Light & Shadow Problem

[Dave Black]

You can remove the shadows on the ground, by selecting each light, and clicking the "include..." or "exclude..." button in your shadows catagory. This will bring up a window that will allow you to exclude objects from recieving shadows. The other way, is to simply select your ground, right-click on it to bring up the properties window, then turn off "recieve shadows" option.

Hope that helps. Let me know.

Is this for the new BF1942 mod? Look'n good so far, btw.

-3DZ

:D

[DracoNB]

yeah I tried to have it only include the engine part in the shadow effect, but the problem was is the engine was making the shadow on the ground, not the light, I think :shrug: . For now I'll just make the ground not effected by shadows, but that kinda bums me out because now there aren't shadows from anything on it :thumbsdow .

If anyone has a good idea on how to fix this without making the ground unable to recieve shadows I'd be very greatful!

Edit: And yes, these are all our models from the mod, even the ground (hoth) :)

[Dave Black]

That's impossible. The engine will not make a shadow without a light source. Try again. Check your settings.

-3DZ

:D

[DracoNB]

What I meant is that I need it to detect the engine as a shadow source, otherwise it goes through it and isn't stopped by the model.

[Dave Black]

You problem is basically stemming from using the glow effect. It's really not designed to do what you are trying to do with it.

Try using a particle system, a volume light, or use geometry to emit the glow instead of a light.

-3DZ

:D

[DracoNB]

it is a volume light, I'm not sure how to use particles for the effect as I've never used them before...all I end up is with some strange shapes :rolleyes:

[Dave Black]

Ok, then stop using omni lights. Swtch them over to free directs and it will stop making shadows on the floor plane.
It's basically because light is getting thrown in all directions.

You can then limit the scope of the light by adjusting it's attenuation.

Or, you could actually try the render effects dialog, and add your glow function to either some geometry, or your existing omnis.

-3DZ

:D

[Dave Black]

Wait a second. We just passed your original problem.

Let's think this through.

You have an omni light.

It has a volume light effect assigned to it.

It is casting shadows on the ground plane.

You are excluding ONLY that light ONLY from casting SHADOWS on the ground plane?

Also, are you using attenuation to limit the size of the effect? If so, that light should never reach the ground.

It should work.

-3DZ

:D

[DracoNB]

Yeah I know...thats what I thought too and I spent hours..and i mean HOURS trying to figure out what was causing the shadow and switching all the settings around wondering why it was showing up....

It is only a small effect and the light area only goes a little ways outside of the engine. I had it set to only cast onto the engine. But yet it STILL made a goddamn shadow on the ground. The part that boggles me though, is that the light itself is casting a shadow also, not just a shadow of the engine...if u look in the pic u can see a shadow of the light which makes no sense to me.

[Dave Black]

I've got it!

You've got a light set to cast atmospheric shadows.

It's probably a key light or something, but check them all.

Look for this switch in the shadows section of the light. That's what's causing your problem. Whew.

-3DZ

:D

[DracoNB]

lol...nope its off...I'll try using directs and see if I have the same problems.

[Dave Black]

This is craziness.

A volume light cannot cast shadows without this feature turned on. Period. You have to have some light in the scene to illuminate your objects. Like a spot or something? You know, like the key light?

Look?!!!!

[DracoNB]

Ugghh....maybe seeing everything will help ya out...

I'm going crazy because I know its probably some simple thing

Oh..and I have one huge light at the top of the scene (its the whole map so its huge) that is NOT CASTING SHADOWS...which is why there is only a shadow of the engine which made me realize it arg!

http://www.openmindcreations.com/bf/bfgc/ffs.jpg

[Dave Black]

Without actually personally looking at the scene, the only advice I can give you is that you have to use the process of ellimination.

Go to tools/lightlister. This will allow you to to quickly play with the setting of all the lights in the scene with one control panel.

Turn off each light. See what it does.

It's also possible you used instance to copy a light, and it's tripping you up.

There is a light in the scene casting atmosperic shadows. You just have to find it. You can send the scene here:

mail@3dzealot.com

and i'll take a look at work tomorrow. It's always something simple that screws us...hehe. We'l get it, man.

-3DZ

:D

[DracoNB]

Ha!!!! I found it!! :D It was one of the other lights in the scene, NOT one of the engines that had the atmosphere turned on..ugh!

Thank you so much, now I can finally work on this :bounce: :buttrock: :beer:

[Dave Black]

Oh thank God.

I knew it was another light than the engines...I knew it!

Dude, that's great news. Glad you got it all worked out.

Best of luck finishing up this image!

-3DZ

:D

[DracoNB]

Since its the same scene and all...I was checking out the shadows given by my main light and noticed that the standard map ones sucked...Ray tracing took forever, and adv race looked almost as good as ray tracing but took only about 10 seconds to render unlike the 5-10 mins of ray tracing which still never finished.

Is there anything bad about using adv. ray traced shadows?

Here are some renders:
Shadow Map:
http://www.openmindcreations.com/bf/bfgc/snowshadow_shadowmap.jpg
Area:
http://www.openmindcreations.com/bf/bfgc/snowshadow_area.jpg
Adv. Ray Traced:
http://www.openmindcreations.com/bf/bfgc/snowshadow_advray.jpg
Ray Traced:
http://www.openmindcreations.com/bf/bfgc/snowshadow_ray.jpg

Another Adv. Ray traced:
http://www.openmindcreations.com/bf/bfgc/advray.jpg

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