Render shadow but not object

Unreal® Engine Integrated Plugin

Moderator: ChrisHekman

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joshuamkerr
Posts: 60
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2021 7:25 am

Hi Octane Peeps,

In unreal usually you can set an object to 'not visible' but check the hidden shadow box, this way we can have shadows casting from an object that doesn't show in our final render.

I don't see a way to make this work with octane yet. Is there an option in the rendertarget or a way to implemewnt it in GUI?

It would be very useful when using media planes and casting accurate 3d shadows.

All the best
Josh
ChrisHekman
OctaneRender Team
Posts: 1055
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2017 3:09 pm

The plugin is capable of doing this for most object.
In unreal, select your static mesh component, and add a new component called OctaneObjectLayerComponent.
Select this new component, and turn off "Camera Visibility".

Example:
ObjectLayer.png
joshuamkerr
Posts: 60
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2021 7:25 am

Hi Chris,

Great, this is getting there. Is there a way for this to work when the hidden object is intersecting another mesh?

It renders with a big black hole instead of being able to see the intersected mesh. Moving the mesh so it doesnt intersect isn't an option if I want the shadow in the correct place.

Any ideas?

Kind Regards,
Josh
ChrisHekman
OctaneRender Team
Posts: 1055
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2017 3:09 pm

joshuamkerr wrote:Hi Chris,

Great, this is getting there. Is there a way for this to work when the hidden object is intersecting another mesh?

It renders with a big black hole instead of being able to see the intersected mesh. Moving the mesh so it doesnt intersect isn't an option if I want the shadow in the correct place.

Any ideas?

Kind Regards,
Josh

Can you show me the scene setup?
joshuamkerr
Posts: 60
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2021 7:25 am

Hi Chris,

Of course. Here's a folder with some images inside.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Its quite simple, theres an image playing back on a plane and I'm using a primitive as it's shadow. the octane object is allowing it to be invisible but objects go black when it's intersecting with other geometry.

Let me know if you need to see anything else.
joshuamkerr
Posts: 60
Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2021 7:25 am

As there a solution to this?

I don't have two sided shadows turned on and it isn't a double side dmaterial so I'm not ssure why this is happening.

One possibility was to try using pixel depth offset in the primite's material so that the meshes don't intersect but the shadow stays in the same place but that doesn't seem to work with octane.

I'd be suprised if there wasn't a way to create a shadow object.
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