VEX_shadow write to disk

[MENOZ]

hi, I have some questions about lights in houdini, I hope somebody could help me to understand how things works.

1- light template. there is a tab containing a "categories" parameter, what is for?

2- using a standard light i have access to some parameters and functionality without the needs of building and connect shaders together.

I have the opportunity to specify a path to save my .rat depthmap to disk, and read it back later.

How can I do this if I am using a light template with a VEX_shadow shader attached to it?

I have only the opportunity to read the shadow back, buto i'm not allowed to write it to disk. How can I do?

[symek]

hi, I have some questions about lights in houdini, I hope somebody could help me to understand how things works.

1- light template. there is a tab containing a "categories" parameter, what is for?

Categories is an alternative way of linking lights and shading in Mantra. Check out SESI help: http://www.sidefx.com/docs/houdini10.0/light/lightandshadowlinking

Catergory on light object is like a label (tag) for it. After such labeling you can use expressions on objects side (or vex functions) to select lights and object influencing this instance.

2- using a standard light i have access to some parameters and functionality without the needs of building and connect shaders together.

I have the opportunity to specify a path to save my .rat depthmap to disk, and read it back later.

How can I do this if I am using a light template with a VEX_shadow shader attached to it?

I have only the opportunity to read the shadow back, buto i'm not allowed to write it to disk. How can I do?

You need to add a set of render properties to tell Houdini this light is going to produce shadow map. These are vm_picture, res, render_shadowmp at minimum.