Shadow Question

[Sithspecter]

I've developed an annoying problem lately, the shadows in my area aren't appearing correctly. The work only at seemingly certain heights, but when the shadow goes below that height, the shadow cuts off. I have removed all the other models from my layout, tried using and not using a .vis, and I've rexported and moved my aurora light multiple times. If anyone can help me, or knows anything about this, I would be very grateful for your knowledge.

 

Here is a picture of what's going on.

[TriggerGod]

Isn't there some .vis or model that depicts where shadows go?

I remember hearing something about shadows..

[Papership]

I'm not a model pro. But it looks like the ledge he's standing by should be casting a shadow of its own, and the man's shadow is cuting off where the ledge's shadow would begin (if it existed). Maybe if you somehow made the ledge cast a shadow from the same light source, it would sort that problem.

 

Maybe it's nothing to do with the ledge, that's just how it looks to me.

 

[EDIT] Or, it's also possible that your shadows are always casting as a horizontal plane image, so when the character is on a slope, the shadow is cutting into the sloped ground until it finds a flat bit to map to. Is there a lightmesh? Or some kind of mesh that tells light where to fall?

 

OR (yes, more random ideas) you could raise your whole model by a couple of metres. Would that fix it?

 

Much love!

~Pap~

[TriggerGod]

I'm not a model pro. But it looks like the ledge he's standing by should be casting a shadow of its own, and the man's shadow is cuting off where the ledge's shadow would begin (if it existed). Maybe if you somehow made the ledge cast a shadow from the same light source, it would sort that problem.

 

Maybe it's nothing to do with the ledge, that's just how it looks to me.

 

Much love!

~Pap~

Your right, Pap. Looking at it, it does look like its the ramp's fault. I think its because the light source for the ramp is facing towards the lamps, while the source for the area after the ramp is correctly placed.

[glovemaster]

I'm unsure as to how the game renders shadows and whether or not it renders them relative to the model or the walkmesh but by the looks of it I am guessing its the walkmesh else, as pointed by paper, the ledge would have a shadow.

 

So perhaps its problem with the walkmesh? I suggest you walk around Tatooine desert and see what happens on slopes and general changes to altitude.

[Darth InSidious]

Shadows are handled by the .are file. You can switch them on or off there, and set the opacity, as well.

 

How this helps with your problem, SS, I have no idea - but hopefully there's a clue there.

[Sithspecter]

^I'll double check the .are file. It's worked before, but it must be something that I did...

 

@Pap: I don't think that it's the ramp, and right now area shadows/lightmaps in new areas aren't possible. The reason that I don't believe that it's the ramp is because the whole area with the exception of the top is missing shadows.