Something that annoyed me for a long time is that the undertray shadows disapears at night. The common technic to get an undertray shadow is to create a ambient shadow caster from a texture under the car. But this ambient shadow disapears at night. It makes the car float on the racetrack at night. .gen line :"MeshFile=camaro_undershadow.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False AmbientObject=(True,Texture)" What i did is simple: Instead of creating ambient shadow caster. I used this same undertray.gmt and texture as a Decal. Same technic as tracklines and verges for tracks. Alpha Blending = src Alpha/inv src Alpha I used a "T1 no direct lighting shader", so the sun doesn't light the plane. But i think a T1 would work just fine. and tagged the undertray.gmt as decal + unticked omni and spot lights. .gen line :"MeshFile=camaro_undershadow.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False" Result is the same at day time. But the Undertray shadow stays at night. I thought it might be usefull to share this. View attachment 20965 View attachment 20964 View attachment 20963 Before: After: Youtube doesn't like dark colors to much...
Brilliant! This is what I love about the modding community. Thinking outside the (shadow) box. Is that gJed you're using? Is it possible to make those settings with 3DSimEd?
I'm using this in a car I'm working on right now. There's an issue. Anything close to the undershadow will move "behind" it when viewing from a distance, because the decal always goes over other objects. It's especially noticeable with objects close to the ground(like the floor on an open wheel car). So I would say this fix might not work for all cars, but the ones that it does work well for will look really nice.
A better way is to put it in the list of improvement to do by Studio 397 without changing anything with the current default method. But it's a nice found to try to improve rF2 rendering at night.
I´ve tried myself this and didn´t manage to have the shadow working at all.... The moment i take off the entry "AmbientObject=(True,Texture)" the shadow disappears.
Thanks for the tip! I tested but the result is not what i thought it would be...... On track cameras the shadow disappears on greater distances (day and night), at night only when you have cam swingman active and see the car near the result is satisfying, apart from that dont think this is the solution..... Undershadow NEED to be fix on the software code itself, very poor shadow at night is a bummer!!!
Check LOD out. And a decal needs to be as close to the ground as possible, while a ambient caster can have some distance. Alpha channel of the texture needs some adjustment too. But never the less: The best solution is that the current ambient undertray shadow could stay at night, in low light conditions and when the car is driving in the shadow of a building.
This works, but you MUST use "Alpha Sorting: 2" Tested at ISI's Silverstone. With out sorting at 2: With sorting at 2: Instance in .GEN: MeshFile=Darche_EGT_shad.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False LODIn=(0.0) LODOut=(500.0) Reflect=False
Nice work. If you didn't adjust the apha channel of the undertay shadow yet: The alpha channel could use some adjustment. (a bit stronger white) To get a better effect: the gradient out between white/back may be a bit bigger. BTW: keep a back up of the original if you want to revert back.
I'm gonna make all new individual undershadows I think, URD is currently using same for all GTEs (and yes, this is allowed modifications for league usage, I DO respect Ales work!)
Well once you are done you know where to find me and ill send you some beers @Gijs van Elderen thx to find that and how to fix it!
No problem. IMO: During day time: The normal ambient texture caster still works better. But it's gone at night. So a mix between the 2 could be a solution: ( @WiZPER ): I've no idea if these visgroups work for cars: J 512 Removed when night time (for the ambient texture caster) K 1024 Removed when daytime (for the decal) It's worth a try. (note: i think these visgroups work on Instance level and not at .gmt level) But never the less: The best solution is that the current ambient undertray shadow could stay at night.
@Gijs van Elderen, I agree it would be a better solution. And I don't think that the visgroups work for cars - think I tested it for our glowing numberplates at some point. I'll see if they seem to work properly without other down sides, and if not I can send you a few GMTs, Ales
you could always use the upgrades/tuning system and make a Day/Night selection in there before you go to race, swapping between 2 versions of the undertray.
so gijs , for resume gen line :"MeshFile=camaro_undershadow.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False AmbientObject=(True,Texture)" What i did is simple: Instead of creating ambient shadow caster. I used this same undertray.gmt and texture as a Decal. Same technic as tracklines and verges for tracks. Alpha Blending = src Alpha/inv src Alpha I used a "T1 no direct lighting shader", so the sun doesn't light the plane. But i think a T1 would work just fine. and tagged the undertray.gmt as decal + unticked omni and spot lights. .gen line :"MeshFile=camaro_undershadow.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False" at the end what do you write on the gen?? MeshFile=camaro_undershadow.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False AmbientObject=(True,Texture)/// needed for the day MeshFile=camaro_undershadow.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False this version can work the same way we did for the car rendering or only : MeshFile=camaro_undershadow.gmt CollTarget=False HATTarget=False and gmt have a t1 shader and is exported tagged as decal + unticked omni and spot lights with alpha sort = 2 sticked?.?? alpha sort 1 to 4 is normaly reserved for track , 4 to 8 is reserved for the car
