3ds Max+Vray simple yet difficult- how to prevent an object from casting shadows ONLY on itself?

Jonathan85

3ds max, vray. How can i prevent "self-shadowing" of an object? That means how to prevent an object from casting shadow ONLY on itself, but STILL casting his shadow on other object- no "self shadow" on the object? Is there a way? (i can only think of object properties and uncheck "cast shadow", that prevents the object from casting its shadows also on other objects (which i want, i just dont want any "self-shadow"...).

Is there a way?

(i need this because im using displacement and SSS material and one "inner" part (hole/dent) looks awfull because of this (because of the object self shadow)... is there a way to fix it?

Bletzkarn

why not detach the hole and set that not to render shadows?

Eric Chadwick

Or just render in passes, and Photoshop it out. We do lots of that here with V-Ray renders. Much faster than trying to fix every little thing in 3d.

Jonathan85

No this asset is not for me, it must work straight away from all angles without any postproduction touches... is there a way...?
Bletkzarn idea should probably work (?) but i see it somehow too easy/primitive :-), and causing additional troubles down the pipeline...

so is there some other way...? dont tell me there isnt some fix with "self-shadow casting"... i think i have heart this phrase even before, so there must be some "feature" to work with it... but maybe it way in different software and renderer...?


can i do something with it in 3ds max and vray?

Bletzkarn

The longer you spend doing this stuff the sooner you will realize the easiest way is often the best way. I'm sure there's some way to create a very complicated material that will achieve what you're looking for, however the end result is going to be almost unnoticeable. 

You can spend hours making sure everything has great topology, no overlapping faces etc. Yet the guy who slapped something together in a quarter of the time has an identical render. 

Let go of perfectionalism.

Jonathan85

yeah i know about this :-)

the problem is that the difference is easilly noticeable, so it is quite a big deal. So what you are telling me is that there is no easy way, no "checker box" for "self shadowing"...?

ActionDawg

Couldn't you setup a self illuminated material? That should force it to be essentially unlit.

Eric Chadwick

You could set diffuse to black and put all color info in self illum, and disable self illum GI.

But you would somehow need a lighting map to add direct light info in self illum channel. Not sure that's possible.

Jonathan85

somedoggy said:

Couldn't you setup a self illuminated material? That should force it to be essentially unlit.

But wouldnt that glow in the dark...? (i need the asset - slice of fruit) to be avaiable to use under (practically) any lighting conditions...

Eric Chadwick

If that's truly the goal, then you need to fix the problems with your geometry and material. If the asset is set up properly, in a physically accurate PBR manner, then it will just work.

Could also be your render settings are incorrect. 

Impossible to tell without an image.

savascetin

Did you try disabling "Recive Shadows" as well?