Blockland Forums > Suggestions & Requests
Two questions about why some things aren't in the game.
joe hb:
off topic: i like the maps you make squideey
on topic: i wonderd that too.
Badspot:
Blockland uses the default shadow system from torque. It basically produces a raytraced image of the model, then shrink wraps it onto the environment via software. This is very slow. To have shadows cast onto bricks, it would literally take as much cpu/graphics time to render one shadow from one guy as it does to render every brick in the scene. I know this because I have tested it. I even had to hack in some limits so you don't go down to 1fps when you stand in front of "complex" interior geometry like the cupboard hinges in the kitchen map.
Improving shadows in Blockland would require switching to a more modern shadowing technique such as perspective shadow mapping. This is not trivial.
Fx/transparent bricks use a different rendering path then the static/opaque bricks. There is no fog in the static brick rendering path. Blame kompressor.
Makingblah:
--- Quote from: Badspot on March 18, 2010, 10:48:50 PM ---Blockland uses the default shadow system from torque. It basically produces a raytraced image of the model, then shrink wraps it onto the environment via software. This is very slow. To have shadows cast onto bricks, it would literally take as much cpu/graphics time to render one shadow from one guy as it does to render every brick in the scene. I know this because I have tested it. I even had to hack in some limits so you don't go down to 1fps when you stand in front of "complex" interior geometry like the cupboard hinges in the kitchen map.
Improving shadows in Blockland would require switching to a more modern shadowing technique such as perspective shadow mapping. This is not trivial.
Fx/transparent bricks use a different rendering path then the static/opaque bricks. There is no fog in the static brick rendering path. Blame kompressor.
--- End quote ---
When I'm about 50 studs above a brick My shadow goes onto it.