Shadow/shader issue

[Infinity238]

Hi, I've been working on my mod alot but lately I've switched from useing the shader: meshgloss.fxo over to meshbumpcolorize.fxo. But for some reason It dosn't look right, the shadows only seem to shade the faces completely black or not at all. I am useing a proper bump map and all that but not much seems to make a difference, any and all help would be apretiated.

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/7293/laurasiadj6.jpg

[MonkeyBiz]

Wow, that's a really cool looking ship. It sort of has a cartoon looking feel to it.

[Droid803]

lolz monkeybiz, thats cause its from an anime .

 

I don't see the problem on anywhere but the turrets, but that may be just cause the base color is too dark.

[Infinity238]

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/3303/laurasiajh6.jpg

its just a couple of things I was hopeing some of the other modders could drop by and give me some help.

 

A+C. The shadow only shades the dark faces (squareish) when the obiect is a sphere, not to mention spheres or rounded faces in EAW dont seem to have this problem. There also apears to be a lack of shade variation light - dark, It just goes from full illumination to complete shadow.

 

B.There are no "cast" shadows, again EAW units dont seem to suffer from this.

[Dr. Nick]

does it do that ingame too, or only in the viewer?

[swgbex]

Do you have a shadow mesh?

HOw big is it in relation to the unit?

How is your specular map set up?

[Infinity238]

Do you have a shadow mesh?

HOw big is it in relation to the unit?

How is your specular map set up?

I think I tried the shadow mesh already, but what do you mean how big is it to the mesh? Does that make a differnce?

 

As for spec maps, what shader/ material do you use. I thought it was the: shipname_bc.dds alpha that the game uses as a spec map. I was also useing bumpcolorize.fxo.

[swgbex]

yeah the specular is in the alpha layer .. its a spec map nonetheless

Also the size of the shadow mesh only applies in certain situations..

An example would be like a cube.. with another cube as its shadow mesh..

If both are the exact same size and everything you will get a perfect shadow..

Now if you have the shadow mesh being bigger than the actuall model you might expect almost all the model to be shadowed , and it would look bad -.-

So if your shadow mesh isnt exactly the same size.. i would advise you to shrink it down a bit.. unless you have a reason for keeping it the way it is.. or increasing its size

 

But a shadow mesh that is too small can look bad too -.-

 

But yeah shadow mesh is what gives units their shadows on the ground and ect ect.. so you might want to check yours out or give us apic of how its set up so we can help you better

[Infinity238]

http://img164.imageshack.us/img164/7687/help1qv7.jpg

Of course they are on top of each other normally but they are both the exact same size.

[Infinity238]

BUMP.

 

Heres what it looks like in game with the shadow mesh, any help or ideas would be great.

http://img270.imageshack.us/img270/7946/laurasia2zk7.jpg

[Infinity238]

Please, there has to be some one out there who knows whats going on here? This nagging issue is basically holding up the Mods beta test, because I dont want to put any more units in untill I get this problem licked.

[scott2978]

Just taking a stab at this since nobody more qualified is:

 

From your screenshot it looks like some of your polys are not all part of the same smoothing groups. The polys getting shaded all over the place instead of just shade may mean that your shadow mesh, while being the same SIZE as the model, is not EXACTLY the same as the model. Some polys are not in the right groups ect.

 

Just my guess from looking at the pic and my limited knowledge of using 3DSMax.

[Bailknight]

Just make your shadow mesh smaller then visible mesh.

[Wildcat]

From what I've seen the shadow mesh should be inside the visible mesh, with no polygons of the shadow mesh showing.

[Infinity238]

Inside... I'll give that a try tomorrow, thanks for the pointers.

[Infinity238]

Nuts no change. Inside didn't change it at all, I'm beginning to wonder if its the shaders. The FXO are the only ones that work in 3dsmax8 but from a couple of models I made earlier using the fx shaders that came with the patch. The fx shaders look proper, I cant use them now because 3dsmax crashes when I try.

[Bailknight]

Well that`ll happen when u didn`t make your shadow mesh closed (no opening)

[Infinity238]

I'm pritty sure it was closed, and just to be sure I capped all the holes.