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The Staff of SOH
WIP Airport
- Thread starter jdhaenens
- Start date
michael davies
Charter Member 2012
The problem with scenery is that it wont show internal shadows, its not designed to work out the interior and what sort of shadow that will produce, so scenery shadows are only outside and as the sim is concerned those planes are outside.
You used to be able to trick it in FS9 or older with an invisible shelter on another BGL, what you basically do is make a simple domed shaped shelter with the ends enclosed, then lift if off the ground a foot or so, that will give a square ground foot print shadow, next to make invisible you just apply a simple 64x64 texture over the whole shape and then apply a full transparency alpha channel to that texture to make it invisible.
I don't know enough about FSx materials and transparency layers just yet but the same principle might work, in fact you only need a flat plate the size of the floor area just above the ground to achieve the same effect, no need for the full dome model. The flat plate will cast a ground shadow in the shelter, the alpha transparency will mean you don't see it, though the aircraft might cast a shadow on the plate and that might lift it a little, you'd need to play with the heights a little to minimise the shadow step as aircraft go in and out of the hanger.
The theory should be sound, the practice might not be so easy to implement.
Best
Michael
You used to be able to trick it in FS9 or older with an invisible shelter on another BGL, what you basically do is make a simple domed shaped shelter with the ends enclosed, then lift if off the ground a foot or so, that will give a square ground foot print shadow, next to make invisible you just apply a simple 64x64 texture over the whole shape and then apply a full transparency alpha channel to that texture to make it invisible.
I don't know enough about FSx materials and transparency layers just yet but the same principle might work, in fact you only need a flat plate the size of the floor area just above the ground to achieve the same effect, no need for the full dome model. The flat plate will cast a ground shadow in the shelter, the alpha transparency will mean you don't see it, though the aircraft might cast a shadow on the plate and that might lift it a little, you'd need to play with the heights a little to minimise the shadow step as aircraft go in and out of the hanger.
The theory should be sound, the practice might not be so easy to implement.
Best
Michael
M
MCDesigns
Guest
Looks great Jim!! BTW how did you get the lighting in the last image on the tarmac?
@ Michael D: since SP-2 I haven't been able to reproduce many of the FS9 tricks. I'd gotten it to where you couldn't see a shadow until you looked at it straight on, but that was a little disconcerting, so I left it as is.
@Michael C: you have a PM with the secret formula
Regards,
Jim
@Michael C: you have a PM with the secret formula
Regards,
Jim
M
MCDesigns
Guest
This might be a good candidate for volumetric shadowing, which would look great with this model. Of course, it requires manifold geometry, which might be more trouble than it's worth, depending on how the hangar is currently designed. I used volumetrics for the long glider hangar at Dillingham, and it turned out pretty well.
M
MCDesigns
Guest
Agreed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Funny, I have used that shadowing check box on a few scenery models that don't have manifold modeling and it's 50/50 on what works. Really looking forward to the new lighting in FS11, hope it's easy to implement with scenery models.
B
BananaBob
Guest
Looking awesome, like the night lighting also! 
michael davies
Charter Member 2012
Is this applied at source or is it a sim setting ?, that shadowing is just what I need for the carriers !.
Initially I did think volumetric shadows would be the answer, but I didnt even know the sim was capable of that ?, hence the old shadow poly trick from previous sims.
Looks good now though
Best
Michael
B
BananaBob
Guest
Wow, didn't know you could have self shadowing inside like that, guess that's what you guys are talking about, LOL! :d
Volume shadowing is applied by material on the material editor of either gmax or 3DS Max. It's just a checkbox. The only rules to use is that the material you apply must be applied to a manifold object. That part will then exhibit the Volume shadow attributes. In the case of the H.A.S. I applied it to the major green color and the green color of the steel braces on the doors. I had to remake the parts somewhat to get rid of the parts that had more than one material applied, but in this case it paid off handsomely.
The clue that you haven't got it right is to enable scenery shadows in the sim. Those parts that you thought were manifold (but really weren't) will have shadows that follow you everywhere. This is the sim's way of telling you that you can't compute the volume of a plane. Kinda like dividing by zero.
Jim
The clue that you haven't got it right is to enable scenery shadows in the sim. Those parts that you thought were manifold (but really weren't) will have shadows that follow you everywhere. This is the sim's way of telling you that you can't compute the volume of a plane. Kinda like dividing by zero.
Jim
michael davies
Charter Member 2012
Brilliant, only draw back I can see is that to manifold parts you need to close off back facing areas ?, that'll ramp up the poly count for sure, none the less some testing will be in order in the very near future.
I'm not sure it will work on boats, does it work on planes or is it for scenery only ?, if it works on planes then it might be a good substitute for the poorly rendered offset shadows we currently have ?, yours dont look offset in that image. I suspect volumetric only works on scenery and not moving planes and boats ?, will have to test and see.
Best
Michael