Deferred Shadows, possible to set per object tolerance?
by Joshua Halls (Xerves) · in Torque 3D Professional · 11/12/2009 (6:39 pm) · 2 replies
Right now there is a raw distance value on the sky object. If you set it low you tend to get slightly better performance since it doesn't have to draw the shadows further out, but you have issues with larger buildings, terrain, etc. Would it be possible to set a tolerance value on some objects to have them stop rendering shadows after a certain distance? Character models typically are not going to project very far and from the best I can tell it will draw anything in 360 degrees as long as it is in that range. Would be a nice performance boost if setup properly.
--Josh
--Josh
About the author
Part of the team that works on The Repopulation, a SciFi based MMO using a heavily modified version of the Torque MMO Kit - T3D. I also take care of the T3D version of the Torque MMO Kit.
#2
11/13/2009 (5:28 pm)
@Tom: Sounds like a plan. Was looking for more of a quick and dirty fix, but we will try to start throwing that into our model prep. 
Associate Tom Spilman
Sickhead Games
We should be using the existing model LOD system to do that.
At the very moment you can create a second LOD for your model that has a material that is set to not cast shadows.
You absolutely should be using LODs on your models unless your game is of small scale where nothing ever gets very far from the camera. This helps the performance overall... not just in shadows.