Help with Ray Traced Shadows
 

Hey guys. How do I soften/harden raytraced shadows? I am having this problem in my renders that the shadows are becoming grainy and noise like. How can I fix this and make the shadows a bit harder? It also seems that some of the shadows are ok but how can that be since one light is casting the shadows and messing up other shadows? Please see image. I am using Maya 5 with these settings on my ray traced shadows for the light:

Light Angle - 2.000
Shadow Rays - 5
Ray Depth Limit - 1

Also, can someone please explane to me what these numbers do such as if I increase the Shadow Rays to * than the shadows will be softer or if I decrease Ray depth limit to * with the Light angle at * this will happen. Thanks again and you guys rock with your Maya knowledge and skills.

certainly increasing the light angle will soften them up, I think with this though you have to increase the shadow rays as well, or the shadow appears very very grainy.

Ray depth limit shouldn't effect the sharpness of the shadow, it's to do with casting shadows after reflection/refraction i think