No shadows when using evening/afternoon HDRIs

Support Lighting and Rendering
1

Hello,

I use a following versatile node setup by Miki to get nice lighting with different types of HDRIs in Cycles:

It works pretty well with clear sunny HDRIs, however, I get no shadows at all when using evening or afternoon HDRIs.

Here’s a result with sunny HDRI (provided by Miki):
image

Here’s my result with Barcelona Rooftops HDRI (provided by http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive.html):
image

I tried changing input values in Miki’s node setup, but with no luck…

Miki’s blend file with node setup:

2

Hi :slight_smile:

I didn’t see your Barcelona Rooftops HDRI, but if there is no ponctual light source in the HDRI (like a sun, or some very high energy light), there is no reason where you should have a shadow.

[edit]
I just downloaded it and tested it in your .blend.
Indeed, as you can see here :
image

The light power is decreasing veeeery slowly and smoothy, that’s why no shadow should appear, quite like in real life :slight_smile:

image
image1920×960 486 KB

As you can see here, even in real life, no shadow

If you really want some, you can “fake” it with an additionnal light source

See you ++
Tricotou

3

Wow! I definetely should be more attentive to… real life. I haven’t even noticed there’re no shadows in all these HDRIs. Thanks for your help!