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hi.
is there any way to control the shadow of the sun with the new sky system? in my eyes, its edge is mostly too hard, but I could'nt find anything in the manual on the MXSky page, which influences the sun shadow.
thanks, kami

We cannot control the shadow of realworld sun, so you can't do it.

But if you wanna do something, just use a HDRI or emitter to simulate the sun.

http://www.maxwellrender.com/forum/view ... highlight=

thanks, that would work. but it takes a lot of time to
A - find the right hdri, adjust and rotate it correctly
B - place the emitter with the right size on the right location and make sure it has the right color & strengh

takes a hell lot more time compared to a slider where you could adjust the edge of the sun shadow. I'm adding that to the wish list.

larger sun = softer edges... but not excactly physicallly correct.

...or you can just add some haze to the sky - it makes Sun "bigger", shadow softer and Kami happier.

MS wrote:...or you can just add some haze to the sky - it makes Sun "bigger", shadow softer and Kami happier.

excatly. as i'm living down in the valley in switzerland, there's enough haze here for my soft shadows, but where's the "switzerland valley in winter" switch in maxwell?
since you can already make the sun look bigger by some of those 10'000 options for the sky, the shadow however is not influenced by this settings i noticed.

Are those shadows enough "switzerland valley in winter" isch?

hi. thanks for the suggestion. the intensity and mood of the image is pretty good. but the shadow still is too crispy. it could work if you scale enlarge the scene 100 time bigger.
i'll try to make a photograph the next time I see a shadow like this.

Hello, as soon as you get the image reference you want, i can give a try for you.

If NL put in the functionality of blending Physical Sky and SKy dome into Multilight at least some type of option for this will be available!

voxelpictures wrote:Hello, as soon as you get the image reference you want, i can give a try for you.

i finally found a reference photo:


i'd like to have a shadow like the tree casts to the house. until now, i wasn't able to generate this with physical sky

kami wrote:
i'd like to have a shadow like the tree casts to the house. until now, i wasn't able to generate this with physical sky

I think this photo shows the effect of the distance between object an surface. Move the tree closer to the wall and the shadows are no longer so soft. You can achieve the same effect in Maxwell, IMO.

KurtS wrote:

kami wrote:
i'd like to have a shadow like the tree casts to the house. until now, i wasn't able to generate this with physical sky

I think this photo shows the effect of the distance between object an surface. Move the tree closer to the wall and the shadows are no longer so soft. You can achieve the same effect in Maxwell, IMO.

Yes, I am sure it is because of the distance...

Also, the clouds have an effect. No clouds in Maxwell... Use HDRI.

Sun on the sky is about 0,5 degree, so the gradient from full light to full shadow will always be 0,5 degree from both sides of the shadow. The darkness of the shadow is also afected by intensity of indirect light.
I still don`t know, what is the distance of the shape of sphere for HDRI enviroment.If it is infinity, all light sources in HDRI will be like stars. It is not correct at all. My idea in the past was 3D HDRI, where you know exactly distances of the light sources