Shadows (namely jeep/jalopy).

fug's Obsidian clips · Post by **fug4life** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 2:58 pm

A new day a new problem put to the public domain to be solved.

So I have a huge lovely displacement box map, fine. I decided to dig under the map and make a network of tunnels, fine. So basicallly the skybox textured floor sits idk 64 units under my displacements (I always allow a small void). Then I have a vertical shaft that drops down from displacment level, through the skybox floor and then makes a 90 turn so its all nice and hint brushed, fine.

My fatal error I think is (And this wouldn't be the first time I've made this mapping error) that I haven't dropped low enough down away from the bottom of the main map (skybox floor), Which causes the shadows of the jeep/jalopy to show in my tunnels (mostly on the ceiling but also walls).

Now before I drop the whole of my tunnel network further down away from the skybox floor ( And I'm not sure if this will help, but I can certainly thicken the the skybox floor brush and the ceiling brushes of my tunnels). Can anyone thick of another way???

And before you mention a block light brush, I added a 4unit thick brush blocking light sat on the floor of my main map sky box brush in the void between that and the displacement.

Just to check to use block light its a world geo brush not tied and textured on all faces right?

So anything else? Or drop the tunnel network lower and thicken the ceiling and floor brushes (which apart from spending 30 mins selecting everything will just mean my ladderand vertical shaft will be twice as long).

Tysn · Post by **Tysn** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 7:50 pm

You could use an info_no_dynamic_shadow to prevent this. It basically works like a cubemap except the selected faces will not show any dynamic shadows.

fug's Obsidian clips · Post by **fug4life** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 7:53 pm

Oh wow thank you very much, a new entity for me to discover.

Thanks again.

Blues · Post by **Blues** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:14 pm

But then the faces won't even show player shadows.... right?

Tysn · Post by **Tysn** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:22 pm

Right, but I doubt people would even notice if it's not for too long and the environment is "busy" enough (dramatic lighting, trash piles/rocks etc.)

fug's Obsidian clips · Post by **fug4life** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 8:28 pm

The tunnels are narrow and there's not much of them and I've packed the tunnels with penty of eye candy, because well, given the huge box that is the rest of the map the tunnels are the one optimised place I could go abit overboard and fill with plenty of stuff.

Player shadows are a small sacrifice, especially when you see jeep and jalopy shadows everywhere.

fug's Obsidian clips · Post by **fug4life** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 6:41 pm

Thanks this method works great.

One other problem that's proped up that you guys might know about, has anyone had trouble getting the buggy (as a prop_vehicle_jeep or jeep_epicodic) to spawn on a point_template? My charger spawns fine whilst my buggy does not. I think maybe I need to move the buggy or the template about as I cant figure why not, I've been over and over and the whole setup I have is true to how I have my charger spawning.

Weird.

fug's Obsidian clips · Post by **fug4life** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:00 pm

Solved the last thing I mentioned.

Blues · Post by **Blues** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 9:57 pm

How?

fug's Obsidian clips · Post by **fug4life** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:41 am

My own fault, The filtered trigger I was using I forgot to uncheck clients and check physics objects. Its one of those where you tire of looking and compiling and soon as you post the problem you find it.

Next my last compile last night had some VectorHash error, got to see what thats all about. Luckily I got the last couple of vmfs saved and I didnt do any real mayjor changes so I should be able to sort it out.

The rollercoater that is hammer!