Unity 2021.2 and HDRP 12 - Possible to exclude objects from receiving raytraced shadows?

Hi Guys

How can I exclude some objects from receiving raytraced shadows, is it even possible?

I have a bunch of tree prefebs that look great, however I'd like to exclude them from receiving raytraced shadows. They can just get normal shadows if possible.....

 

Sounds an intersting hack. That's a bit tricky though since trees also throw shadows on other trees and bushes etc.
A simple tick box would be great on a per object basis, and all the magic happens automatically in the background.

The point of all this is for Offline Visualisation. We dont have teams of programmers who can implement fancy stuff. We're mostly artists who expect things to just "work" like we're use to with traditional DCC apps and rendering engines.
If we have to struggle to do the simplest thing, then it defeats the purpose of the supposed "speed" you get from realtime workflows, and we may as well just continue using traditional workflows.

For now though, we'll see how far we can push your workaround hack, thanks

 

Yes its just for current issues with raytraced shadows. Here's an example in Unity 2021.2.0b4 using a simple plain as "ground", so no actual terrain as such, and a tree from Nature Manufacture Dynamic Nature Assets. They did mention they dont yet support 2021.2, but that doesnt stop us from trying to make it work somehow




Then with just regular shadows:



So in this case, would be nice to set the trees to not have raytraced shadows, but the house and other items in the scene STILL have raytraced shadows.

Also, ignoring the above for a moment, even if it was working like supposed to, I imagine we can get some performace improvements from excluding certain items from raytraced shadows, while still having the more important things in the scene still cast raytraced shadows.