Population Shadows Anomaly

Started by WAS, November 10, 2021, 11:58:15 PM

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WAS

Does anyone know what's going on here? I plopped in a couple Dune grass object (great go-tos, thanks Ulco) populations, and I immediately noticed something odd. I got these weird shadows on the classic erosion heightmap at a distance. Up close, everything seems fine. It almost looks like the hard shadow things are hugging the flows.

Renderer: PT/SR
MPD: 0.6
AA: 6

Any ideas?

WAS

Ehh, turns out it's the dreaded Ray Detail Multiplier, so to get rid of the hard shadows on the mountain, and in the grass, I have to go up to 1 and dramatically increase render time. >.< Oi.

WAS

This seems to be a really common problem with smooth terrains.

Is there possibly some way to "blur" shadows at distances where these issues seem to most commonly occur at large scale @Matt ? Seems to be the issue itself is a shadow interprets terrain weirdly and creates hard shadows.

Dune

Very strange, and even stranger that the RDM helps. I thought RDM was merely for underwater/glass detail, not shadow precision.

WAS

Ive been thinking of RDM now as an anti-mirage setting lol. It if they rays are low, geometry can get garbled at points at a distance, or close up in stuff like smooth sand ripples. Higher RDM, less mirage effects.

Dune

Yeah, just like making snow from low quality cloud. But I think you only get triangular shapes, not a real smooth terrain.