## Shadows Shadows are rendered as a side effect of the ray-tracing algorithm. If shadows are enabled for a given light then it will not illuminate a point where the path between that point and the light is obstructed by another object. The Raytrace+Transparency shadow setting causes transparent objects to partially block light, but since it does not simulate the refraction of light the resulting shadows often look unconvincing. ### Soft Shadows  *Point Light with 1 sample.*  *Point Light with 5 samples.*  *Area light (5 samples)* Cheetah 3D renders soft shadows when shadow-casting lights are area or point lights with multiple samples. Image-based lighting and emissive object lighting produce very soft shadows. > **Note:** Cheetah 3D 8.1.1 also has a **Shadow softness** property that gives point, spot and distant lights soft shadows in Falcon, a **Shadow color** property, IES light profiles, and area light **Shape** and **Normalize** settings (Objects/SceneObjects/Light), not yet covered here. > **Note:** needs checking in Cheetah 3D 8.1.1: the manual documents Samples for area lights only; do point lights still have Samples (see the captions above)?