Notch Notch Manual 0.9.23
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Shadow Catcher Material

Shadow Catcher Material

Captures shadows and generates a diffuse alpha blended material.

image

Example .dfx

Method #

The shadow catcher node captures shadow information from lights cast on to the surface of an object that has the shadow catcher material applied to it.

The captured shadow information can then be rendered separately onto surfaces of a scene using the layers composite blend modes alpha channels. This will give you the ability to render shadows onto objects not in the scene - for instance on real-world objects or floors in AR projects.

The output material can be applied to any node which accepts a material input, such as 3D Objects, Particle Trails, Procedural Meshing.

The shadow catcher node is great for adding shadows onto surfaces for AR projects.

Parameters

These properties control the core behaviours of the material using Physically Based Rendering (PBR) properties from a A Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution function. Changing the properties below can make a material appear more reflective, more dirty, or add more detail to the material surface. By using textures (either through the relevant inputs, or in the texture section), each of these properties can be modulated over a surface, for more complex material effects.

ParameterDetails
Shadow Catcher ColourThe colour of the shadows.
Baked Diffuse IntensityThe intensity of the diffuse texture.
Use Baked Diffuse Map As Ambient OcclusionSets the diffuse map as an ambient occlusion map.

These properties control the rendering settings for the material.

ParameterDetails
LitToggle whether the material can be lit by lights in the scene.
Casts ShadowsToggle whether the objects the material is applied to casts shadows.
Unseen By CameraToggle whether can be seen by the camera.
Back Face Cull ModeChanges which directions the face will be visible in.
  • Double Sided : Both sides of the material will be rendered to the surface.
  • Show Front Faces : Only the front side aligned with the normal will be rendered.
  • Show Back Faces : Only the back side opposite to the normal will be rendered.
Flip PolygonsToggles whether the polygons are flipped on the material.
WireframeToggles whether the polygons are wireframe on the material.

Thes properties comntrol how the surface of the material is displaced at rendereing, using normal maps, heightmaps, or both.

ParameterDetails
Normal SmoothnessChange how much smoothing is done to the edges of the object.
Smoothing AngleSets the smoothing angle of the mesh faces. The higher the smoother the result.
Normal Map StrengthChange how strong the normal map effect is. Only functions if a normal map is selected in the “normal map” attribute, and the normal map mode is set to “normal mapping”.
Normal Map ModeChange how the normal map affects the material.
Normal Map - Invert Normal XInvert the normal map along the X axis.
Normal Map - Invert Normal YInvert the normal map along the Y axis.
Normal Map - Invert Normal ZInvert the normal map along the Z axis.
DisplacementHow Much the displacement map affects the object.
Displacement OffsetOffset displacement amount for the displacement maps.
Parallax AmountEnables Parallax Occlusion Mapping, and sets how much the material is displaced by it.
Displacement - Use Polygons UVsUses the Polygon UV’s to fix seams where the UV Map can wrap.
Displacement - Fix Tessellation SeamsCan fix tessellation seams where displacement maps are sampled per vertex and can wrap across polygons.

These properties allow textures to modulate the surfaces. Textures connected to the maaterials relevant input properties will overwrite these textures.

ParameterDetails
Diffuse MapSelect a source image to add a diffuse map to the material.
Displacement MapSelect an image to displace the mesh based on the luminescence values of the image. Can be used with the Subdivision Levels node.
Alpha MapSelect an image to control the alpha values of different areas of the material, based on luminance.

These properties control how the material applies to the mesh UVs.

ParameterDetails
UV Scale XScale the UV texture along the X axis.
UV Scale YScale the UV texture along the Y axis.
UV Offset XOffset the UV texture along the X axis.
UV Offset YOffset the UV texture along the Y axis.
Diffuse UV Scale XScale the Diffuse UV texture along the X axis.
Diffuse UV Scale YScale the Diffuse UV texture along the Y axis.
Diffuse UV Offset XOffset the Diffuse UV texture along the X axis.
Diffuse UV Offset YOffset the Diffuse UV texture along the Y axis.
Texture Filter ModeControls how textures used by the material are filtered - through point sampling, linear filtering or anisotropic filtering.
Texture Wrap Mode UControls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the U value range exceeds 0 to 1.
Texture Wrap Mode VControls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the V value range exceeds 0 to 1.
Diffuse Texture Filter ModeControls how textures used by the material are filtered - through point sampling, linear filtering or anisotropic filtering.
Diffuse Texture Wrap Mode UControls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the U value range exceeds 0 to 1.
Diffuse Texture Wrap Mode VControls how textures used by the material are wrapped when the V value range exceeds 0 to 1.
UV Remap FilteringEnables filtering for remapping UV’s. Only functions with eligible textures.
Texture Mip BiasBias the distance at which Mip Maps are swapped for original textures.

These properties control a couple extra settings for the material which didn’t fit into other categories.

ParameterDetails
Motion Blur Velocity ScaleScale how much motion blur is affected by the object’s movement.
Glow AmountControl how much the object glows.
DensityHow dense the material is. Used in sub-surface scattering, and glass shading.

These properties control how the material interacts with ray tracing. Raytracing must be enabled in the Root.

ParameterDetails
Use Global SettingsUse the settings set in a Raytracing Node over these internal settings.
Max Diffuse DepthSets the max diffuse bounces for the material.
Max Glossy DepthSets the max glossy bounces for the material.
Max Refraction DepthSets the max refraction bounces for the material.

These properties allow you to control how vertex colours are applied to meshes, and to other parts of the PBR pipeline.

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