strange shadow

(Massive) #1

Hi

I’m getting a wierd shadow over part of my map:-

[img=http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/3633/scr12jg.th.jpg]

& I can’t work out what it is?

The sun position is roughly where the point of view of the screenie is. The only thing between the ‘sun position’ and this show is a camera & info nullpoint (not in a light grid), could these cast a shadow. Also the shadow is about the same size and position as one of my lightgrid brushes, could it be something wront with lightgrid?
Thanks

Massive

(Higgins) #2

Maybe for some reason, the big church like building is giving off a shadow in the wrong place? I think ive had shadows in places they’er not ment to be. Try taking out the church, compile ther map and see if the shadow is still there just to be sure.

(kamikazee) #3

Sure all 6 sides of your lightgrid brush are actually covered with the lightgrid texture?

(Massive) #4

all 6 sides are lightgrid texture
I just moved the camera & recompilled - its not the camera that is doing this.

(Shaderman) #5

Why don’t you remove the lightgrid brush then to test if it’s the reason for this shadow?

(Massive) #6

-ok that’s in the next compile

and if it is? is there a remedy you know???

M

(Shaderman) #7

Not yet :smiley: Try to localize the problem first :slight_smile:

(Massive) #8

u tease…

(Shaderman) #9

I’m only trying to help (without any guarantee) :moo:

(Massive) #10

I know I know - I’m only playing…

Any ways…

I reduced the hight of the lightgrid brush (to v small) & in aposition that it could not cast any shadow etc - the shadow is still there same place same shape.

I’m checking anything else which could cause the shadow - looks like there’s a clip brush there, but it is clip texture ona ll sides.

any ideas?

M

(Massive) #11

OK

here’s my map without any brushes in the interior - only the hull brushes with sky on & a floor to see the shadow

[img=http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/5530/shadow3at.th.jpg]

This is what I get.

I’m using Ydnars sky from shaderlab_1337.

Also my hull is 16 sided not sqaare - could it me this?

Thanks

MAssive

(]UBC[ McNite) #12

Hm why is your hull 16-sided? I d really try a normal cubic one then. Nobody will notice the difference anyways, as I guess you ll clip the accessible or swimable area anyways a long way before a player reaches the skybox.

And, yea, as it seems you get several of those shadows its very likely that your oddly-shaped skybox is the source of evil here :smiley:

Looking at your map a huge cubic skybox won’t do you any harm, and you could even change the blocksize to something big in X-Y dimensions so you wont get lots of blocks without anything in them.

(Massive) #13

Yeah it was the evilly shaped hull. It’s 16 side cos I have a hill in the middle of the see & allthough the sea sky fade is pretty good the effect breaks down over distance - so 16 sides give an approximate circular, more believable hoizon (if you think about this problem you realise u also have to make the horizon work from different elevations).

I now solved it all (hopefully) by putting a sqaure caulk sky, but only going down to a certain point (determined by the highest elevation which a player can see the horison). On my test map this gave me only a v small shadow at the edge of the sea which I can live with.

Thanks for your helps…

M

(]UBC[ McNite) #14

allthough the sea sky fade is pretty good the effect breaks down over distance

iirc on Battery there s a fog with a distance of like 8000 to cover this

(Massive) #15

at range fog boarders go to defined surfaces & using a world fog didn’t achieve the effect )as well as the fps hit) e.g. I it looked good from high on the abbey walls at the top of the hill, it looked really bad - like in a sqare box) from low on the outside walls etc. For these reasons I gave up on the fog idea at quite an wearly stage. I think Ydnar’s shaderlab_1337 approach works quite well though.

Cheers

Massive

(Detoeni) #16

so 16 sides give an approximate circular

Not really as q3map2 will remove all brushes with the “sky” surface flag when it works out the lighting, for some reason this did not work in your map and you got shadows from the ones it missed.
Also they are not drawn in game, all you see is the sky portal instead. The only thing a “sky” brush does is define the volume that your map is in.

(Massive) #17

Yeah - ok you’re right. It’s the 16 sided sea reaching out to the alpha brushes that provides the horizon, not the sky hull.

But it used to … hounest… (e.g. the sea went to the hull & blended as on saberpeak etc)

M