Wintermute Engine Forum

Wintermute Engine => Technical forum => Topic started by: FogGobbler on May 24, 2007, 02:34:07 PM

Title: Shadow artefacts
Post by: FogGobbler on May 24, 2007, 02:34:07 PM

Hi!

My character looks okay, but the shadow has some nasty artefacts (stencil shadows) and the flat shadow is cut off. What´s wrong?

Thanks,
Oli
 

Title: Re: Shadow artefacts
Post by: Mnemonic on May 24, 2007, 02:41:54 PM

Are you combining stencil and flat shadows in the same scene? You shouldn't.

Title: Re: Shadow artefacts
Post by: FogGobbler on May 24, 2007, 05:36:48 PM

No, just stencil or just flat shadows. I tried using flat shadows to test things, but not mixing both together. It looks like a kind of artefacts-"ghost" next to the character. The shadow on the wall (wasn´t that a song  ? ;) ) seems to be correct, but when the character walks around, there are some artefacts visible. If I turn the shadows off, everything is okay.

Title: Re: Shadow artefacts
Post by: Mnemonic on May 24, 2007, 05:59:03 PM

Hm, well it shouldn't happen. Try moving the light source closer to the actor.

Title: Re: Shadow artefacts
Post by: FogGobbler on May 24, 2007, 06:27:16 PM

I´m using the "front" scene from the 3d-demo for testing things, so the light source should be okay, or am I wrong? My character is rather big and I have to scale it via actor-script down to 30. Could that have something to do with it?

Title: Re: Shadow artefacts
Post by: Orange Brat on May 24, 2007, 07:01:37 PM

Any chance you could post a screen grab of the problem(s)?

Title: Re: Shadow artefacts
Post by: FogGobbler on May 24, 2007, 08:09:31 PM

Here´s an image of my problem. See the odd artefacts on the side of the character.

(http://img490.imageshack.us/img490/617/problemip9.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)

Title: Re: Shadow artefacts
Post by: FogGobbler on May 24, 2007, 10:32:03 PM

When I turn the shadows off, the character ist okay, without strange artefacts.

(http://img393.imageshack.us/img393/500/noproblemub7.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)

Title: Re: Shadow artefacts
Post by: design3d on May 24, 2007, 11:14:55 PM

Hi FogGobbler
Does his head actually cast a shadow at all (it's hard to see it on the picture you've sent)? Could it be some hidden geometry bound to the character?

Title: Re: Shadow artefacts
Post by: FogGobbler on May 25, 2007, 10:24:17 AM

I think the head is missing in the shadow. But this artefacts-blob-thing looks a bit like the head. Very strange. I created the character with max and character studio, using biped. I´ve hidden the biped geometry, otherwise I can´t find any hidden geometry.

This happens when I use flat shadows.


(http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/7774/flatshadowproblemjp3.jpg) (http://imageshack.us)

Title: Re: Shadow artefacts
Post by: Mnemonic on May 25, 2007, 12:06:01 PM

Again, try moving the light source. It's either too far or too close to the character, probably too close, possibly even inside the character...?

Title: Re: Shadow artefacts
Post by: FogGobbler on May 29, 2007, 08:37:04 AM

Hmm, I tried that, but it didn´t work. I also tried a different scene that works fine with "trinity", but I still get these odd artefacts with my character.

Title: Re: Shadow artefacts
Post by: Mnemonic on May 29, 2007, 08:56:21 AM

Forget about trinity. Remember the light position is specified in character's coordinates, so for exmaple if your character is 100 units tall, you'll want to move the light to the height of 100+something.

Title: Re: Shadow artefacts
Post by: FogGobbler on May 29, 2007, 08:50:08 PM

Thanks for your time and help! It works now!

Again ... THANKS!!!!  :)  :)  :)

 ::beer cheers,
Oli