Exterior raytracing shadows almost black

[Larry_Sweeney]

I've done very little raytracing over the many years I've been using CA. Every now and then I give it a go and then I remember why I've used it very little. I'm trying to do an exterior raytrace and the shadows are almost black. Sometime back I remember a thread discussing this problem. and I've been trying to do a search to find that thread, but I'm running into a brick wall. CA's search engine is a whole other story. Can anyone steer me to that thread or tell me what exterior raytrace setup I should be using? Thanks in advance for your time and advice.

[Kbird1]

Most people are Using PBR Larry , but there has been issues with Black areas in Raytrace in X10 if the Terrain Perimeter is really large.

 

IIRC  Melissa ( User @pgjacob ) had this Issue recently if you search Her Topics I think you'll find it.

 

***found one of Her Posts....

 

 

M.

[TheKitchenAbode]

I believe what you are experiencing is the fact that shadows from the sun are hard shadows and there are no direct ways to control this. There is however a way to soften exterior sun shadows by positioning one or more 3D spots or point lights on the outside, turn their shadow settings to off. The light from these will penetrate the shadow regions and lighten them, just takes a bit of playing around between the sun intensity and 3D light(s) intensity to get the right balance.