How to add Shadows to terrain?

[Archian]

Hey guys,

So I was looking at a Rain of Chaos Human Campaign map looking for inspiration for level design.

And I noticed something that I've never noticed before.

As you can see from the screenshot, some areas have shadow while others dont. I have tried to recreate it, but without any luck. As you can see, in the green circle there is no shadow, while there is at the red circles. How did Blizzard do that?

Making cliffs or raising the terrain doesn't make that kind of shadow. And from what I can tell, they didn't use any units etc. to place those shadows.

The same goes for doodads. As you can see in the screenshot. I've tried to copy doodads with shadow (red), but when I place the same doodad (green) the shadow doesn't appear.

@fladdermasken , @Heinvers

 

[HateCrew]

I think that's a feature of the world editor, just go to ''file / calculate shadows and save map'' option in WE.. It is right under save map as option

 

[Archian]

Ahh, never noticed that feature before. Trying it out now. It takes a LONG time though.

 

[Chaosy]

Note that using calculate shadows makes the shadow remain there even if you remove/move/scale the doodad etc

So you have to calculate for every major update

 

[Archian]

Yep, I figured that out. So far, it has taken around 15 minutes (around 75% done).

 

[TriggerHappy]

Yep, I figured that out. So far, it has taken around 15 minutes (around 75% done).

There was a custom tool which wasn't released that calculates shadow maps much faster and on multiple CPUs. AFAIK @Zwiebelchen has a copy of the program.

 

[pyf]

Thread:
Shadow Calculator

 

[Archian]

Tried calculating shadows after an update on the map. It seem to have crashed after 20 minutes, and oddly enough my screen started to backout. I quit World Edtior using CTRL+ALT+DEL and it was back to normal.

Have anyone experienced this issue before? Also, is there any other program out there (other than the one you mentioned) that can calculate shadows faster and without crashing (it's a huge map).

 

[fladdermasken]

You could go a little crazy and play around with DNC light models. Black out the entire map and add light sources manually with glows and (models that emit) omnilighting.

As far as I know that produces the sexiest shadows by far. But it probably won't play nicely with the classic style you've got going for this project.

Just hold off on calculating the shadow map until the very last save before v1.0, and worry about it then. That's what most of us do.

 

[lord_Turin]

for my maps with 20k+ doodads. I calculate the shadows before I go to bed because it takes so long

 

[Zwiebelchen]

I was just about to say that. Be happy it's only 20 minutes to calculate shadows on your map.

On Gaias, it is impossible to calculate shadows with the default shadow calculation; it takes over 3 days to compute. That's why I use a third party tool from oger-lord instead.


Before you guys ask me about the tool: yes, I still have it and yes it works properly. However, there are some strings attached to it (for example, it requires a 64 bit version of Java)

 

[lord_Turin]

My record is somewhere between than 12-16 hours of computing on a 192x192 map with 22k doodads.
Don't know the exact time because I was away, obviously.

 

[Heinvers]

You could go a little crazy and play around with DNC light models. Black out the entire map and add light sources manually with glows and (models that emit) omnilighting.

As far as I know that produces the sexiest shadows by far. But it probably won't play nicely with the classic style you've got going for this project.

Just hold off on calculating the shadow map until the very last save before v1.0, and worry about it then. That's what most of us do.

This should yield the most satisfactory results. Though, you might want to play around with plane models that resemble that object's shape.

Another option is to follow Talavaj's explanation here. It involves some PS fiddling and triggering but still looks good.

 

[Doomcore]

Maybe you can create a stationary dummy invi unit with shadow configured for the certain cliff.