How did Pandemic do this..... ???

Lord-Bandu · Post by **Lord-Bandu** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 3:19 pm

Ok iv made loads of objects in xsi and there in game .

My problem is...

Shadow settings. In game my objects shadows only appear when the video settings for shadows is turned to full. If i turn to Low .... they disapear! . when off they also disapear (obviously)

My question is how do i go about setting the shadowvolumes so that the quality of them can be turned to low wihtout disapearing ?(and actualy lower in quality).

I can only think its somethin to do in XSI but not sure.

Maybe Rends, Saturn or L5R have had this problem?

*This is important because i suspect my map will have a bit of a hard time running on HIGH settings ,on lower end comps .....due to my models havin a few more polys that the shipped models

.... and i find lowering shadow quality is the best antidote to this ...while still retaining good gfx and stability

Rends · Post by **Rends** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 4:13 am

Bandu,
there is nothing wrong with your shadows.
In Game there are 3 Shadow Options: Off - Low - High
Off means no shadows at all
Low means no object shadow and very basic character shadows
High means real looking Object and character shadows

check the Screenies from the Bespin map!

Shadows OFF:

Shadows LOW:

Shadows HIGH:

The only thing you can try is burning shadows on the terrain in Zeroeditor. But it will only add a somewhat darker regions on the terrain and not on objects. But then it will appear in all shadow quality settings and i had some trouble not to get it into the correct sun direction while working at Abridon. And be carefull so far i know you can´t delete the burned terrian shadow once saved.

Lord-Bandu · Post by **Lord-Bandu** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 6:17 am

thanks.

i think i may redo some of my shadowvolumes to have less polys

Saturn_V · Post by **Saturn_V** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 11:00 am

I had problems with the Jai Nolan map, I put shadow volumes on just about everything, but they didn't need it and shouldn't have had them. And yeah, make them as low poly as you can, think about the light direction and the outline of the object. Start with a cube and add faces just where you need them. Consider if you actually need them at all. You'd see strong shadows on the outside of the capital ships as the are lit by a very strong light source - a star. Inside the ships, in a corridor with controlled, fairly even lighting the shadows may be very diffuse and can be ignored. Unless you were going for a particular "look" with strong shadows inside, I wouldn't worry about them.

Check the munge window, I think it reduces the polys in shadowvolumes if it can (it may be collisions I'm thinking of). I've definitely seen messages about reducing poly counts.

Lord-Bandu · Post by **Lord-Bandu** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:45 pm

ya ..... iv just thought i can put 1 big poly grid on the outside of the ship/map so to stop light gettin thro to the coridors. .

I may be wrong but i dont think lights (eg hothlight3) even cast shadows .

Saturn_V · Post by **Saturn_V** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:48 pm

i don't think the a poly grid will stop the main light in that way. and yeah, those lights don't cast shadows

Lord-Bandu · Post by **Lord-Bandu** » Fri Aug 05, 2005 12:59 pm

i dont see why it wouldnt work?

if my whole map/ship is surrounded by a shodowvolume (except for the windows ,hangar shield etc) itl stop the sun light casting shadows in my corridors and rooms .

do any lights cast shadows ? cos it does look kinda stupid with lights in my corridors but no shadows.