surfaceparm trans

(darthzappa) #1

whats the difference between surfaceparm trans and surfaceparm nonopaque?

i’m trying to create terrain that is ‘transparent’ to the lightgrid so that player and vehicle models dont get darkened as they wander along hills. my idea was to make terrain that appeared normal to the player but wasnt causing the lightgrid to darken in sloped areas where it samples underneath.

this is a large outdoor desert map (tatooine, game is Jedi Academy) lit with a noon sun using q3_sunExt. I’m not concerned with shadows cast by the terrain since its lit from directly above.

i think i need to make a ‘fake transparent’ terrain and caulk for the ground that is invisible to the lightgrid but looks normal to the players.

will this work?

(darthzappa) #2

oh one other thing - i still want buildings and models to cast shadows on the terrain… (theres some bridge type structures, there should be a shadow under those)

(darthzappa) #3

i got this to work shortly after i posted this - here’s how

i made a custom ‘ground caulk’ that contained both surfaceparm trans and surfaceparm nonopaque (still dont know what the difference is)
i also added those same two surfaceparms to my base terrain shader. the lightmapped shadows still apply to the terrain but the lightgrid is constant in all the outdoor areas now.

(The5thHorsemen) #4

I totaly forgot all about surfaceparm nonopaque ,

(ratty redemption) #5

@obsidian, nonopaque doesn`t appear to be in your q3map2 manual, do you want to add it to the raven appendix? …I too would like to know what this command does.

(Fracman) #6

Darkzappa, could your perhaps post a few screenshots? Would be nice :slight_smile: