Rhino 8 shadows not working properly

[Lowney_Admin]

Hi - I’ve been having big problems getting Rhino 8 shadows to show accurately on screen. I’m using a modified Arctic display mode with real time shadows on (with sun and location setting), not ray tracing or Rhino render. I get quite good results in Rhino 7 but in Rhino 8, with identical shadow and display mode settings and the same exact file, the shadows are horrible. Screenshots attached below show the good Rhino 7 result followed by Rhino 8 results at different camera clipping radii settings in the display mode shadow settings. I am unable to get Rhino 8 to show the clean shadows for this file that Rhino 7 gives me. Also attaching my system info for Rhino 7 and 8. Any help would be welcome, as I cannot use Rhino 8 until I’m able to resolve this issue. Thanks!

Rhino 7 system info.txt (3.6 KB)
Rhino 8 system info.txt (3.5 KB)

[Lowney_Admin]

Rhino 7 SR36 2023-12-12 (Rhino 7, 7.36.23346.16351, Git hash:master @ 11a364321297eb8cdb34405a3308d8911f58706d)
License type: Commercial, build 2023-12-12
License details: Stand-Alone

Windows 11 (10.0.22631 SR0.0) or greater (Physical RAM: 32Gb)

Computer platform: LAPTOP - Plugged in [99% battery remaining]

Standard graphics configuration.
Primary display: DisplayLink USB Device (DisplayLink) Memory: 0MB, Driver date: 4-16-2020 (M-D-Y).
> External USB display device with 2 adapter port(s)
- Windows Main Display attached to adapter port #0
- Secondary monitor attached to adapter port #1
Primary OpenGL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU (NVidia) Memory: 8GB, Driver date: 2-15-2024 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 551.61
> Integrated accelerated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- Video pass-through to primary display device

Secondary graphics devices.
DisplayLink USB Device (DisplayLink) Memory: 0MB, Driver date: 4-16-2020 (M-D-Y).
> External USB display device with 0 adapter port(s)
- There are no monitors attached to this device. Laptop lid is probably closed
Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics (Intel) Memory: 1GB, Driver date: 10-6-2023 (M-D-Y).
> Integrated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- There are no monitors attached to this device. Laptop lid is probably closed

OpenGL Settings
Safe mode: Off
Use accelerated hardware modes: On
Redraw scene when viewports are exposed: On
Graphics level being used: OpenGL 4.6 (primary GPU’s maximum)

Anti-alias mode: 4x
Mip Map Filtering: Linear
Anisotropic Filtering Mode: High

Vendor Name: NVIDIA Corporation
Render version: 4.6
Shading Language: 4.60 NVIDIA
Driver Date: 2-15-2024
Driver Version: 31.0.15.5161
Maximum Texture size: 32768 x 32768
Z-Buffer depth: 24 bits
Maximum Viewport size: 32768 x 32768
Total Video Memory: 8 GB

Rhino plugins that do not ship with Rhino
C:\Users\mwinkelstein\AppData\Roaming\McNeel\Rhinoceros\packages\7.0\Lumion-LiveSync-for-Rhino\3.60.65\LumionPlugin.rhp “Lumion LiveSync for Rhino”
C:\Users\mwinkelstein\AppData\Roaming\McNeel\Rhinoceros\packages\7.0\Corgi\0.5.15\Corgi.rhp “Corgi” 0.5.14.0
C:\Users\mwinkelstein\AppData\Local\Programs\Enscape\Bin64\Enscape.Rhino7.Plugin.dll “Enscape.Rhino7.Plugin” 0.0.23345.954
C:\ProgramData\McNeel\Rhinoceros\7.0\Plug-ins\Datasmith Rhino Exporter (d1fdc795-b334-4933-b680-088119cdc6bb)\DatasmithRhino7.rhp “Datasmith Exporter” 5.3.2.0

Rhino plugins that ship with Rhino
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\Commands.rhp “Commands” 7.36.23346.16351
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\WebBrowser.rhp “WebBrowser”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\rdk.rhp “Renderer Development Kit”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\RhinoScript.rhp “RhinoScript”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\IdleProcessor.rhp “IdleProcessor”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\RhinoRenderCycles.rhp “Rhino Render” 7.36.23346.16351
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\RhinoRender.rhp “Legacy Rhino Render”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\rdk_etoui.rhp “RDK_EtoUI” 7.36.23346.16351
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\rdk_ui.rhp “Renderer Development Kit UI”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\NamedSnapshots.rhp “Snapshots”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\Alerter.rhp “Alerter”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\RhinoCycles.rhp “RhinoCycles” 7.36.23346.16351
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\Toolbars\Toolbars.rhp “Toolbars” 7.36.23346.16351
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\3dxrhino.rhp “3Dconnexion 3D Mouse”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 7\Plug-ins\Displacement.rhp “Displacement”

Rhino 8 SR4 2024-2-13 (Rhino 8, 8.4.24044.15001, Git hash:master @ 5d3f86ffffae3c2ed84d21147c008b3907a40a2e)
License type: Commercial, build 2024-02-13
License details: Stand-Alone

Windows 11 (10.0.22631 SR0.0) or greater (Physical RAM: 32GB)
.NET 7.0.16

Computer platform: LAPTOP - Plugged in [99% battery remaining]

Standard graphics configuration.
Primary display: DisplayLink USB Device (DisplayLink) Memory: 0MB, Driver date: 4-16-2020 (M-D-Y).
> External USB display device with 2 adapter port(s)
- Windows Main Display attached to adapter port #0
- Secondary monitor attached to adapter port #1
Primary OpenGL: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Laptop GPU (NVidia) Memory: 8GB, Driver date: 2-15-2024 (M-D-Y). OpenGL Ver: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 551.61
> Integrated accelerated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- Video pass-through to primary display device

Secondary graphics devices.
DisplayLink USB Device (DisplayLink) Memory: 0MB, Driver date: 4-16-2020 (M-D-Y).
> External USB display device with 0 adapter port(s)
- There are no monitors attached to this device. Laptop lid is probably closed
Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics (Intel) Memory: 1GB, Driver date: 10-6-2023 (M-D-Y).
> Integrated graphics device with 4 adapter port(s)
- There are no monitors attached to this device. Laptop lid is probably closed

OpenGL Settings
Safe mode: Off
Use accelerated hardware modes: On
Redraw scene when viewports are exposed: On
Graphics level being used: OpenGL 4.6 (primary GPU’s maximum)

Anti-alias mode: 4x
Mip Map Filtering: Linear
Anisotropic Filtering Mode: High

Vendor Name: NVIDIA Corporation
Render version: 4.6
Shading Language: 4.60 NVIDIA
Driver Date: 2-15-2024
Driver Version: 31.0.15.5161
Maximum Texture size: 32768 x 32768
Z-Buffer depth: 24 bits
Maximum Viewport size: 32768 x 32768
Total Video Memory: 8 GB

Rhino plugins that do not ship with Rhino
C:\Users\mwinkelstein\AppData\Roaming\McNeel\Rhinoceros\packages\8.0\Corgi\0.5.15\Corgi.rhp “Corgi” 0.5.14.0
C:\ProgramData\McNeel\Rhinoceros\7.0\Plug-ins\Datasmith Rhino Exporter (d1fdc795-b334-4933-b680-088119cdc6bb)\DatasmithRhino7.rhp “Datasmith Exporter” 5.3.2.0

Rhino plugins that ship with Rhino
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Commands.rhp “Commands” 8.4.24044.15001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\WebBrowser.rhp “WebBrowser”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\rdk.rhp “Renderer Development Kit”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoScript.rhp “RhinoScript”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\IdleProcessor.rhp “IdleProcessor”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoRenderCycles.rhp “Rhino Render” 8.4.24044.15001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoRender.rhp “Legacy Rhino Render”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\rdk_etoui.rhp “RDK_EtoUI” 8.4.24044.15001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\NamedSnapshots.rhp “Snapshots”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\MeshCommands.rhp “MeshCommands” 8.4.24044.15001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoCycles.rhp “RhinoCycles” 8.4.24044.15001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\RhinoCode\RhinoCodePlugin.rhp “RhinoCodePlugin” 8.4.24044.15001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Toolbars\Toolbars.rhp “Toolbars” 8.4.24044.15001
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\3dxrhino.rhp “3Dconnexion 3D Mouse”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\Displacement.rhp “Displacement”
C:\Program Files\Rhino 8\Plug-ins\SectionTools.rhp “SectionTools”

[pascal (Pascal Golay)]

Hi Lowney - anything different in these settings?

Can you export the display mode and post the resulting ini file?

-Pascal

[Lowney_Admin]

Hi Pascal - no, those settings are worse, the shadows don’t form properly at all, no matter what clipping plane. Btw, my origin is close to model, not far away. And the model is not particularly complex or heavy. Attaching both the Rhino 8 and Rhino 7 display mode ini files. One note - I have modified Arctic in Rhino 7 to have colored surfaces and look a lot like Rendered display mode, but I have found I can get much more precise clean shadows than with Rendered (see my first image in post above to get an idea - the triangular plan shadows emanating from vertical ege corners still do not perfectly meet the corners when you zoom in, but much better results than anything else I’ve tried). I don’t use the softer shadows, as I’m looking for very crisp, clean, simple shadows similar to Sketchup for this type if architectural graphic. Hope you can help with this. Thanks!
MJW ARCTIC rhino 7.ini (12.9 KB)
MJW ARCTIC rhino 8.ini (14.1 KB)

[pascal (Pascal Golay)]

Hi Lowney - so far - quick test - these look OK in V8 - (I turned off edge blurring in the 8 mode to make them match better) -

the 7 mode left, 8 right, with hard shadows, in V8
-Pascal

[Lowney_Admin]

Thanks for test, Pascal. Hmm - not sure what’s going on - may need to send you a piece of my model - with v8 I only get the results shown above in the post (under the v7 top image) - no tweaking whasoever worked to get crisp shadows, and changing clipping radius made odd artifact shadows that had nothing to do with the real massing. I prefer no edge blurring, as am trying to get crisp shadow edges. What I’m getting instead is pixelated aliased jaggy shadow edges at a fairly large rough scale… it’s and cannot be used for client presentations. Thx

[pascal (Pascal Golay)]

Hi Lowney - please send to tech@mcneel.com, with a link back here in your comments.

-Pascal

[Lowney_Admin]

Thanks Pascal - just sent an email.

Matthew

[pascal (Pascal Golay)]

Hi Matthew - thanks - as the file opens, here, this is ow the shadows look, which, I think is what you want, correct?

I’m a little suspecious of the USB and Iris video - I know the good card is there but…
Is the bad display on the primary monitor, of more than one, or both?

-Pascal

[Lowney_Admin]

Yes - that is how it should look but I am unable to get that result on any monitor or the laptop display - I only get the weird penetration of the shadow through the solid. Do you think this is a video card issue? I’ve tried rolling back my card driver, upgrading it to most recent, using the one Lenovo recommends, all with no luck. Just no solution in Rhino 8 to get that result (but yes like that in Rhino 7). Is there something fundamentally new in Rhino 8’s shadow algorithms?

Thanks for looking at this.

Matthew

[Lowney_Admin]

What I get…

[pascal (Pascal Golay)]

@jeff - do you have an idea? I have the file and it seems fine here.

-Pascal

[Jonatan1 (Jonatan)]

I have problems with the shadows too. Something seems to be off with this slider…

[MichalKrizo (Michal Križo)]

Hello, @Lowney_Admin , were you able to resolve this? I have the same kind of problem for a few months, and I am tired of it already. No tweaking seems to help at all. Shadows are too blurred or too jagged; I am not able to get clean, sharp shadows at all.

[Aidan4 (Aidan)]

I’m also having issues with Rhino 8 shadows appearing jagged even with video memory set to max (which is 1gb on my machine — anyone able to get higher gb for that slider?)