Spot light direction has no bearing on shadow casting

Support Lighting and Rendering
1

Hi all,

I’ve been trying to make a light setup that works in a similar fashion to the spotlights in 3dsMax. In doing so, I discovered that my spotlights were not casting shadows in the direction that they are pointing. It’s as if the light itself is being cast in the appropriate direction, but when it comes to shadows, it behaves more like a point light, with light rotation having no bearing on the direction of the shadow casting. I get the same result with area lights. I have tried both adjusting the light gizmo, as well as directly rotating the light with the same results. Here are a couple of screenshots:

Imgur

Imgur

As you can see, the light orientation changes, but the shadows do not. Any ideas? Something obvious I’ve missed? I am using the new Blender 2.91

Thanks!

Simon

2

Firstly - welcome aboard :smiley:
Seconday - a spotlight is basically a cone-shaped segment of a point-light … the shadow is correct, and I would be suprised if 3ds max spots were all that different… you could try narrowing the cone of the light and moving it back …
Thurdly - skones with cream and jam - mmmmmmm!

1 Like
3

Using an RX 470 and blender 2.91 spot light and point light are not even casting any light. At least that is working for you.

Edit: it was soft shadows in eevee/render properties.

4

Thanks! You know, I never really noticed that light behavior in 3ds max, but I suppose it must be true. I just did a quick simulation with my cellphone light at my desk and swiveled it around, being careful not to actually change the light position. Shadows stayed in place!