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Author
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Topic: Shadow Breakthrough!!!
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Razer
Pilot
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posted 08-01- 08:35 AM
   
Well last night i didn't want to touch the cockpit of the P-39 so, since ArgonV was talking about shadows i figured i'd fix the shadow on the P-39 and then i discovered some. I found the reason what all new planes have messed up shadows. CAUSE ITS HARD AS A MUTHA F*KR TO FIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  with an average if 2 minutes per adjustment, it only took me 4 HOURS to get the shadow looking good, AND I'M NOT DONE!!!!!! Ok, all joking aside, it is hard to fix the shadows so go easy on the guys, this crap is hard. The P-39 Shadow looks great so the first beta will look pretty damn good.. [This message has been edited by Razer (edited 08-01-2000).] IP: Logged |
Pachy
Pilot
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posted 08-01- 08:55 AM
Another possible use of the OPS feature I suggested a few days ago. http://www.fightersquadron.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/000982.html IP: Logged |
Sv
Pilot
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posted 08-01- 09:04 AM
Not all new planes have shadow problems  But the WW2 planes must be much harder with shadows under each seperate part... us WW1 guys tend to have one shadow per aircraft Here is how I do shadows: http://www.schoolmusic.com/chickencoop/se5a/docs/shadow.htm
What shadow problems are you talking about? I see allot of flickering shadows... this is just a LOD flag issue most of the time... Or are you talking about shadow positioning?
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-Sv =FC=
WWI in SDOE!
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Yardstick
Pilot
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posted 08-01- 09:20 AM
Because Glide won't work with my new V5500, I've had to go over to D3D  I have noticed that the shadow for the 109G (and possibly other 109s) is flickering in D3D whilst it is fine in Glide. The planes were tested in Glide. ------------------
Yardstick painted this
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Gecko
Pilot
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posted 08-01- 09:38 AM
The shadow flickerig happens because the Direct3D drivers tend to have a smaller accuracy in the z-buffer. More artifacts of the sort can be seen at the cliffs in Dover for example. I think that elevating the shadow slightly (is that possible) would do the trick.-Gecko =FC= IP: Logged |
Razer
Pilot
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posted 08-01- 09:55 AM
Yard, you and I are in the same boat. I'm ok on the Modeling PC cause i'm running a Voodoo3 on it, but the Gaming PC is running a Voodoo5 and it's in D3D. I hate D3D!The Shadows on the P-39 are fine in D3D and in glide. It's kind of nice to have two PC's running two API's, that way i catch problems before a release. Well most of the problems.
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Sv
Pilot
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posted 08-01- 10:01 AM
If I edit a shadow LOD in AC3D I always need to fix the LOD flags by hand or it flickers. I found this out a long while ago by comparing my update with the original shadow LOD file.Are you guys talking about a differnt kind of flickering? Have you tried any of my WWI planes? (Albatros, SE5a, Fokker DVIII) Do they have a flickering shadow? I use my voodoo3 in d3d and 3dfx for testing... but the voodoo3 drivers seem kinda crappy to me, AC3D just plain hates them on my system -Sv IP: Logged |
Zurawski
Pilot
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posted 08-01- 10:31 AM
Hehehe ...I was working on the shadow(s) for the F-86 lastnight ... and I have to agree they are an aboslute pain in the ass! (SV, I'm close to assuming the one-piece shadow concept in leu of the per-piece method) What REALLY sucks is if you rotated parts when importing ... the shadow "looks" fine in OPS, but are skued in the game ... ... This requires exporting ... moving ... importing ... view in game ... export ... move ... import ...view ... export ..ect...etc ...etc ... What an absolute pain! IP: Logged |
Razer
Pilot
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posted 08-01- 11:26 AM
SV, i've learned AC3D likes the Factory CD drivers. You get cool things like lines when your dragging an object to see where it is and lines when your creating new objects to see how it's looking. I haven't had one single problem with AC3D on the Modeling PC.IP: Logged |
ArgonV
Pilot
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posted 08-01- 11:55 AM
Ahhh yes.... shadows are a pain in the ass. Is there a way to do an obDetach on a shadow piece? That way you could just have all the parts of the shadow for just the main fuse, and when a tail or wing section blows up and detaches, the shadow part would detach and hide (something to that effect)IP: Logged |
Laika 801
Pilot
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posted 08-01- 05:50 PM
ArgonV - as long as I know - the shadow objects are bound to their "original", except WW1 planes based on the fokker (?) with only one shadow object. I.e. ther is something like this in the proplist:(obShadow ('lLWTShad 0.99735 0.00000 0.07269 0.0 0.00061 0.99996 -0.00840 0.0 -0.07269 0.00842 0.99732 0.0 -0.94119 0.45868 -12.62568 'lLWTShadow 0.99735 0.00000 0.07269 0.0 0.00061 0.99996 -0.00840 0.0 -0.07269 0.00842 0.99732 0.0 -0.44251 0.45868 -12.58934 1.0)) Hmm, I remember we discussed this sometimes ago, but still not sure what to do with this.. 0.99735 0.00000 0.07269 0.0
0.00061 0.99996 -0.00840 0.0
-0.07269 0.00842 0.99732 0.0
-0.94119 0.45868 -12.62568 (1) .. this is from above in a better format, I guess this would do the same: 1.........0...........0........0
0.........1...........0........0
0.........0...........1........0
0.94119...0.45868...-12.62568..1 Oh but wait, might be that the upper numbers show the angle. I dont know, Bryan knows it better I think. The second object in the proplist is for the software renderer (at least this is written in the specification file), so we can delete this stuff ? Hmm, not sure ! LK IP: Logged |
ArgonV
Pilot
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posted 08-01- 07:14 PM
How did the programmers that made SDOE do the shadows? MH?!?!?!?!? Surely you guys didnt waste time guessing and checking that much!IP: Logged |
Pete Hawk
Pilot
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posted 08-01- 11:55 PM
I have access to Multigen through work, and in looking at the source Flt files that were used by Parsoft to create the SM files, it seems that the shadows are a piece of cake in Multigen. You can SEE the shadow lods, the alpha channel is turned on so you can see how it looks like it does in SDOE, and it's very cool. I'm still trying like mad to learn to use Multigen and will eventually get it down, so please don't ask me to fix them all. Anyhow I'd need the source Flt files that Multigen uses to do this stuff anyways. If there were a plugin that could take an SM file and bring it into Multigen, I'd be in hog heaven. But right now it's impossible.But to answer that last question, using Multigen shadows appear NOT to be difficult to master at least for the shipped planes, and anything created with this program. (That also does the incredible, lets you ANIMATE DOFs, you can actually watch them move whatever part you are animating, and adjust it very easily too) If OPS ever gets as good as MG we'll all be set.  IP: Logged |
Razer
Pilot
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posted 08-02- 08:11 AM
ok, so i was wrong, the shadows do flicker in D3D, whats the fix?IP: Logged |
Zurawski
Pilot
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posted 08-02- 09:08 AM
RE: Flickering shadows ...It's something weird I tell you! I exported one fo the good (non flikering shadows from a previous build ... changed it's shape in AC3D ... reimported it and all looked and worked fine ... I "MADE" an new shadow ... applying all the same values ... imported it and VIOLA! ... flikering. I tried changinf the flags ... raising the elevation of the LOD ... you name it ... flicker. SV what's the secret to the single-part shadows and their ability to not flicker? IP: Logged |
Laika 801
Pilot
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posted 08-02- 05:18 PM
Hehe Zurawski - welcome aboard ! Well I saw exactly the same happen on flat 3rd detail lods for some wing parts. I changed the polyflags and everything till I went crazy (still got those nervouse ticks sometimes ). The big secret of OP...LK IP: Logged |
Sv
Pilot
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posted 08-02- 07:14 PM
See this post for the answer:
http://www.fightersquadron.com/ubb/Forum7/HTML/000835.html -Sv IP: Logged |
Laika 801
Pilot
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posted 08-03- 03:01 PM
He ! I'm absolutely sure that the flags (for the 3rd lods) are right ! 100% ! Still a secret for me what is wrong...LK
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Razer
Pilot
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posted 08-03- 03:22 PM
I'll see if it works when i get home. Thanks SV. did you get a beta of the P-39 yet? IP: Logged |
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