Sun blocking mesh?

Discussion in 'Track Modding' started by Jorgen, Nov 11, 2012.

  1. K Szczech

    K Szczech Registered

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    Yeah, shadows only cover some range.

    You can configure shadows in dev mode.

    I would suggest the following order:

    1. Set "Split 5 Far Plane" to your new shadow distance
    Far planes for other splits are generated automatically according to split ratio



    2. Set "Split Ratio" to get good distribution of shadow details
    With Split Ratio set to 0.0 you will have poor shadow quality at close distance.
    With Split Ratio set to 1.0 you will have good shadow quality but at very close distance only. A bit further away quality will drop.

    Basically, this setting controls how shadow quality is distributed - whenever you will have good quality near camera or sacrifice near quality to get better quality at some distance.

    You will probably need something around 0.70 - 0.80 here.



    3. Set "Fade Out" so shadows don't end abruptly at some distance.
    A value of 1.0 will make shadows end abruptly where last split ends.
    A value of 0.0 will make shadows fade away from the very beginning of last split, so last split will be entirely "wasted" on shadow fade.

    I'd suggest a value that keeps last split as usefull as possible, so the highest that gives satisfying fade.



    4. I would also suggest to set shadow diffusion to 0.0 - this will prevent orange directional light to appear in shadowed areas during sunset.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 28, 2012
  2. Jorgen

    Jorgen Registered

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    Thanks! Where do all these values go in a packaged track? Into the scene file? Shadow diffusion sounds like a HDR profile value, but custom HDR profiles do not work at the moment, so that's a no go unfortunately.
     
  3. K Szczech

    K Szczech Registered

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    There are some shadow settings in .CAM file.
    Although I've seen shadow quality in car's swingman camera change from track to track aswell, so perhaps there's more.
     
  4. Jorgen

    Jorgen Registered

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    Now that custom HDR profiles work, I opted for a HDR profile that transitions towards 0 for the SunTransLum parameter around the time the sun sets, and it looks pretty close to what I feel it should do in real life, so I'm happy now. Many thanks for all the tips though. I agree that there are situations where a sun blocking mesh is a must, particularly on hilly tracks, so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing one built.
     

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