Higher resolution shadows?

[Mr.Blocko]

Can anybody make a shader for blockland that makes the shadows a higher resolution, not like Ports ultra shaders (https://gist.github.com/portify/6779291) but something that makes them less weird and squiggly?

Soooo... Can somebody do this? Or would it not work at all?

[Ad Bot]

[QuadStorm]

EDIT: Here's a mod that makes the shaders appear sharper: http://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=242380.0

For a quick console adjustment:

Code: [Select]

$Shader::ShadowSize = "8192";
initializeShaderAssets();
regenerateShadowMapFBOs();
flushVBOCache();As a warning, it is memory heavy on the GPU, so don't try this on really low end GPUs. It cuts your FPS roughly in half also, so this would probably be best used for screenshots only if you have a low end GPU.

[Mr.Blocko]

Sorry for the MS Paint but my photoshop ain't workin right and I needed to do it fast.

See how in the "more of" its less jagged and squiggly than the "less of"?

That picture is straight from that addon page you sent, its still not what I want.
And that code just makes it so shadows cover everything.

[TheArmyGuy]

Shadows in Blockland are sort of locked to a grid. If the sun is perfectly right it will look 100% sharp, but if something casts a diagonal shadow it'll look jagged.
More shadow detail would exponentially increase gpu usage.

[Mr.Blocko]

I mean Half-Life 2 has better shadows than this, so why can't Blockland? (Except for the engine, I know)

[TheArmyGuy]

Because Blockland uses a different way of shading stuff which works with the Torque engine and half life 2 has baked shadows for the most part.

[QuadStorm]

And that code just makes it so shadows cover everything.

It wasn't meant to be standalone, but more as a reference. The working example would be:

Code: [Select]

$Shader::ShadowSize = "8192";
initializeShaderAssets();
regenerateShadowMapFBOs();
flushVBOCache();

[Mr.Blocko]

Sorry for the link but http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/595834936606635854/1216184D0966C37402658DAFD5DAC6BDBA881BF9/

look at the shadows the combine is casting, do you see any of that weird bumpy stuff in the shadows? No! Of course not! Thats the kinda stuff I'm talking about.

[TheArmyGuy]

Yeah, Blockland has both a different kind of engine and an older one. Not to mention shaders were strapped on to it by two guys.

[Mr.Blocko]

I mean you would think that there's a way to do this but not really, and that's just weird to me.

EDIT: I think Blockland really deserves an engine change :P

[Crispy_]

Blockland 2 would be a nice thing, but that's not gonna happen anytime soon, sadly.

[phflack]

is it possible to change the shadows from being small squares to small circles?
that'd be an interesting experiment

[Mr.Blocko]

is it possible to change the shadows from being small squares to small circles?
that'd be an interesting experiment

Is this possible? Because if it was, maybe we could mess around with it and make it better.

[Headcrab Zombie]

Sorry for the link but http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/595834936606635854/1216184D0966C37402658DAFD5DAC6BDBA881BF9/

look at the shadows the combine is casting, do you see any of that weird bumpy stuff in the shadows? No! Of course not! Thats the kinda stuff I'm talking about.

In Half Life 2, the map is static: a map designer puts it all together, exports it, and that's it. Meaning the shadows are all calculated before hand, and the only shadows that have to be calculated in real time a very small number of objects.

In Blockland, the entire world is dynamic, shadows for thousands or bricks have to be calculated continously

Yeah, Blockland has both a different kind of engine and an older one. Not to mention shaders were strapped on to it by two guys.

This too

[Cynic]

baked shadows for things like TDM servers should definitely be a thing though

nobody can currently create any form of 'dark' stealth based TDM gamemode using shadows due to the fact people can just turn them off.