Want moving Shadows?

[TAz00]

Ever wanted a moving shadow? Maybe from some cirkeling planets? Any expirienced mapper could tell u that its not posible, cuz the HL engine only renders 1 shadow per object, take for example a door, it stands between a bright and a dark room. If u saw it from the darkside, light would be coming right trough, because its a func, wich the hl engine dosnt render.

So if u have a cirkeling planet in the sky, and u want it to cast a moving shadow, its imposible. But not if u trick ppl into thinking its a shadow. It can be done by making a very flat, and black disc identical with the one in the air. just flat, black and on the ground. Shift it a litle to the one in the air, unless the light is coming from straight above, then place it right underneth. We are making it a Func_rotating, to make it moving. What does all this give us?

A flat, black, rotating disc.... Hmm now if we set the Render mode to texture and the Fx amount to 40 its sudently seetrough... making it look like a shadow rotating.....

This is not a image, its a Zip file, right click on the link and press save as... Then u open the downloaded "jpg file" with your winzip or winrar and unzip the example.rmf

Example map

 

[KarrdeKNR]

While a good idea in principle, what about when the terrain is uneven? It wouldn't be possible to make the shadow move over the terrain and have it keep looking like a shadow, would it?

-Karrde-

 

[EviLTaxi]

mmmh...very nice idea, Ill have a look...
but there is one thing Im worrying about: shadows fade from the dark area into the illuminated area and this disc ends abrupt.

interesting topic...

*edit*
@ Karrde: jup! youre right...but I think an uneven area is not a big loss compared to a moving shadow!!!
*edit*

 

[TAz00]

Yeah it would be a problem over uneven terrain, but like evli_t@xi said "not a big loss compared to a moving shadow"

ok a pic to show what i mean: http://imagehost.villagephotos.com/photos/2003-4/170432/HYGUPVOIRUFYOBTOEHDH-pic.jpg

 

[EviLTaxi]

*clapclapclap*
I had a look, and I can tell ya...its really cool!
This pic cant show how it really looks like, youve gotta see it yourself!!
Did you work that out on your own?

 

[KarrdeKNR]

Now the question of the hour is can you get the disc to change size as a function of the distance of the object whose shadow it is? Then again, with the current build of ESF, is there an entity for making moving objects at all?

-Karrde-

 

[TAz00]

No i dont think so, i guess u have to use spirit to do that. And yes its my own idea, it just hit me yesterday that u could trick ppl to think they saw a moving shadow... But didnt

 

[DJ-Ready]

i know that technique of making "dynamic" shaddows in hl ... but its only usefull for a few objects in maps. becouse if you have a map full of func_rotatings, you epoly would be incredible high and the map would lag
but its a nice example map

 

[DJ Me]

good idea TAz, i like ur maps

btw, thx for learning me how 2 map