[bug]SubSurface Issues
by Logan Foster · in Torque 3D Professional · 12/10/2009 (12:07 pm) · 2 replies
Thanks to some information from Pat Wilson supplied in this thread I went and gave the the SubSurface stuff a quick test on a model that I had. While overall the effect seemed to load, it loaded with a serious flaw.
The problem is that the SubSurfaceColor is used to handle any and all shading that is done on the model as well as trying to simulate the Sub Surface Scattering (SSS). This means that any shadows that are self cast, recieved or caused by the lighting angle of the mesh will not display with what one would expect is the proper shadow color based on the lighting information supplied. Instead the shadow color will be based on the SubSurfaceColor that the user has defined in the material.cs datablock, which is obviously incorrrect.
Here is a sample that I think shows off the issue quite clearly:

As you can see on the lower leg of the models, Gideons shadow is blending in based on the SubSurfaceColor, but on the terrain around the legs its using the proper lighting color. So obviously something is completely messed up with the SubSurface calculations as this should a) never be happending and b) subSufcecolor should technicly only ever be used when exposed directly to the lighting and even then only on the thinnest area of the mesh.
The problem is that the SubSurfaceColor is used to handle any and all shading that is done on the model as well as trying to simulate the Sub Surface Scattering (SSS). This means that any shadows that are self cast, recieved or caused by the lighting angle of the mesh will not display with what one would expect is the proper shadow color based on the lighting information supplied. Instead the shadow color will be based on the SubSurfaceColor that the user has defined in the material.cs datablock, which is obviously incorrrect.
Here is a sample that I think shows off the issue quite clearly:

As you can see on the lower leg of the models, Gideons shadow is blending in based on the SubSurfaceColor, but on the terrain around the legs its using the proper lighting color. So obviously something is completely messed up with the SubSurface calculations as this should a) never be happending and b) subSufcecolor should technicly only ever be used when exposed directly to the lighting and even then only on the thinnest area of the mesh.
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Would you mine posting the steps you did to get the SSS effect on your models as a resource or something? Maybe someone could figure it out that way.