Hi all,
I've been trying to get the lighting right on a sniping position that's lit from beneath by a bright floodlight. The idea is that if a sniper is standing up on the corner of this tall structure in order to snipe, the floodlight will catch him nicely and cast a long shadow against the even-taller wall that's right behind the structure (and behind the sniper too).
For a while I couldn't figure out why no shadows were being cast at all when I was testing on my own. Then I tried a taunt, and I could see in the third-person view that the shadow _was_ being cast -- at a completely unnatural angle downwards from the sniper, onto the structure's floor instead of the tall wall behind it.
I'm assuming that this is because I've set the angle on my shadow_control entity appropriate for making shadows from the sun in general, e.g. for players running around on the ground. The level is interior, but shadows should be cast from the natural light coming through the windows, so the angle according to the sun's position is necessary. However, the centre of the level is a bit darker and the floodlights are meant to create a cool visual effect here.
Is there any way to have my cake and eat it too? Can I have shadows acting normally for players generally, but also get nice shadows cast against the wall from my strong floodlight?
Having read up on Source's dynamic shadows system at http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Intermediate_Lighting, I suspect the answer is: no?
Cheers,
Mokagogo
I've been trying to get the lighting right on a sniping position that's lit from beneath by a bright floodlight. The idea is that if a sniper is standing up on the corner of this tall structure in order to snipe, the floodlight will catch him nicely and cast a long shadow against the even-taller wall that's right behind the structure (and behind the sniper too).
For a while I couldn't figure out why no shadows were being cast at all when I was testing on my own. Then I tried a taunt, and I could see in the third-person view that the shadow _was_ being cast -- at a completely unnatural angle downwards from the sniper, onto the structure's floor instead of the tall wall behind it.
I'm assuming that this is because I've set the angle on my shadow_control entity appropriate for making shadows from the sun in general, e.g. for players running around on the ground. The level is interior, but shadows should be cast from the natural light coming through the windows, so the angle according to the sun's position is necessary. However, the centre of the level is a bit darker and the floodlights are meant to create a cool visual effect here.
Is there any way to have my cake and eat it too? Can I have shadows acting normally for players generally, but also get nice shadows cast against the wall from my strong floodlight?
Having read up on Source's dynamic shadows system at http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Intermediate_Lighting, I suspect the answer is: no?
Cheers,
Mokagogo