Synapsys new lighting pack

#41

Quote:
Also 3ds objects cast nice shadows as well.. :)

Really? Very cool =)

#42 So the way I understand this, in a nut-shell, is now dts objects can FINALY cast shadows. Is there a simple toggle to allow turning this on/off? E.G. If the dts is a power-up item, it will look very silly to have the item disapear while the shadow still stays behind!

I guess I can turn this off by not using a collision mesh right?

#43 Hi Tony,

Only static DTS objects with a collision mesh will cast shadows.


Kevin,

I thought that 'relight' bypassed the caching mechanism. I'll look into that tonight, how old is your Torque snapshot?


Beffy,

Glad it's working now. Again - very cool mailbox.


Matthew,

Indeed!

#44 Latest head.. i updated it friday

#45 Cool, I'll look into why that's happening.

#46 Hi Kevin,

I just wanted to get some more information from you:

-What platform are you on (win32, linux, mac)?
-Are the light calculations happening at all (is it taking a second or does it immediately return)?
-What are the exact steps that cause this issue to occur?

I get it to work every time, but then again I generally follow the same pattern while I'm working in Torque, so thats not really surprising. :)

Let me tell you the steps I followed and let me know if I should try something different.

-Launch Torque.
-Launch mission (I've been testing in the demo 1.2 mission).
-Find a patch of available terrain.
-F11 into the editor.
-Select 'World Editor Creator'.
-Select 'Static Shapes/starter.fps/data/Shapes/Trees/tree2'.
-Select 'Relight Scene'.

Then the shadows are cast and the mission hasn't even been saved, if I exit out without saving I can reload the mission and it will not have the object, but the shadow will still be there (until I relight again).

Thanks!

-John

#47 John, thanks for all the time you spent tracking this down but
its not that big of a deal.In fact i havent seen this behavior since the first night -
and ive been playing with this almost 24/7 since i got it
and if it does happen again its really nothing just to move something else and relight.

#48 Hi Kevin,

Ok, but if you see this issue again please let me know (try to send me the steps to reproduce it too).

Thanks!

Btw: There's a Lighting Pack update coming up that adds better support for sunlight on statics, a few fixes, and updated docs. I wanted to give you a little teaser, because I think it looks fantastic:


-John

#49 Very, very cool :)

#50 I too will be buying the lighting pack (next paycheck, financial aid?) Its sooo worth the $50 to get the light unclamped from, as I understand it, the material's color? Then And besides, here's someone from the GG comunitty who put in time, effort, blood and tears, and completely DESERVES a bit o cash...

my .02

-s

#51 Is that self shadowing on that tree in the foreground or are my eyes playing tricks on me?

#52 Hi guys,

Thanks! I'm really excited about this update, the static dts changes make a significant difference in outdoor scenes. I'll try to whip up an outdoor demo mission to show off the changes.

Kevin,

I think it's the object's placement that make it seem like self-shadowing. The changes made prevent a static's shadow from interfering with its lighting information, this prevents some objects from appearing dark.

-John

#53 John, the lighting pack is awesome. I love it! Very happy with it... But I hate to say I'm having the same problems as Stefan. Here's a screenshot:


As you can see, the first tree is shadowing properly, but the second one I added isn't. I've been trying all things tonight, like moving stuff around, relighting, adding the tree, turning ReceiveMLLighting on and off, etc. But no dice, I can't seem to reproduce it.

But I'm pretty tired right now. I can try again later.

(And yeah, the first tree is darker due to the bug John mentioned about static objects darkening as they fall into their own shadow...)

#54 Hi David,

Can you reproduce this frequently? If so I'll send you an email with debug statements that will capture the static objects as the scene relights, we should be able to see when the objects are missed.

Also can you see if the mission continues to have this issue when you re-launch Torque - but please do not move any of the objects. If it's still happening send me your full unchanged mission including all objects. I would love to run this in the debugger.

Thanks!

-John

#55 "I've got to say that I was quite impressed with how much better the lighting looked in Trajectory Zone."

How about a before and after shot? :-)

#56 www.garagegames.com/mg/snapshot/view.php?qid=759