easy to match the shadows in the HDRI

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Matte_Torus_Test_7.png (3.4 MB)

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Mirko Jankovic
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Any plans to put that on gumroad maybe>?
With nice video tutor or documents to speed people in, why not to monetize your effort a bit, and help others as well.
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Tser
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I'm in the process of dialing in all the parameters and refining, optimizing everything to make it perfect, I wouldn't know anything about monetizing it, but that does sound attractive...

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Test_8.png (4.0 MB)

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Tser
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A bit of moving around the scene

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Compressed_4.mp4 (10.3 MB)

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Tser
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Still Tweaking...

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Compressed_7.mp4 (437.6 KB)

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Tser
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Still tweaking...

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Compressed_8.mp4 (1.2 MB)

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Tser
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Another HDRI...

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Compressed_9.mp4 (1.3 MB)

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Tser
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Hi Guy's, well I have the shadow catcher as good as I can possibly do, but I cannot find a way to blackbox it so that I can make a couple of dollars on Gumroad, I can blackbox the nodes, but they won't work importing into Stage, any suggestions? I just don't want to give all my hard work away to others who can resell it as their own.
Edited by Tser - Nov. 6, 2025 17:28:01

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Compressed_10.mp4 (2.2 MB)

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