# Ray-Traced Contact Shadows

Ray-Traced Contact Shadows is a ray tracing feature in the High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP). It's an alternative to HDRP's [Contact Shadow](Override-Contact-Shadows.md) technique that uses a more accurate ray-traced solution that can use off-screen data.

![](Images/RayTracedContactShadow1.png)

**Without Contact shadows**

![](Images/RayTracedContactShadow2.png)

**Contact shadows**

![](Images/RayTracedContactShadow3.png)

**Ray-traced contact shadows**

For information about ray tracing in HDRP, and how to set up your HDRP Project to support ray tracing, see [Getting started with ray tracing](Ray-Tracing-Getting-Started.md).

To troubleshoot this effect, HDRP provides a Shadows [Debug Mode](Ray-Tracing-Debug.md) and a Ray Tracing Acceleration Structure [Debug Mode](Ray-Tracing-Debug.md) in Lighting Full Screen Debug Mode.

## Using Ray-Traced Contact Shadows

This feature is an alternative to the [Contact Shadows](Override-Contact-Shadows.md) Volume override, so the initial setup is similar. To set up ray-traced contact shadows:

1. First follow the [Enabling Contact Shadows](Override-Contact-Shadows.md#enable-contact-shadows) and [Using Contact Shadows](Override-Contact-Shadows.md#use-contact-shadows) steps to set up the Contact Shadows override.
2. In the Frame Settings for your Cameras, enable **Ray Tracing**.
3. HDRP calculates ray-traced contact shadows on a per-light basis. This means you need to enable it for each light.
4. Select a [Light](Light-Component.md) and, in the Inspector, go to **Shadows > Contact Shadows** and tick the **Enable** checkbox. This exposes the **Ray Tracing** property.
5. Enable the **Ray Tracing** checkbox.

![](Images/ContactShadowLightComponent.png)