yeah.

Sivan - decal shadows perform fine, albeit they don't look good. We're also trying both z-pass and z-fail (hardware accelerated via A8 engine) stencil shadows, which look good but cut our frame rate in half.

I've posted an RTS screen shot with soft shadows finally working correctly. I really like the visual improvement. Unfortunately, even with hardware accelerated shadows (A8 z-fail or z-pass shadows), we get a big dip (~15 to 30 fps) in performance. I'm really surprised that the dip in frame rate is so significant. I'm VERY reluctant to try any software based shadows considering how large the impact for hardware shadows is on the current frame rate.

I have not tested it yet but my first impression:
- A highly ambitious goal but I think it's cool that you try something this complex, so you have my support.
- The UI needs some work, for example remove/ replace the ... ugly (sorry) weird box in the upper right part of the UI (with the oval cut out) on the second screenshot. The minimap does not fill the baby blue box surrounding it, this looks weird, too.
- The game looks a little dated, I think you could do a lot with (better) shaders though. For example you could add a glow shader which illuminates all blue parts in the first shot, make the dome/ forcefield look nicer by adding highlights + more transparent parts + a few rainbow colors + a subtle water-like texture.
The buildings/ units are a little too dark, too.
- I wouldn't use black/ dark distance fog but let it fade into the sky color.
- There is probably nothing slower and more limiting than using stencil shadows. You really should use a different shader based approach. Every now and then I'm working on my own RTS which will be my next major project and I've written a simple shadow system for it which you can see here: http://www.superku.de/rts_shadows.jpg
The same scene would probably be at 10fps with stencil shadows. Being "VERY reluctant to try any software based shadows" is a really bad attitude for a programmer and game designer, sorry.

I explained my solutions in email, you can try them for free.

In case of many moving entities decal shadows become very slow, I'm also developing an RTS beside learning how to create an effective and nice rendering system suitable for its requirements.

As Superku mentioned, shadowmapping is simply better and faster than the outdated stencil shadows, especially in case of many entities, and producing less artifacts. Today there are many advanced tricks, and not too ancient hardwares work with them fine. Stencil shadows are fine only for limited number of very low poly models.

If I were you, I would rethink the concept of the visual appearance. I mean intensity of lighting, and the colour pattern that really affects the player's mood.

Thanks Sivan and Superku, I'm looking into different approaches for casting shadows. I guess I'm old school and when I see "hardware" I naturally think "faster".

$285
pledged of $350,000 goal


Seriously, how were you expecting this to go? I'm genuinely curious.

probably better... then reality hit them in the face

They probably just hit the 0 key a few too many times.

yeah, crazy amount. I would travel a lot if would get so much money, and pay someone to do the game.