Um, shadows in Basic Lighting?

#1 The scene/self shadowing is the most resource-intensive feature in AL. Of course it isn't enabled in BL. There's a simple decal-based projected shadow, that projects on the collision geometry and only shows up when the camera is close enough.

#2 Thanks for the reply.

Right, so what settings do I need to change to get projected shadows?

I've tried changing the "shadow type" of the sun, but the setting won't change... it seems to be locked in to "PSSM".

Also, when you say "projects on the collision geometry", do you mean that only the collision geometry will cast shadows... like in old TGE shapes?

#3 Players cast projected decal shadow - that's it, not static objects. Real time shadows are Advanced Lighting only, they're the thing which eats performance.

#4 Thanks Steve.

So what I'm hearing is, the answer is no. No shadows to/from static shapes unless I use real time shadows in AL, which, yes I understand, is very intensive. I guess I was hoping for some kind of baked-in lighting solution.

So now that DIF is deprecated, this shouldn't-even-be-called-basic-because-it's-pretty-advanced Lighting doesn't support any shadows to/from any objects, including buildings/interiors?

I'd like to cast a vote that DIF lightmaps get reinstated until there is a replacement for the still-useful format.

#5

Quote:baked-in lighting solution

That'd be PureLight, then.

#6 Technicly you don't have to use PureLight to do lightmaps, but using it is infinately easier and more productive than any other solution that you will find on the market for Torque3D or other game engines(including LightMass from Unreal or even Beast from Turtle).

I HIGHLY recommend an investment in PureLight as soon as possible if you are at all serious about making games with Torque3D.

#7 Why can't we just have baked shadows in basic lighting (DTS and DIF) for T3D like we had for TGEA? (Not sure if TGEA had baked shadows for DTS, I always used DIF - but now in T3D I am purely DTS.)

Seems a little irkesome that we have to spend more cash to get baked static shadows back.

#8 A simple Google search should allay your fears:
www.frecle.net/index.php?show=giles.about (Metal Drift is using this one)
www.qeradiant.com/cgi-bin/trac.cgi (Radiant is classic.)

And there are many more.

With so many free solutions, as well as high-quality solutions like pureLIGHT, there is really no need to re-invent the wheel and build a light-mapper into Torque.

#9 Also you can bake lightmaps with Blender, though I don't think that the current exporter can export multi-UV channels, and I've not tried exporting as Collada yet - waiting for braver, more knowledgeable souls to go forth on that one.

I've used Blender's baking for Ambient Occlusion on some models, and fire it into T3D via the material's detail texture, works quite nice.

#10 This is just a thanks to GG - I guess maybe my vote counted for something, because DIF Lightmaps are in fact re-instated in T3D 1.0.

See? Sometimes they do pay attention to the customers. :)

#11 @Dave - T3D still does lightmaps on terrain from TSStatics.

And yes we fixed the bug in beta 5 which disabled DIF lightmaps.

But T3D will not have an internal lightmap solution for arbitrary meshes for the reasons Pat and others cited.