Hi Everyone,

Probably already been answered, but how can I shine light through an object per its opacity map (see example below)??  The green canopy is a thin box with a diffuse map on it for color, and an opacity map of alternating white / black bars to get the “slats” to appear.  Lighting-wise, however, it obviously still reads as a solid box.  how do I get light shine through the slats and onto the boxes / objects beyond?  Thanks!

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You need to be using raytraced shadows in your lights.

3ds Max 2012, Maya 2012
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 267.17)

that’s what I was afraid of..  Thanks!

Depending on your project needs, it may be better to use actual geometry if you want to avoid the longer rendering times accosiated with raytraced shadows.

3ds Max 2012, Maya 2012
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 267.17)

This is true.  Actually, I’m having trouble with “unregistered rpc shadow lights”, which I finally realized makes my raytraced shadows unfunctional.  So it isn’t that they take too long , they just dont cast shadows in the first place!

I haven’t used RPC stuff before, but Archvision makes it sound like they should be compatible with regular lights in 3ds Max.  Except you have to be using the scanline renderer - not Mental Ray.

3ds Max 2012, Maya 2012
Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Core i7, 12GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 3700 (Driver 267.17)

Ahh, i see.  I wasn’t sure what RPC shadow lights were, I just knew my raytraced shadows didn’t work because of them.  I was also using mental ray… just switched to DSR and now I’m getting the results I wanted.  Thanks a lot Valen!