Semi-transparent materials and shadows

[hellnbak]

Box-
Thanks for the tips, I'll check them out and see what they can do. Even if they don't solve my problem, maybe they can be useful in some other way.

TIG -
Not sure I understand. Are you saying that if I import a texture as a PNG file vs JPG it will not accept shadows?

[TIG]

No, a textured material will accept a shadow IF it has NO transparency.
BUT if the texture is a PNG it will NEVER accept a shadow.
[EDIT: to clarify - if it has a transparency layer set - even if all pixels are opaque!]

[Dave R]

TIG, I'm not sure I'm following you.

Here's a PNG image.

I imported it as a texture which is applied to a face.

It seems to be accepting shadows.

Or do you mean that if there are any transparent pixels in a PNG texture image, none of it will accept shadows?

[hellnbak]

I also do not understand. I imported the stone texture as a PNG and it too seems to have no problems accepting the shadow

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[Rich O Brien]

Try a .png in which the pixels are transparent

[Dave R]

@rich o brien said:

Try a .png in which the pixels are transparent

Thanks. That makes it clear.

[hellnbak]

What's weird is how the shadow looks with different texture opacity settings -

72 percent
84 percent
99 percent
and 100 percent

[Dave R]

At 72% you're seeing the shadow on the ground. At 99% the texture isn't transparent enough to see through.

[hellnbak]

Had to really think about that but then the "doh!" moment happened. Never would have figured that out on my own, thanks for explaining.

[TIG]

To recap...

Materials with < 100% opacity [i.e. transparent] of any kind - plain-color/jpg/png etc - will never receive a shadow.
If they are >= 70% opacity they will cast shadows - unless they use certain types of texture file, see below...

Textured materials that are NOT transparent [100% opaque] will receive and cast shadows, IF the texture file has NO 'transparency layer' defined - e.g. it's a JPG file...

BUT if the texture file is a PNG, AND it also has a 'transparency layer' defined, then it will not receive shadows, AND also it will never cast shadows - even if the material itself is set to be is 100% opaque.
BUT if the material's texture is a PNG file with no 'transparency layer' defined, then it can accept/cast shadows, just like if a JPG file had been used.

[hellnbak]

Yeah, what he said

[Box]

There will be a test on this later and your score will count to your final result.