Hey everyone,

I searched around the forums and checked the beta/in development page, and couldn't find a specific concrete answer to what I am about to ask, so if this has already been answered, then I apologize for taking up your time.

The game I am developing will not be ready until well after A7 comes out, and so I am trying to gear my development to being fully compatible with A7's features. One thing that I am unsure about, however, is how A7 will handle model shadows.

Right now, for the majority of models, I am using invisible blocks to create static shadows. My questions:

1. In A7, will there be a way for models to automatically cast static shadows, so that these invisible blocks will not be necessary? I need to know whether I should leave them in place or remove them.

2. Right now, I am not using any dynamic lights, so when I use the shadow feature, only the sun projects shadows. In A7 will there be an option to make all lights dynamic, with the engine automatically turning them off/on depending on the player's position? Thus, the end result would be that dynamic model shadows would be projected from all visible lights. For this, I need to know if I should bother using dynamic model shadows or not. They are only worth using if dynamic lights will be unlimited, and it will be possible to convert regular lights to dynamic ones.

Thanks everyone!

1 - You can import shadow casting MDL or FBX models into WED. This feature however is preliminarily implemented, but not yet 100% finished in the current 7.03 version.

2 - yes, any static light can also cast dynamic light, just check it's "Dynamic" flag.

what about the soft shadow shader listed on the forecast page? are they related to the "dynamic" flag of the light? will there be a feature demo around the release date?

Dynamic shadows are cast by dynamic lights. For a feature demo, just place a model and activate its shadow flag.

Thanks jcl! Based on what you've told me, it sounds like the best way to go might be to scrap the invisible blocks casting shadows and instead have all models cast dynamic shadows, but turn on and off depending on how close they are to the player (to speed up the game). Then set many of the level lights to dynamic.

That depends. The dynamic shadows are not meant to fully replace the static shadows, which have the two advantages of slightly better quality and no affect on the frame rate.

But indeed you won't need invisible blocks casting shadows anymore. If a model does not move, import it into WED and let it cast a static shadow. If it does move, let it cast a dynamic shadow.

But still no static shadows on terrain, right?
It is in forecast HIP...

Yes. The shadow generating mechanism of the map compiler is not yet 100% finished for concave geometry. As soon as it works perfectly, Alexej will start implementing shadow maps for terrain.

Finally good news. I think with new shadow system and improoved rendering speed 3gds have all chance to became very good engine.

I never realized it wasn't a very good engine and all because of lack of terrain shadows.