I put a lot of effort into the appearance of my maps, and I was wondering if anyone knows how to add/take away a shadow from an object. What I means is that when shadows are set on high in the video settings, some objects cast shadows while others don't. For example, the player and vehicle mshs cast shadows while many (but not all! many Rhen Var objects cast shadows) of the world objects do not.

My question is this:
- Is there a way to set a specific object to cast a shadow that does not by default?

Another question is:
- Is there a way to set up a region where the directional light has no effect on any objects? I tried the shadow regions, but they only effect players, not world mshs.

remember, you will only notice objects cast shadows when they are set to HIGH in the SWBF2 video settings. When shadows are on medium, only players cast fuzzy shadows.

Feedback is greatly appreciated!

a_speck_of_dust wrote:I put a lot of effort into the appearance of my maps, and I was wondering if anyone knows how to add/take away a shadow from an object. What I means is that when shadows are set on high in the video settings, some objects cast shadows while others don't. For example, the player and vehicle mshs cast shadows while many (but not all! many Rhen Var objects cast shadows) of the world objects do not.

My question is this:
- Is there a way to set a specific object to cast a shadow that does not by default?

Another question is:
- Is there a way to set up a region where the directional light has no effect on any objects? I tried the shadow regions, but they only effect players, not world mshs.

Feedback is greatly appreciated!

Any of these will involve making some models for yourself. Any object that has a shadow has it because the model has either a shadowvolume itself or because the mesh uses a munge parameter to add shadows. If you want (although it is not recommended) to add shadows for any world object without recreating the mesh, you can use the .msh.option parameter -hiresshadow.

You can't "turn off shadows" in a region the same way you can turn off shadows for players or turn off precipitation. I've worked around this in the past by making one large invisible shadowvolume, but that'll cast a shadow over the entire region instead of just making no effect at all.

wow thanks for the info! that's helpful.

A large shadow volume would do the trick. Where can I find one?

and why is the msh option trick not recommended?

a_speck_of_dust wrote:wow thanks for the info! that's helpful.

A large shadow volume would do the trick. Where can I find one?

and why is the msh option trick not recommended?

You'll need to make a large shadow volume, there aren't simply assets for one.

I wouldn't recommend tacking on the high-res shadow because it's generated from the highest LOD version of the model (the visible mesh). That can bog down a map, and while I know this isn't a huge concern to you personally, your maps often strain lower-end computers by either not optimizing (because it's not something you'll notice on a higher-end PC) or by simply using a lot of environmental effects. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, especially if it were a detailed model (it should really only be used for weapon models and the like), but in your case especially I do not think it's a good idea.

alright, makes sense.

Would adding a shadows to a rectangular prism object that is underground be that bad?
My specific issue is that there is a subterranean RHN complex and the directional sun lights it up. so it looks a little unnatural.
any suggestions?

I don't know how much help this can be, if at all, but I found this in the "ZeroEditor Guide" in the documentation folder, under "Regions Edit Mode:"

The Docs wrote:Shadow Regions apply lighting properties different from those of the outdoor world. This basically blocks the sun virtually because the sun and ambient light pass through objects and a solution for blocking light in addition to lighting is needed.

Or is this what Speck was talking about, that it doesn't affect world objects?

Maveritchell wrote:If you want (although it is not recommended) to add shadows for any world object without recreating the mesh, you can use the .msh.option parameter -hiresshadow.

wow many thanks Mav this be very useful for me because don't know add shadow in xsi so now all my weapons have shadows

are you shure -highresshadow works for weapons?
it doesnt work for meeleweapons as far as i know

DarthD.U.C.K. wrote:are you shure -highresshadow works for weapons?
it doesnt work for meeleweapons as far as i know

in my case for gun weapons work fine for example blaster rifle

@a_speck_of_dust just thinking about you wanting to kill the light in one area by shadow volumes.
Just trying to think if there is any good sized flat wall objects kind of things, perhaps the invisible columns, that you could go in and hexedit the name to sv_somenamesofequallength
in the case of the columns hexedit the primitive collision name from p_16ed to sv_6ed (this is for com_inv_col_16.msh from the common/msh folder). You would also need and .option file with
-nocollision as it's contents to stop munge from creating one. Just a thought.

@DEVISS-REX adding shadow volume in xsi is very simple, easiest way is to take your original model mesh, duplicate it, poly reduce it, scale it slightly smaller than the original, (very important for props and buildings as you will get the dreaded Z beating thing in game if you don't) then just put sv_ infront of the duplicated model and export. Don't need to hide it as the game will do it for you.

FragMe! wrote:@DEVISS-REX adding shadow volume in xsi is very simple, easiest way is to take your original model mesh, duplicate it, poly reduce it, scale it slightly smaller than the original, (very important for props and buildings as you will get the dreaded Z beating thing in game if you don't) then just put sv_ infront of the duplicated model and export. Don't need to hide it as the game will do it for you.

wow many thanks work perfect i didn't know was easy XD but this is normal into mungelog?
WARNING[PC_modelmunge msh\Weaps\rep_weap_dc15a.msh]:_CreateShadowMesh(bone:hp_active,lod:0): ignoring duplicate tri 566,521,452
WARNING[PC_modelmunge msh\Weaps\rep_weap_dc15a.msh]:_CreateShadowMesh(bone:hp_active,lod:0): ignoring duplicate tri 566,567,520
WARNING[PC_modelmunge msh\Weaps\rep_weap_dc15a.msh]:_CreateShadowMesh(bone:hp_active,lod:0): ignoring duplicate tri 521,520,453
WARNING[PC_modelmunge msh\Weaps\rep_weap_dc15a.msh]:_CreateShadowMesh(bone:hp_active,lod:0): ignoring duplicate tri 520,567,450

did you remove your .option file? It looks like it is trying to create a shadow for the hp_active.
Those won't crash a map btw, but they are normally caused by extra polies that didn't filter properly. Oh other thing is the shadow mesh shouldn't have any openings or holes.

FragMe! wrote:did you remove your .option file? It looks like it is trying to create a shadow for the hp_active.
Those won't crash a map btw, but they are normally caused by extra polies that didn't filter properly. Oh other thing is the shadow mesh shouldn't have any openings or holes.

i removed .option file, and into xsi i am noob so well as first time i only duplicated the mesh (no reduced polygons) could to be that XD?