Dynamic Shadows
by KK (starcave) · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 08/02/2004 (11:57 am) · 2 replies
Hey,
Ive not had a chance to read up on much on the shader engine so forgive me if im asking a question answered elsewhere. It mentions in the list of features that dynamic shadows are supported, alowing- "models to self-shadow as well as cast shadows". When it says models
does it mean DTS or DIFF..?
Im basicly trying to find out if, with this shader engine shadows can be cast in real-time. For example imagine a scene at night containing a street with buildings, lamp-posts(that have a light source), a pile of crates in the centre of the street and a character walking up and down past the light-sources. Question-Will the characters shadow relate to the light sources as he/she moves about and if the pile of crates were to be moved would there shadows move aswell..? What about flickering shadows from say, a small fire..?
I downloaded the demo(movie file), which shows the character getting effected by the many light sources in the scene but not casting any shadows. Is this just because it is an early implimentation of the engine or will this be the best it gets?
Thanx, Phil.
Ive not had a chance to read up on much on the shader engine so forgive me if im asking a question answered elsewhere. It mentions in the list of features that dynamic shadows are supported, alowing- "models to self-shadow as well as cast shadows". When it says models
does it mean DTS or DIFF..?
Im basicly trying to find out if, with this shader engine shadows can be cast in real-time. For example imagine a scene at night containing a street with buildings, lamp-posts(that have a light source), a pile of crates in the centre of the street and a character walking up and down past the light-sources. Question-Will the characters shadow relate to the light sources as he/she moves about and if the pile of crates were to be moved would there shadows move aswell..? What about flickering shadows from say, a small fire..?
I downloaded the demo(movie file), which shows the character getting effected by the many light sources in the scene but not casting any shadows. Is this just because it is an early implimentation of the engine or will this be the best it gets?
Thanx, Phil.
#2
08/03/2004 (9:26 am)
AFAIK, there's no native shadow code in TSE. You'd have to write it yourself. But with the generic shader pipeline, you should be able to do just about anything you wanted -- dynamic shadowmapping, stencil shadows, etc. In fact, go look at today's IOTD (the gallery in the top right corner), you'll see where someone has implemented soft-edged shadowmaps in TSE already. 
Torque Owner KK (starcave)
Sorry bout that:)