Raytracing and shadow calculation settings

The following parameters were used for the image below:

Window area:

In order to make the windows appear more realistic (light mirroring), the reflective part of the window material was defined as follows:

Intensity: 30%
Highlight size: 30%
Ideally reflects: activated

The processing of the material (in our case – glass) is carried out with the “Edit material” function
If you have edited the material of a window accordingly, you can transfer it to other windows with the “Transfer material” function .

Raytracing Settings area:

The light and shadow calculation is carried out with the “Raytracing” function (3D Functions → Raytracing).
The setting parameters for ray tracing (light and shadow calculation) were defined as follows:

Anti-aliasing: Strong anti-aliasing
Ambience shade: activated
Intensity: 105% (the higher the value is selected, the “lighter” the shadows are displayed)
Quality: 30% (the higher the quality, the lower the “noise” of the shadows)
Max. Area of influence: 1000 m

The parameters used are clearly visible under the roof (left) and under the balcony on the left (shadows become darker in depth)

Note: By activating the “Ambience shadow” option, the calculation time of the image can be considerably longer.

Properties area for internal light sources in 3D view:
The internal light sources are defined in the function “internal light sources”   (3D Functions → Internal light sources).
The setting parameters for the 3D view were selected as follows:

Without considering ambient shadows in the ray tracing settings:

Light intensity sun: 65%
Light color sun: white
Light intensity ambient light: 30% (this parameter controls the general brightening of the image)
Light color ambient light: white

Taking into account ambient shadows in the ray tracing settings:

Light intensity sun: 50%
Light color sun: white
Light intensity ambient light: 50% (this parameter controls the general brightening of the image)
Light color ambient light: white

April was chosen as the season to have a nice shadow representation. April because the sun is lowest in December / January (-> frontal illumination of the walls) and highest in June / July (-> longer shadows e.g. with roof overhangs).

The time at 4 p.m. depends on the desired sun exposure of the building – (in our case the sun comes from the west, the angle of the north arrow was set to 325 degrees)

This post is also available in: German