The Miracle of Shadows

[TommyCreo]

Lately, I've been creating the sets for my upcoming Machinima, In Search of Eden, and whilst doing so, I grew ever more frustrated with the fact, that no objects in Fallout 3 cast shadows. None! Not even walls! My modding skills are quite limited, so I've only been able to come up with one crude solution for this: To create a decal (like blood splatters), that act as shadows. This method has both ups and downs to it:

 

Ups

1. Nice soft shadows with little to no performance impact.

2. Well, it's better than no shadows at all I guess.

 

Downs

1. Lightsources, including the pipboy light, wount light up the shadow. But just place the static lights properly, and make the level bright enough, so the pipboy light wount be necessary.

2. A custom shadow must be built for each object. Some recycling may be possible though.

3. Shadows have to be hand placed every time.

 

A shadow is quickly created in photoshop though, and they are easily placed in the world, so if you really want to built a good looking interior with great lighting, it's worth the trouble in my opinion. I could turn this into a sort of modders ressource, if you guys would be interested. This would basically be for those people that like to create interiors with great lighting for their mods. What do you say?

 

Here is a screenshot of the first shadow I created. What do you think?

 

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/imageshare/images/373285-1248291339.jpg

[jackpack]

thats brillant.

 

i love the way the fence looks casting, brillant. adds a hole new sence of atmosephere.

 

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[Tony the Wookie]

I think I may just do that when I get to the interior of my town, I really like playing around with lighting in Max, but havn't tried it in Fallout though

 

But lighting can make or break a scene, and lighting with no shadows is a bit akward

 

but I won't be getting to that for another couple of weeks

[ITOS]

As a decal, I supposed the shadow won't display on things that gets moved around?

 

Anyway, very interesting and definitely better than nothing. Shadows are one of the things I really expect from my games these days so Fallout feels weird to me sometimes.

[TommyCreo]

As a decal, I supposed the shadow won't display on things that gets moved around?

 

Yeah, that's another shortcoming of this method. But yeah, better than nothing. And I agree with you guys. The lack of shadows are a damn shame. Considering how well Fallout 3 interiors run on a modern machine, I'm surprised that Bethesda chose not to implement shadows to some degree.

 

Let's just hope their next game has them. :biggrin:

[TommyCreo]

A small update. I'm a noob at NiFSkope, but I managed to copy the block that contained the "texture alpha channel properties" from one nif file to another, so now I have a good mesh to use for the shadows.

 

In this shot you can see some lightsources eliminate the shadow. However, once again, this had to be created manualy in Photoshop. It was easily done though. In the shot below, you see an example of a very simple shadow, that can easily be recycled for a number of objects without any changes required.

 

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/imageshare/images/373285-1248450223.jpg

 

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/imageshare/images/373285-1248450304.jpg

[eldiabs]

Very creative use of decals.

[BadPenney]

It is a clever bit of scenery. Your assertion that you have a solution to "a serious problem" is really just an expression of your viewpoint. It obviously seriously annoys you, but I had not even really noticed the lack of cast shadows by static objects. It is just one of many characteristics of Fallout that need to be overlooked in order to suspend disbelief. I have noticed shadows cast by NPCs, and I would definitely notice a shadow that wouldn't disappear when a flashlight is shined upon it.

 

The fact that I have to select preset typed phrases to NPCs rather than just talk aloud is far more immersion breaking to me. But then, I won't really be satisfied until there is a matrix-like immersion into RPGs. Anything less than a totally real appearing environment is just a matter of degree, IMO. I am still pleased by the advances of game realism that I have seen since I began playing them.

 

I do admire your attempt to create more realism. Cast shadows that track with the position of the sun and the moon would be nice.

[TommyCreo]

Thank you. :happy:

 

Here is the first wall shadow I've made, and it turned out pretty good I think.

 

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/imageshare/images/373285-1248455957.jpg

[TommyCreo]

Your assertion that you have a solution to "a serious problem" is really just an expression of your viewpoint. It obviously seriously annoys you, but I had not even really noticed the lack of cast shadows by static objects.

 

Yeah, I see what you mean. This is propably something alot of people haven't really noticed. Neither did I at first. However, I think that it is something the eye notices on a subconscious level, with the result, that you find it a bit harder to believe the game world is real.

 

But then again, the reason I'm doing this, is that I am very particular about the visual presentation of my movie, and I want everything to be as good looking as possible. I imagine alot of people wount have the patience to hand place every shadow in their own levels though.

 

But if someone would like to use these shadows in a mod of their own, they will be more than welcome to.