avoiding seeing player shadows through walls

Ezekel

L11: Posh Member
Dec 16, 2008
818
245
i've noticed this happen on some of the walls on offical maps like 2fort and hydro.

today i noticed it on one of my own maps.
it's something i want to avoid, as it allowed me to get an easy headshot as someone came round the corner. i read something about brushes less than 16 units causing players shadows and models to show through on the other side, but the wall in question is 16 units thick.

this is game breaking in my opinion, and something i'd want to avoid.
but since i've seen it on valve maps, i'm not sure if it's something they missed or just a nuance of source that has to be lived with and worked around.
 

TotalMark

L6: Sharp Member
Feb 13, 2008
331
78
You could try putting a clip brush in front of the wall, it would make the room smaller, but it wouldn't look like it. This is almost the same issue as player's weapons poking through the wall.

I've noticed this on Toy_fort, you can tell if someone's behind the giant doors.

If you don't like that, just make the walls thicker, TF2's style allows for a tad thicker walls. Remember 16 units is about a foot for TF2.
 
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Ezekel

L11: Posh Member
Dec 16, 2008
818
245
thanks mark.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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This can usually be avoided by changing around your light sources. It would be caused be a strange light angle, from below for instance, or a source from a fair distance that causes the shadow to be elongated.

Change some lights around to avoid such instances of shadows showing through the base/sides/ceilings of walls.
 

Ezekel

L11: Posh Member
Dec 16, 2008
818
245
well in this particular case, there's a wall that doesn't reach to the ceiling. the light source is directly above my head, and i'm about 800 units away from that wall i can see their shadow on. the wall is about 240 units tall. and them and me are the same height. the light source is about 1000-1200 above my head.
 

grazr

Old Man Mutant Ninja Turtle
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Mar 4, 2008
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Well it wont necasserily be that particular light, it might be from another source. Your player model can cast several shadows from different light sources.. i think. But i may be wrong on that one.

Do you think you could provide a screen shot? Perhaps indicat on the image where the light sources are if there are no props to do so already.
 

Gadget

aa
Mar 10, 2008
531
527
That's right, shadow_control defines the angle and distance of shadows for dynamic objects like players and props. So no matter what light sources you have, the shadows of those objects will all go in the same direction. That's kinda cheap coded solution but I guess it's better for performance to have those "simple" shadows.

Usually you have two choices: 1. adjust the shadow_control's pitch and yaw to the light_environment which gives you correct shadows for outdoor areas but might look strange indoors. 2. find a compromise between indoor and outdoor shadows...

That's what I do: give the shadow_control a pitch of 85 and adjust the yaw to the light_environment. This looks acceptable in most situations whether it's indoors or outdoors.

Please, correct me if I told some nonsense above.
 

Zeewier

L9: Fashionable Member
Sep 20, 2008
619
262
In L4D there are a lot of places with this bug :p But valve improved the shadows for l4d, and probably in tf2 soon ;)
 

Pocket

Half a Lambert is better than one.
aa
Nov 14, 2009
4,694
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Necro-posting here
So you admit it but you did it anyway? Hey, heads up, I'm gonna break into your house at night and graffiti your walls. It's OK as long as I acknowledge that I'm doing it!
 

tyler

aa
Sep 11, 2013
5,102
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Necroposting is fine if there is something useful to add or it's such a specific problem that it's worth bumping a thread. But this is from 2008... should have just made a new topic for your question, since it's really only tangentially related.
 

MoonFox

L10: Glamorous Member
Mar 17, 2015
739
74
in a lot of engines/editors: the golden human ratio is 32x96x32 (2x6x2 feet) only a foot is needed to act a solid barrier, one big enough to deny vision.