Hi!

I have a problem with using shaders. I made a material like this:
material some_material {
effect = "softStencilShadow.fx";
}

Which ever shader i downloaded off the internet and used here, i get the same result, and the result is that my models get invisible. I made a test level which consists of a cube, my model placed on the cube, sun turned on, "shadow" flag turned on the model, and "some_material" applied to the model. If i apply the material, my model gets invisible, but it's shadow (from the engine's sun) is still visible. If i turn off the shadow flag, and leave the material applied, my model will still be invisible, but no shadow will be under it. If i comment the "effect" line in my material, my model will become visible again.

I downloaded shaders off of nVidia SDK page...i tried simple shader examples i found on the net...and nothing works.

Has anyone had a similar problem?

The graphic card i'm using is an "nVidia GeForce 7600 GS", i have 1GB of RAM, my simplest model is just a cube (i used a fox and cbabe too...).

Thanks for your time!

you cannot simply download any fx-file and apply it in 3dgs. you need to adjust them in most cases to fit

check the wiki and this forum to find out how to use shaders properly.. the search button is your friend

I read this forum (i believe carefuly) but i didn't find anything really useful about shadows. Can you please point out to me a few useful topics here about shadows? Thanks!

read the shader tutorial that was send in to the contest
there is a shader tutorial send in, a very good one.

I'm looking for any kind of shadows at the moment.

Thanks, i'll look it up.

dont use shaders then us stencil_shadows... there problem solved.

Problem is not solved, because frame rate drops below 30 with stencil shadows.

well shaders are not good for beginners especially to try and create shadow, there is one in the aum, i think its aum41 but im not sure, but it isn't very good anyways as it is unaffected by the sun or light sources.

Well, i managed to produce 2 shaders that give me (sort of) nightvision effect. I understand now how shaders work, so can you please explain to me how shadow shader "should" be made, so i'll try to understand it and work on it myself?

The thing that i do not understand is this: if "shadow" shader is applied to a model, how will the shader know how to apply shadow to a non-flat object that the model is standing on? Since shadow shader is applied to a model, it has no reference to the surface my model is standing on (or floats above) so i do not understand how can i know which parts of surface i need to darken (cast shadow on).