Can particles cast real time shadows on other objects?

Archived Forums Questions & Answers
1

Can particles cast real time shadows on other objects?

I’m using a particle system with cast shadows and receive shadows checked. I have a directional light. I’m rendering in forward rendering.

1 Answer

1
2

Check out this page on trouble shooting shadows:

http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Manual/Shadow%20Troubleshooting.html

Assuming you have Unity Pro, it seems that only completely opaque objects can cast shadows. So, since particles are very often rendered alpha blended or additive, they won’t cast and receive shadows.

Particles in Unity are two-triangle billboards, so they do have a surface, as opposed to being just a single point. I suppose you could get them to cast shadows by selecting a totally opaque shader for it, but that probably won’t make the particles themselves very pretty.

Again, this is all assuming you have Unity Pro. :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks! I was using alpha blended. :)

 –

No problem. :) Glad you got to the bottom of it. If an answer meets your needs, you can click the checkmark to accept it as the right answer. If you do that, the world will know you as a good man and you'll sleep a little better at night. ;-)

 –

You might also want to take performance into consideration. Shadows can get very expensive very quickly.

 –

The link is page not found. Was it transferred?

 –