Please, take a look at the picture below:



Why the shadows are like these? I put another question regarding shadows in another forum, but no one answered.

EDIT: just to complete: I made a map with some blocks (the path, the field), the big rocks I made with blocks too, the big mountains with a terrain creator, the trees are models, the leafs are sprites. The rocks in the path (field, whatever) are blocks together.

Anything is not single mesh. I JUST dont know what is going on.

I have 3DGS Extra and I spent 2 days trying to work good with shadows. This is getting very boring.

Thank you.

Hi!

Did you play with the sun values?

Ottawa

I see no shadows in the image.

Do you mean the different brightness of the ground blocks? This looks as if they had different ambient values.

Hello guys, I was just about to open a ticket with support, hehe. Sorry the rush, but you know, new engine and I dont have much time yet to work with it, so I need to spend very good my time.

Hey Ottawa,
same result using sun values and a light source (one). I just dont know what happenned.

jcl:
Yes, what I mean is that brightness in the ground. But I enabled shadow and it did not work.

Anyway guys, I just gived up, I put in my head "hey, I made something wrong". I got all tips from this forum and created another map. This time is better. I tried to not put too much blocks inside others (I read here this can cause problems), any change that I made I compile again to find if something is wrong.
In this new map I'm using blocks for the terrain, trees are models, leafs are models, all rocks are models. I put a prefab into the ground to see if it transforms its shadows strangely (it happens once that the shadows of a prefab block could be visible below the own block - look my first in image in first message of this topic to know what I mean).
DETAILS:
- I'm using shadow_stencil = 1;
- I'm using shadow_mode |= IGNORE_MODELS;


This first screen I'm using the sun as light source:
Sun: 255,255,174
Ambient: 50,50,50
Azimuth: 25.000
Elevation: 50.000


The shadow of big rocks are not showing because I put an action in each rock (but shadow was still enabled, I dont know why the shadow are not here). The script is simple, it just set the rock as entity, so I calculate that a grass model (created automatically) will not be created above the rock.

This is the other screen using a light source (not sun):
Light: 255,255,176
Range: 3000
HiRes and Dynamic


This time no action was attached in any rock, so the shadows worked good. BUT, this view is while I'm in a certain position in the map. If I just move a little bit forward, look what happens with my shadow:




My point is: I did so much little and simple things, but the shadows just dont work. So, I'm afraid to continue further with my project and to compile big maps with this problems.

If possible, what do you guys suggestion me to do in my sceneries regarding lights? How can I put good shadows?

Thanks for all the help. I need to know all about the engine before starting a big game already planned and with some money on it. And I need to know the engine before buy Comm and PRO versions.

EDIT: own, and If this helps, here follows my PC specs:
Core 2 Quad
4 GB Ram
XFX 9600 GT

Regards
Alexandre

There are no static shadows at all in your screenshots. Thats why your level, sorry, looks like trash.

Read the WED tutorial, that shows you how to place objects in your level, then set up the sun and ambient, and in 5 minutes you have a fine level with shadows. Also look at the levels from other people as an example, its really not so hard.

There are static shadows and dynamic shadows. What you want is static shadows. They are calculated automatically when you compile the map. So in fact it's quite difficult to manage ending up with a level with no light and no shadows, like yours.

Only a level can have static shadows. Not models. So, throw out all your rock models and make them part of your level instead. You can just import them in WED. Models are for moving entities only, and can only have dynamic shadows, not static shadows.

Hey spirit... thank for the infos.

That map I build in 6 minutes, exacly, it is not a final map for any game. I just made for shadow tests. That's why looks poor, dont worry.

Yeah, I read other tutorials and tips, I build another map now to test shadows again. The fact is, if I build my map using blocks, it will stay ugly, with blocks I cannot manage to let an edge looks smoth, they are always like a square.

I will keep trying...

For smooth block edges, set "smooth" flag in texture settings.

I can't, I have Extra edition only... is there another way?

And now I read that shadows looks better only with commercial version...

No, static shadows look the same in all editions. The Smooth flag for textures is also supported in all editions. But as Spirit said, there are no static shadows at all in your screenshots.

Dynamic shadows indeed look better in the Commercial Edition. But even there they look not as good as static shadows, and should not be used for non-moving objects.

Yeah, I know about the static shadows looks same in all editions. But in the manual, it says that smooth flag for textures it only works in Commercial and PRO editions (it has the 'C' and 'P' letters next to the command). I do can select the flag, but nothing changes at all in my map.

Is that right?

I created a map using a terrain editor, but if I put blocks inside my map, my lights does not create any static shadow above the terrain. Is it not supported? I'm making a terrain because I still dont know how to create good looking maps using blocks (like a forest, I dont know how to create good landscape where player walk with blocks, because the path cant be like a square, it needs to have effects like noises in terrain).

If possible, do you have any kind of tutorial how to create a good path for a forest? Because where player needs to be like a terrain...

Anyway, thanks for all help so far. I will keep trying here with the time I have.