Overlapping shadows

[Cyanide300]

Is it possible to get dynamic shadows that do not overlap with other shadows? I've got several objects in a scene and it's obvious that the shadow from one object passes right through other objects and overlaps with their shadows.

[Snake]

The shadow from one object clips into the geometry of another object, or overlaps the shadow of another object causing a darker shadow?

For case number one, I have no idea, but if your shadows are simply overlapping you will want to mess around with your lighting a bit - maybe using more lights with a duller light to highlight and use a softer skylight.

[gamemasterjustin]

turn off the shodows on the lights you don't want to cast shadows from. I will some times do this to simulate bouncing light.

-game

[Cyanide300]

No, it's not a simple matter of turning off some lights. It's brought on by the fact that these objects use a very cheap shadowing method that I think is called "stencil shadowing". If, for example, if 2 objects are on screen, and object A is in front of object B, then the shadow of object A will be drawn right through object B as though object B does not even exist. The shadow is not culled at all. It simply overlaps and darkens a portion of object B's shadow, so that you can clearly see the complete outline of both shadows.

It looks fine when there's only a few objects, but when you have lots of dynamic objects in the same space, it looks terrible. I didn't see this behavior happening in all those fancy engine demos. So I think there must be a way to make the engine use a better shadowing technique.

[CrysAk]

if your trying to get dynamic shadowas not to overlap with lightmap shadows im not 100% sure if this is possible without some alteration to the way the engine renders light.

its probably best to either turn themboth dynamic or lightmap

sorry i cant help too much :( not too well educated in the renderer side of things :(

[Cyanide300]

No, they're both dynamic. I have multiple dynamic objects casting dynamic shadows, and each shadow overlaps with other dynamic shadows, even if there is an object (which is dynamic) in the way.

If this is the best shadowing the engine can do, I'm kind of disappointed.

[CrysAk]

check the staticmesh propeties, might be something in there ..

/me goes to test this

[CrysAk]

ok i just tested this and it behaves as it should from what i can see

1 light on 2 static meshs = 1 shadow (even if they overlap)
2 litghts on 2 static meshes = 2shadows that overlap the other lightsources shadow (as it should in real life)

unfortunatly this is a new PC and havntinstalled photoshop yet so no screens