BadPenney Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 I didn't pick up on the fact that you were doing this for cinematography effects. Anything goes then. I've taken a number of liberties with actual gameplay for my videos, as well. :thumbsup: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackpack Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 how exactly are you doing this. can you place a ball & then the light you made behind it & it will cast a shadow of the ball?. it looks like it will be a lot of work if you wanted to ad it to a complete room full of clutter & hence produce shadows for everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony the Wookie Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 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. I plan on trying this out when I start working on the interior of my town, I think some unique lighting and shadows could really help add to the overall atmosphere if done right. The only thing I am not sure about is rooms with windows and such, since outside light would have a big affect on the lighting and shadows Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leadpipe Posted July 24, 2009 Share Posted July 24, 2009 I have to say "Wow!" I, myself, have noticed some of the ... quirks, shall we say... of how Fallout lights things and I'm impressed with your initiative and ability to pull off this solution. I'm glad that it works for your purposes, but I'm kinda bummed that your solution won't work for mine. Though it has (and you must excuse the pun) shed some light on the nature of it, so thanks for your inadvertently useful mod. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyCreo Posted July 24, 2009 Author Share Posted July 24, 2009 how exactly are you doing this. can you place a ball & then the light you made behind it & it will cast a shadow of the ball?. it looks like it will be a lot of work if you wanted to ad it to a complete room full of clutter & hence produce shadows for everything. No, unfortunately not. The solution is a very crude one. I'm using a single, flat, square mesh, which I then apply texture sets to in the GECK. The texture is that which draws the shadow. The flat mesh is then placed in the level using the GECK, as close to the floor as possible. So the shadows can only be drawn on floors, walls and ceilings. I'm basically handpainting all of the shadows, as if I was drawing a picture. :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiTo1337 Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 Are you really going to have 3 lightsources or more behind the fence? if so you should really have 3 or more shadows on the ground, and if you're only having one light, you need to think of the angles, particularly that shadows become "longer" at the top (or bottom, depending on where your light is). As it is now, I don't really find it very "realistic" (in lack of a better word). It looks nice for being fallout. But if you, as you say, want it for a movie and therefor are making them, this is imo something you should think more about. Sorry for the negative energy :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyCreo Posted July 25, 2009 Author Share Posted July 25, 2009 You're right. Only, I have my hands full as it is, and if all the shadows had to be made that realistic, it would take forever. But some of the important ones, I might put a bit more work into. Right now, I'm just trying to work out the kinks of the general method I'll be using. I still have one problem. That is, when I stack multiple shadows on top of each other, there are some ugly clipping issues. I'll post a screenshot. Maybe someone know of a solution to it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommyCreo Posted July 25, 2009 Author Share Posted July 25, 2009 Here. As you see, from certain angles, there aren't any problems. In the lower left shot, the two shadows are overlaying perfectly fine. In the other shot, however, the top shadow messes with the lower shadow. I guess it's a problem with the mesh. But what can I do to fix it? http://www.fallout3nexus.com/imageshare/images/373285-1248481507.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skree000 Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 thats solved by playing with the alpha sorting and/or depth bias. in nifskope, look in the details window of the blocks, one should be an alphaproperty block, its prolly in there. The white flag icon with a number on it, double click the white flag. That opens up your flags for the alpha properties. Alpha test values allow you to enable or dial up or down the threshold of the transparency or alpha of your texture. Try playing around with those. Also look for Depthbias or something worded similar. be aware though that this will take a lot of jumping back and forth to determin whether or not it worked. There are many many values to play with. Ideally i would merge 2 alpha planes together as one object, slightly next to eachother. When you try out one way, double click to see it in the geck preview, if it looks good there, chances are strong it will look good in game. Dont trust Nifskopes renderer, it doesnt draw things in the same way the D3d ingame renderer does. The 'greater than' 'less than' etc terms refer to things like draw order, using simple equations to determine in which cases the alpha will be blended, or in which cases it will overwrite/overlap others visually. I havent exactly played around with those values enough to figure out how it all works in nifskope, but in every other engine, editor and 3d program, your Alpha Test and Depth test/bias control whether or not alpha surfaces can occlude eachother or be transparent, etc. (Also check Alpha-Sort, or any kind of reference to "Sorting". ) laymans terms:Basically you need to instruct Nifskope that the surface in question is to act as a 'multiply' operation, instead of a standard substitution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BadPenney Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 I ran into that problem when making graffiti. Even though the edges of the .dds appear transparent and show the object behind them, they would not allow another partially transparent .dds to show through. I either had to prevent their edges from overlapping, or combine two images that would have overlapped into one image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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