Players shadow can be seen throu wall

Open Blade

L420: High Member
Nov 30, 2007
439
34
I'm not sure if this is a new bug with the recent update because I thought I saw it listed on steampowered website as a bug but I am now noticing shadows of other players on walls when they are on the other side, but only on walls that are 8 units thick and ones where the direct sunlight is coming from. Walls that are 8 units thick with no direct sunlight are not having this problem.

Anybody else seen this and what's the fix? Hopefully it's not having to go through the entire map and use blocklight texture on brushes.

Thanks.
 

DJive

Cake or Death?
aa
Dec 20, 2007
1,465
741
make the walls/floors 16+ unites thick.


*not being a smart ass*
 

Open Blade

L420: High Member
Nov 30, 2007
439
34
make the walls/floors 16+ unites thick.


*not being a smart ass*

But you can't always do that. For example, the big windows on Badwater that you can jump through, that window frame is 4 units and with two of them placed together it looks like a full frame and outlines the windows perfectly. You can only achieve this with 8 unit thick walls, at least that's how they are on parts of badwater. I don't ever recall seeing those weird shadows while playing badwater and that map has plenty of walls 8 units thick.

And that doesn't explain why it's only the walls with direct sunlight (light_env) and the one's where the light angle is not directly on them, there are no shadows coming through the walls.

Still confused about this.
 

Open Blade

L420: High Member
Nov 30, 2007
439
34
Ok, so I found a wall on my map that is 16 units thick and I see the shadow of another player on the other side inside the building (we're testing).

So there goes the wall thickness thing out the window. It has to be something else. I checked the shadow control entity and everything looks fine (same settings as Badwater).

I can't think of what it could be. Thanks a million for any help.
 

Open Blade

L420: High Member
Nov 30, 2007
439
34
So a friend who maps tells me this is a source engine problem and happens on all games, even CSS and L4D. I recently turned my shadow settings to max to see if my card could handle it and that's when I noticed them.

But then, why would you only see shadows on certain walls on not others? Good god this is a tough one to figure out.
 

Open Blade

L420: High Member
Nov 30, 2007
439
34
Found this little tidbit on a bug report at valve site. Anybody here use multiple shadow controllers before to get the indoor shadows casting directly downwards, thus preventing this problem? I don't recall seeing multiple controllers on valve maps.


Dynamic shadows handling

Better handling of dynamic shadows to prevent shadows in indoor spaces being cast in inappropriate directions for lighting conditions. Either enable dynamic shadows to be cast by light sources other than light_environment, or institute 'fallback' diffuse shadow directly under object if not directly lit from sky light. This would require a trace along the vector of the light_environment angle to see if it hits a skybox texture, but would at least prevent the situations we get where indoor shadows are falling in completely the wrong direction.

Other possible 'cheap' solution would be to enable multiple shadow_control entities in a map, one per area separated by area portals. In this way, a map with strong directional daylight in outdoor areas could use straight down shadow controllers in indoor areas to reduce the jarring appearance of indoor shadows.




So where does one find the setting for this? institute 'fallback' diffuse shadow directly under object if not directly lit from sky light
 

Open Blade

L420: High Member
Nov 30, 2007
439
34
more digging and digging. Found this and am going to try it. Not sure if anybody else has used this and am curious if there is a performance hit, or exactly how to use it, for example, which side of the wall should this be on, the inside or outside.


info_no_dynamic_shadow

Use this entity to mark surfaces that shouldn't receive dynamic shadows. Useful to apply to walls and floors where shadows are drawn improperly, giving away the location of enemies