Hidden or showing objects (different scenarios on same space)

I´m want to share experiments that I make because some clients ask me if I can change objects in same way to materials.

We know that is posible select custom hide in view options but always we need to be carefull with shadows projected by hiden objects.

This issue can minimaze if we use ambient oclussion, so this is my experiment.

I hope this help to give to clients that they ask for.

First scene https://all360.shapespark.com/prueba_sillones/ you can see the shadows problem
actions
Not placing the overlapping objects prevents the shadow of these Indira over the others in the same place.
Organizing rooms or dining rooms in such a way that the objects do not overlap each other prevents the collision of shadows.

Second Scene https://all360.shapespark.com/prueba_sillones2/ the shadows in floor and mirror reflections does´n disappear switching on ambient occlusion when you hide chairs, but this action help a lot to explain different scenarios.

Question:
Will it be possible to link the shadow to the object and not to the surface?
So when you turn off the hidden object you hide it too!

You could experiment with making the overlapping chairs transparent just for the time of baking. This way the chairs won’t cast any shadows, so the black spots should disappear.

For the shadows below chairs that won’t be visible at all if the chairs are transparent, maybe you could fake them by placing a partially transparent surface below chairs with some fake shadows painted? Such surface could also be made transparent for the time of baking, It could also be hidden together with the chairs, so the shadow is not visible when there are no chairs.

Light probes are generated during scene initialization using the first first person view from the view list, all objects that are visible in this view are visible in the reflections.

Will it be possible to link the shadow to the object and not to the surface?
So when you turn off the hidden object you hide it too!

In general case to determine the lighting of which surfaces are affected by a given object, you need to simulate the light propagation, so basically run baking. Imagine that you would like to hide the room walls. The lighting of the whole scene would be heavily affected, it is not possible quickly determine the final result without simulating from scratch how the light bounces without the walls.

@jan I forgot to thank you about this! :pray:t2: