If you use depth map shadows, by default Maya calculates at least one depth map for each depth-map enabled light source and
for each frame of the animation during rendering.
In some cases, you can reduce rendering times by saving and reusing a light’s depth map. See the following table to determine
if reusing a depth map is advantageous for your particular circumstance.
Maya saves depth map files in the renderDate/depth directory of the current project, by default.
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| Rendering a single frame several times, each time making adjustments to object or light properties, but not moving lights
or objects, the depth map does not change and can be reused.
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Set to . Maya calculates the depth map the first time you render and save it to disk. During each subsequent render, Maya reads the
depth map from disk.
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| Rendering an animation in which the light or the objects it illuminates do not move (for example, a camera fly-through), the
depth map does not change from frame to frame and can be reused.
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Set to and turn off . Maya calculates the depth map when it renders the first frame and save it to disk. During each subsequent frame render,
Maya reads the depth map from disk.
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| Rendering an animation in which lights and, or the objects they illuminate do move, the depth map changes from frame to frame.
If you are rendering the entire animation several times, each time making adjustments to object or light properties, but not
changing the way lights or objects move, the depth maps for each frame is the same as in the initial render and can be reused.
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Set to and turn on . Maya calculates the depth maps for each frame the first time you render the animation and save them to disk. During each
subsequent render, Maya reads the depth maps from disk.
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| Rendering a single frame or an animation, have previously saved depth maps to disk, and have moved lights and, or the objects
it illuminates, the depth maps are now different, and you cannot reuse the depth masks on disk.
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Set to . Render the frame or animation once. Maya calculates the depth map(s) and save them disk, overwriting any depth map(s) that
already exist on disk.If you want to continue adjusting object or light properties, but not move lights or objects, set to .
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| Rendering a single frame or an animation, have previously saved depth maps to disk, but do not want to use the depth maps
that are on disk.
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Set to . Maya calculates the depth map(s) every time you render. Maya does not read depth maps from disk. Maya does not save depth
maps to disk.
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