Shadow Pass Switch

Utilize the Shadow Pass Switch material function to substitute the materials casted shadow with a proxy.

This node is valuable for adjusting stylized shadows, fixing up shadows on masked meshes, optimizing complex shadows, and more.

Explanation

The Shadow Pass Switch node is a material function that splits the shadow map rendering pass from the rest of the materials rendering passes. This allows you to modify how the shadow behaves for the meshes the material is applied to.

Example use cases

Here are a few example use cases that should prove helpful --

Fix masked occlusion shadows

The Shadow Pass Switch node can be used to fix shadow irregularities that occur when masking away meshes. A very common use case is making sure that trees, walls, ceilings, etc. continue to cast their full shadow when being masked away to review players.

Completely change resulting shadow

The Shadow Pass Switch node can be used to completely change the resulting shadow. This is quite useful for puzzle mechanics, stylization, etc.

World position offset

The Shadow Pass Switch can be used in unique ways to adjust the location, shape, etc. of the applied shadow.

Optimize Shadows

The Shadow Pass Node can be used to substitute the shadow of a complex mesh with a simpler shadow, easing the resources needed to cast the shadow.