[Need Info] Omnilights don't cast shadows?

[MantisHair]

I've placed some omnilights in my map, but unlike many light-source doodads, the light they produce isn't casting shadows. Anyone know what's going on here?

 

[Misha]

as far as i know, war3 engine doesn't allow lights to cast shadows, or we wouldn't have stuff like over-accented highlights and shadows on the textures, or shadows actually being textures, aka 'splats' to buildings and other things

 

[Dr Super Good]

as far as i know, war3 engine doesn't allow lights to cast shadows

Empire Earth also did not have dynamic shadows, neither did the original PS1 Spyro the Dragon. I do not see the relevance of this...

or we wouldn't have stuff like over-accented highlights and shadows on the textures, or shadows actually being textures, aka 'splats' to buildings and other things

Actually SC2 still uses that to some extent as occlusion and self shadow is not that good, but a lot of the stuff placed onto WC3 diffuse was to simulate surface shape which should be the job of the normal map which SC2 does support. Unfortunately when they ported the WC3 meshes they only baked the vertex normal into a map rather than remaking textures and a proper normal map. The result is WC3 models look unnaturally smooth with strange shading at parts. If you look at Zerg or Terran models most of the surface detail is being conveyed by the normal map with the diffuse being mostly flat painted colours.

it is possible Omni-lights are only diffuse. If you look at the lighting editor you will see that global shadows are controlled by a specific sort of light, with the rest simply adding more colour to the world to simulate reflections of various kinds. Maybe Omni-lights lack a direction and as such they cannot cast shadows. SC2's shadow engine is pretty advanced but also does have limitations.

 

[Statharas]

war3 engine

*cough* I think you're lost, Misha.