Beta 2 Bug: Terrain shadow rendering errors (Adv Lighting)
by Henry Todd · in Torque 3D Professional · 05/21/2009 (3:26 pm) · 12 replies
Large terrain created with higher-than-default (256) resolution heightmaps consistently produces seriously broken shadowing.
I've reported this previously, but I'm trying to get someone else to reproduce or confirm it. It's a significant rendering glitch.
Intel Q9650 @ 3ghz
nVidia 285
Here are a few screenshots. This first one was taken with Beta 2 just a moment ago with squareSize 8 and a 2048x2048 heightmap. You can clearly see that this small hill is casting 3 different shadows from the 1 light source in the level (the Sun). Also, each shadow is being cut off after a short distance. All of the light settings are within normal ranges, and work perfectly on smaller terrains. The terrain is also problematic to walk on at this scale.
Screenshot 1
On this one I decreased the squareSize to 4. With the 2048x2048 heightmap, that meant 8x8 km. Shadows are still doing the same thing, but at least the terrain is stable to walk on now.
Screenshot 2
A squareSize of 2 is the same.
I also tried a 1024x1024 resolution terrain at squaresize 8. Came out like this:
Screenshot 3
You can see that it's trying to render the right (kind of jagged) shadow in the background, but it also put in some large chunks of dark terrain which are facing the sun directly. You may want to increase shadowDistance on the Sun object to make it more obvious.
Squaresize 4, 1024x1024: A bit better, but not by much. Basically, anything higher res then TGE stock fails to produce accurate shadows.
I've reported this previously, but I'm trying to get someone else to reproduce or confirm it. It's a significant rendering glitch.
Intel Q9650 @ 3ghz
nVidia 285
Here are a few screenshots. This first one was taken with Beta 2 just a moment ago with squareSize 8 and a 2048x2048 heightmap. You can clearly see that this small hill is casting 3 different shadows from the 1 light source in the level (the Sun). Also, each shadow is being cut off after a short distance. All of the light settings are within normal ranges, and work perfectly on smaller terrains. The terrain is also problematic to walk on at this scale.
Screenshot 1
On this one I decreased the squareSize to 4. With the 2048x2048 heightmap, that meant 8x8 km. Shadows are still doing the same thing, but at least the terrain is stable to walk on now.
Screenshot 2
A squareSize of 2 is the same.
I also tried a 1024x1024 resolution terrain at squaresize 8. Came out like this:
Screenshot 3
You can see that it's trying to render the right (kind of jagged) shadow in the background, but it also put in some large chunks of dark terrain which are facing the sun directly. You may want to increase shadowDistance on the Sun object to make it more obvious.
Squaresize 4, 1024x1024: A bit better, but not by much. Basically, anything higher res then TGE stock fails to produce accurate shadows.
About the author
Recent Threads
#2
I'm looking for someone to actually load up a mission, create a random terrain with a resolution of 512x512 or higher, set the squareSize to 8, and get close to the terrain near a hill. You should see lots of random, dysfunctional terrain shadowing. Take a screenshot to provide some evidence.
If no one else can see this, then it must be a hardware-specific issue.
05/21/2009 (3:41 pm)
I've tried every possible combination of saving, rebuilding, loading a fresh copy of the beta, remerging all of my engine changes, every possible method of creating the terrain object, etc, etc.I'm looking for someone to actually load up a mission, create a random terrain with a resolution of 512x512 or higher, set the squareSize to 8, and get close to the terrain near a hill. You should see lots of random, dysfunctional terrain shadowing. Take a screenshot to provide some evidence.
If no one else can see this, then it must be a hardware-specific issue.
#3
05/21/2009 (3:55 pm)
Shadows being drawn where there should be none? I'd guess the terrain is re-calculating it's LOD levels when being drawn into the shadow buffer (different viewpoint), and large/denser terrains help to expose the problem.
#4
Actually seems to have gotten worse since Beta 1... the map I'd been working with previously, with squaresize 8 and resolution 256 (stock TGE terrain settings) is now also getting some bizarre shadowing artifacts.
05/21/2009 (4:06 pm)
Shadows where they shouldn't be in addition to shadows being cut off. Screenshot 2 shows that pretty clearly; that tall bulge of terrain's shadow just stops as though the top of the hill had been sliced off. It also has that ring of shadow all the way around, even on the sun-facing side.Actually seems to have gotten worse since Beta 1... the map I'd been working with previously, with squaresize 8 and resolution 256 (stock TGE terrain settings) is now also getting some bizarre shadowing artifacts.
#5
*edit:
I don't want to keep replying to myself, but just to be certain I reloaded Beta 1 and put in a 256x256 @ 8m terrain, modified it a bit, and flew around close enough to the surface to see shadows. There were no random shadow glitches. Obviously still fails with larger terrains. Beta 2 definitely made this issue worse.
05/21/2009 (4:33 pm)
I loaded up a stock copy of T3D Beta 2 to verify that this has nothing to do with my changes and confirmed that it performed identically, producing shadowed areas on terrain that should have been totally illuminated in the Warrior Camp level. I set the sun to directly overhead, but dark shadows persisted in several areas.*edit:
I don't want to keep replying to myself, but just to be certain I reloaded Beta 1 and put in a 256x256 @ 8m terrain, modified it a bit, and flew around close enough to the surface to see shadows. There were no random shadow glitches. Obviously still fails with larger terrains. Beta 2 definitely made this issue worse.
#6
Beta 1:
Beta 2:
05/22/2009 (2:28 pm)
This is 2 pictures of the exact same map, exact same settings. I even used the files from a stock Beta 1 project. The first picture is the Beta 1 mission run with the Beta 1 engine. The second is the Beta 1 mission run with the Beta 2 engine.Beta 1:
Beta 2:
#7
05/23/2009 (12:37 am)
Is there nothing on this? Because frankly, this completely makes Beta 2 useless for me visually, and a fix to this situation would be most appreciated.. 
#8
My Info:
AMD Opteron 165 (dual core)
2GB DDR400
8800GTX
Vista Ultimate x64
nVidia driver version 185.85 (released May 6, 2009)
05/23/2009 (12:43 am)
I've seen this as well, now. Definitely problems with the shadowing.My Info:
AMD Opteron 165 (dual core)
2GB DDR400
8800GTX
Vista Ultimate x64
nVidia driver version 185.85 (released May 6, 2009)
#9
05/23/2009 (1:08 am)
Try re-importing your hightmap. I imported a 1024x1024 earlier, and was surprised to find no blotchy shadows from it. I have not yet fully tested this theory, to be sure it was the hightmap. 
#10
05/24/2009 (6:30 pm)
I am seeing the same blotchy jagged shadows, tried to re-importing the heightmap with no luck 
#11
Core i7
3x 2GB Corsair DDR3 (tri channel)
GTX 280 @ 182.5 drivers
Vista Business 64
All options enabled beside the blur
EDITED: OK now they show up, but they didn't in Beta 1 and didn't in Beta 2 until a full rebuild of the libraries ...
05/24/2009 (6:52 pm)
Can't get them to show up.Core i7
3x 2GB Corsair DDR3 (tri channel)
GTX 280 @ 182.5 drivers
Vista Business 64
All options enabled beside the blur
EDITED: OK now they show up, but they didn't in Beta 1 and didn't in Beta 2 until a full rebuild of the libraries ...
#12
@Marc: I have no suggestions as i am unsure what 'them' is trying to stand for and have no further details by what would help.
05/24/2009 (7:29 pm)
@Kenneth Johnston: The problem have been expanded on in this thread. @Marc: I have no suggestions as i am unsure what 'them' is trying to stand for and have no further details by what would help.
Torque 3D Owner Chris Cain