Picayune I know but regarding shadows in the real world they tend to gradually range from sharp & crisp at the start, then slightly fuzzy at the mid point, then much out of focus at the end - using sunlight as its source.

Look at a house’s roof line or a tree’s trunk, the greater the distance the shadows are from its origin the more ill-defined it becomes i.e. shadows close-up perhaps 1/2'” away the shadow’s edge is quite crisp, however shadow edges from leaves on the top of trees are blurry indeed, to clouds at thousands of feet up produce their shadows edges several feet wide (going bright to dark).  Does the newer release take this realistic characteristic into account?

Bob

No.

Henry H

Picayune I know but regarding shadows in the real world they tend to gradually range from sharp & crisp at the start, then slightly fuzzy at the mid point, then much out of focus at the end - using sunlight as its source.

Look at a house’s roof line or a tree’s trunk, the greater the distance the shadows are from its origin the more ill-defined it becomes i.e. shadows close-up perhaps 1/2'” away the shadow’s edge is quite crisp, however shadow edges from leaves on the top of trees are blurry indeed, to clouds at thousands of feet up produce their shadows edges several feet wide (going bright to dark).  Does the newer release take this realistic characteristic into account?

Bob

The Area light gives a intensity fall off with a widening of the shadow even with transparency shadow active.
Attached is a rather extreme example using a white ground in order to display the fall off. The fall off is more effective when there's a ground material or environment, might be useful.