As of 2020, it seems that EEVEE of Blender 2.82a can’t get shadows from mesh light and HDRI.
Shadows in EEVEE seem to only be obtained by light objects.
Questions :
I wonder if there is a Fake way to get shadows from them in EEVEE.
I’m wondering if a mesh light / HDRI shadow will be implemented in the future EEVEE update.
Thanks for the comment.
I’ve tested it a little more carefully and I’ll share the results.
The resolution of the light probe for EEVEE rendering was set to 12x12x12.
Next is HDRI light.
It is unfortunate that the resolution of the shadow is low, but it is obviously responding to HDRI, so it expresses the shadow at the same position as Cycles.
I was making an animation at Cycles.
However, to save time, I decided to try EEVEE, and the goal was to render the animations with EEVEE + HDRI. But by default, EEVEE did not produce shadows in HDRI. Instead, shadows for HDRI can be generated by indirect light baking through IrradianceVolume, but this is only for static objects and tends to have a lower resolution of shadows due to the characteristics of the light probe. As I went through the tests, I realized that the true use of the light probe was not for shadows, but for indirect lighting.
In conclusion, this method isn’t suitable for moving characters.
After more searching, I found a technique for manually installing light objects to the shadows of the sun or lights in HDRI to obtain shadows. Using this method, it seems that the character’s shadow can be expressed.
Or, if you are bothered with manually installing lights, or you want to cast shadows in a narrower area than IrradianceVolume’s light probe grid, I think it’s better to use Cycles rather than EEVEE.
OK, finally I attach two links to user feedback and developments on this topic. Please read if you are interested.