LE Colored Translucent Shadows for stained glass windows

[dovapix]

Hi everyone,

 

I made a watch tower mod and i was disappoint to see that i cannot get Colored Translucent Shadows with NiAlphaproperty so i start to play with all the various alpha blending mode and nothing work.

 

http://i53.photobuck...zpsddyxdd0d.jpg

 

I also notice the beam light effect coming from the window and would it be possible to use stained glass texture as source to get colored light beam?

 

http://i53.photobuck...zpsgjibwviy.jpg

 

So there must be a way to fake it someways like we do in 3d software with image projector in shadow, i saw in CK when clicking preview when selecting a light that a setting call background texture is available but again the problem would be how to make it dynamic so it follow the directional light, probably via script.

 

There is also the possibility to use decal to project fake windows shadow.

 

Animated texture could also do the trick by adjusting each UV coordinates to match the position of the directional light on ground.

 

I know it is not related to the gamebryo engine but the unreal engine have some good info here on how to approach Colored Translucent Shadows: https://docs.unreale...mass/index.html

 

Just starting a discussion so maybe with collaboration from others we can get a working solution for Skyrim.

[FrankFamily]

So you want something like this and this? Would be awesome, but afaik no way to do that properly, skyrim is old and It's not like you can easily make the engine to do stuff it doesn't do already...

 

I'd say make a custom beam mesh with the colors for your window and a decal with some glow and/or transparency (not sure if you can actually have both, glow has some shader incompatibilities) for the colored ground effect. You'd have to make them for each window if different though.

[dovapix]

So you want something like this and this? Would be awesome, but afaik no way to do that properly, skyrim is old and It's not like you can easily make the engine to do stuff it doesn't do already...

 

I'd say make a custom beam mesh with the colors for your window and a decal with some glow and/or transparency (not sure if you can actually have both, glow has some shader incompatibilities) for the colored ground effect. You'd have to make them for each window if different though.

 

Hi Frank,

 

Yes that the way i would like to have it but i knew that the gamebryo engine is starting to be a museum thing and i was more after some dirty tricks to get the job done and i think i found a way to do it.

 

Since i know how to animate in Nifskope i will try to position a decal with proper texture to match the position of the sun directional light, this is going to be easier than i first thought since the way the sun system is moving in a jerky way.

 

One decal would be required for each shadow position. I will need to have a way to match it perfectly with the time of day so i can make it invisible for the next phase. A script will be required for this behavior.

 

I am planning to do this for a enhanced Whiterun mod i am currently finishing, it is only going to appear in Dragonreach porch.

 

For the beam i thought i could put a texture in a spotlight but it doesn't seem possible in gamebryo, making the colored beam is possible and will also need to be animated to match the directional sun light, i wonder if it would be possible to link something to this main directional sunlight since i tried to see if i could locate the light in Whiterun origin and i saw only light bulb for torch?

 

The only thing i am not sure is the invisibility fade in and fade out since i don't think there is a controller to do it in Nifskope but i will check since i am not a 100% sure.

 

The animation will be a bit tricky to do since i will have to constantly redo each frames until it match the sun light shadow perfectly but it is doable at least.

 

Well at least we have a starting idea here and i will post images as soon as i start testing it.

 

Regards Peter

Edited August 24, 2016 by dovapix