Regarding Light Shafts

[smoallem16]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if there was a way to get light shafts to shine through my mesh without using an opacity.

Currently I have a lamp post and I want to place a point light with light shaft enabled in the center of where the light itself would be. I also have an emmisive on for the light as well. In the view port everything looks fine and the light shafts shine through but when I build and play the game the light shafts don't shine through.

Any suggestions?

[pulse0o0]

Is your point light dynamic? Otherwise you won't see it.

[Kaldrick]

I have other problem with light shafts. When my character turns back to the source of light (and shafts), the shafts stop rendering. Is there any way to make shafts correctly render behind a character?

[pulse0o0]

That is a problem with most engines there isn't a way to fix it unless you create your own post process effect of light shafts.

[smoallem16]

thank you for the clarification pulse. another question though if you by chance know it.

I know that dynamic lights are much more costly than static (especially the more objects in the scene it affects), but say that the radius of the dynamic point light is only affecting the lamp itself. would that still negatively affect performance substantially? or could I get away with it

[Piranhi]

The less objects a dynamic light is touching the less resources it will be using. You can change the view mode when you're in game to see the quality of performance with regards to a few factors.

Find out more here: http://udn.epicgames.com/Three/ViewModes.html

[smoallem16]

ok that makes sense. I'm setting up the lights right now to check how it hits me performance-wise. Thanks again for all the help guys!

[ambershee]

You can also use a static light to light the world, and use a dynamic light that doesn't affect any real channels to generate the lightshafts - a cheeky way of getting it without the expensive of using a dynamic light.

[smoallem16]

ambershee that worked perfectly. Thank you for the advice!