Rendering in XSI

[desty]

I have played around in XSI for a while now and got the hang of it, but something which still bothers me is rendering.

I'd like for instance to render textureless models, with a soft shadow and a plain underneath. In 3dsmax, I used to just put an omni light, activate shadow maps, and increase the sample range.

Problem in XSI is that shadow maps only seem to work with spotlights, which give that light "hollow" which is very visible and annoying for renders.

any suggestions?

desty

 

[softmonkey]

Does work - just tested it.

Make sure you have shadows on the light and are set to shadow maps.
Make sure you turn them on in the region and/or render options.

Or another technique is to use area lights. Selec the light and turn it on. To get a final quality without the need for silly samples and long renders - lower the aliasing threshold in render options to about 0.05 for each color channel.

 

[desty]

Thanks, softmonkey, I'll try the area lights, but I figured what I needed is Final Gathering, it's great!

desty

 

[softmonkey]

And if you don't need the color bleeding, use the dirtmap shader by daniel rind @ http://www.xsibase.com/tools/shaders.php?detail=332

Just plug it into your phong's ambient and diffuse channels.