Lighting bug in Maya 2014

MethodJ

I've run across a strange issue in Maya 2014 with lights, or I am going senile. Lights go through objects as if they weren't there. Shadows work normally, but without them I get this:

Maya Software renderer


Mental Ray too (at one point MR did indeed block the light, but now it does this):


With shadows turned on it is fine:


The scene is arranged like this, the spot light is the one in question:


I would swear that objects used to block lights, even when shadows aren't turned on. Or am I totally insane? Does anyone have an older version of Maya installed and can check? Can anyone else recreate this bug in 2014?

MM

you need to enable either depth map shadows or raytrace shadows from the light attributes.

depth maps shadows show up in default, high quality and viewport 2.0
ray trace only show up in defaulot and high quality only
software/mental ray render should show all shadow types.

MethodJ

Yeah, I know about the shadows, I know that depth map shadows are the only ones visible in the viewport, I know you enable the shadows in VP2.0 with that little blue button.

But my screens are renders, not viewport grabs.

What I'm saying is, with shadows turned off, the lights just go right through objects. That is what is driving me nuts, I would swear that wasn't the way the lights worked before (with the exception of directionals).

MM

well think about it, if you turn off shadows then how exactly do you imagine the light obstruction to look like ?

shadows are the only representation of light occlusion. light will go through everything with shadows turned off.

that is how it always ha been in Maya if i am not mistaken.