Weird shadow, question

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  • I created a line based light source with Revit within this light fixture (see image). Unless I'm mistaken, the shadows from the middle supports seems incorrect, as they radiate as if the light is emanating from a point. I was wondering if there is a solution to prevent this shadow from being too harsh. And perhaps to also bring attention to a possible flaw?


    I'm using Revit 2018 and Enscape 3.0.1

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  • joshradle

    Approved the thread.
  • Why don't you post an image of the light fixture in Revit that illustrates the geometry of the light fixture? It appears the light source is properly creating the shadow from the geometry of the middle supports. Reducing the luminance value of the light source will decrease the severity of the shadow.

  • Unfortunately there's no way to actually fix this - Enscape seems to only ever render light from a single point light source, so if that point light source is located within anything but the most basic lamp geometry the lamp will generate a lot of incorrect/false shadows.


    A few workarounds though:


    - If the point light source is located within actual geometry then Enscape will not render shadows based on that piece of geometry. In your sconce above you could have the geometry of the two middle supports actually go inside the bulb area and pass through where the point light is located. Now that your point light is technically "inside" the geometry of these middle supports, the middle supports won't be used for shadowing.

    - Enscape ignores shadowing on glass/translucent materials. Not relevant for a lot of lights, but if your light fixture has a lot of tiny pieces causing shadows to be cast, making those pieces made out of glass will solve the issue. Not a great option if it'll be obvious that you've changed the material to glass for these parts but for some fixtures no one will notice.

    - Materials set to do self emissive lighting on the bulbs/diffusers can help rectify some of the incorrect self-shadowing enscape likes to do, especially with the most recent update which dramatically improved the lighting that self-emissive light casts. Turn down the lumen output on the light itself and boost the lumen output on the self-emissive texture and see how it looks. Don't go too crazy though - if you have a lot of the light output in a scene coming from self emissive materials you'll get blotchy lighting. This is mostly good to do for one-off fixtures that have really wild geometry or really bad looking shadows.

    • Best Answer

    skhayward brings up an excellent point. If I may add some additional commentary.


    The best photographs often *don't* rely on actual real-world lighting alone. The same goes with rendering. You may have to create lights that create the desired effect rather than limit yourself to how the light might work in the real world. Not that Enscape isn't trying to simulate the real world. But the real world may not give you the emotional weight that you need in your rendering.


    I'd recommend the following:


    - Move the light source outside of the light housing

    - Reduce the transparency of the light lens and add self illumination to the lens material


    By moving the light source outside of the light housing you'll create the effect of self illumination without creating the shadow. By adding self illumination to the light lens it will create the appearance that light is passing through the object and illuminating the surrounding area.


    This video illustrates the most profound explanation I've yet seen of masterfully setting up lights in Enscape. The result exceeds what would exist in the real world in order to create the appropriate emotional response.


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  • Thank you both!! This information is invaluable and more than I expected to get. Really clears up why the problem is happening and how I can avoid it.


    Sorry for just now responding; was too busy at the time to respond and only now remembered to look back. I'd mark both as helpful but it only lets me select one.