Ok, on RAYTRACING-
While Raytracing, in any mode, be it with GI or not, be it with shadows or not, be it with high samples/low samples…anything:
You get a full-mesh raytraced shadow for translucent opacity-mapped meshes. So, the texture looks mapped, but the shadow is of the full mesh.
(Pic 1 - Sparrow 4.23 Preview 3)
Paragon Sparrow- the eyelashes have an opacity map that thins out the eyelash mesh…
BUT, the shadow is thick and that of the entire mesh, while the lash itself looks thin.
And you see what looks like a makeup shadowing on her eyes.
But this is not makeup!!!
it is a shadow of the full-solid eyelash mesh
And this happens with everything that uses Surface-Translucent.
In Sparrow’s case, you can even see the default eye-lens translucency materials are destroyed by a shadow somehow onto itself.
One thought is to set shadows as masked as opposed to translucent, but the shadows stay the same while raytracing
The other thought is to use raster translucency, but in 4.23.Previews it does not work while raytracing.
In 4.22.3 it does work, but still has the full thick shadows of the mesh while in Raytrace mode.
(Pic 2 - Sparrow 4.22.3 Trans>Raster)
Although, in the case of 4.22.3 Translucency>Raster is far better than 4.22.3 Translucency>Raytrace, which is a mess!
(Pic 3 - Sparrow 4.22.3 Trans>Raytrace)
And see, this is why we HAVE to press on Raytracing…because it is very problematic in 4.22.3, so we want to see it done right, without regressions, in 4.23!!!
Also, this happens with ALL characters (ie Daz), not just Paragon’s.
TO show Paragon in 4.23 I copied new untouched Paragon asset from 4.22.3 to 4.23 Preview.
People will say it’s a shader issue (in vague non-specific terms).
So, specifically, it relates to a Raytrace Issue with incorrectly shadowing Opacity on Translucent Blend Mode.
THX