Observations on 0.46.0

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ghales
Posts: 41
Joined: 25 Jul 2014, 00:25

Observations on 0.46.0

Post by ghales »

This is a great release guys. The new shadows look terrific, particularly when the sun is shining. However, I did notice a few things that may not be bugs, but which look a bit odd.

First, there are very distinct shadows under an overcast sky. I think shadows should be more diffuse under cloudy skies. Please see the attached screenshot.
OvercastShadows.jpg
OvercastShadows.jpg (50.88 KiB) Viewed 5029 times
Second, there are shadows at night. That would be moonlight, of course. But, the shadows do not appear to come from any moon. In the screen shot you can see the shadow from the rock spire and the empty sky behind it. If I have my time-of-day and direction right, the light source may be where the sun would be if it was above the horizon instead of below.
NightShadow.jpg
NightShadow.jpg (37.92 KiB) Viewed 5029 times
Lastly, magic effects seem too intense, to the point where they block your vision. Here is an illusion spell.
Chameleon.jpg
Chameleon.jpg (33.07 KiB) Viewed 5029 times
Here is a Dagoth attacking you.
Dagoth.jpg
Dagoth.jpg (44.61 KiB) Viewed 5029 times
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AnyOldName3
Posts: 2668
Joined: 26 Nov 2015, 03:25

Re: Observations on 0.46.0

Post by AnyOldName3 »

Soft shadows are coming later. That'll probably eventually include controlling the softness based on the weather.

There were a few options for nighttime shadows, but all the obvious ones looked worse than copying MGE XE, which is what we've got now. For example, following the real path of the sun would mean you'd have shadows coming upwards from the ground if you had terrain shadows off, and everything darker than it was supposed to be if you had terrain shadows on.
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Capostrophic
Posts: 794
Joined: 22 Feb 2016, 20:32

Re: Observations on 0.46.0

Post by Capostrophic »

The almost opaque magic effect particles are caused by improper particle lighting overriding the particle vertex colors and have been a known issue for years. It has already been resolved in 0.47.0 in April but there are some quirks to take care of. I have stated this to someone earlier after .46 release, possibly you.
ghales
Posts: 41
Joined: 25 Jul 2014, 00:25

Re: Observations on 0.46.0

Post by ghales »

Thanks for the info guys. I should have known you would already be on top of things like this. (And no, it wasn't me)

AON3, is there any intention in the future to have night time shadows track the moons, instead of a pretend sun? I can see how that would be complicated by multiple moons, or possibly none at all.
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AnyOldName3
Posts: 2668
Joined: 26 Nov 2015, 03:25

Re: Observations on 0.46.0

Post by AnyOldName3 »

It's one of the maybe-try-this-in-the-future ideas on our issue tracker.
Calibration
Posts: 36
Joined: 20 Dec 2016, 18:38

Re: Observations on 0.46.0

Post by Calibration »

I've noticed a very different influence of shadows on FPS wandering around Solstheim from Bloodmoon compared with say the Bitter Coast region.

On my iMac with all shadows enabled the FPS counter in the Bitter Coast region will vary from around 35 to 60 FPS depending on my precise location and look direction. Perfectly fine.

On Solstheim, however, just outside the fort in the wooded areas it will go from as low as 8-9 FPS up to 80-90 FPS in the same area just by turning round and moving off in a different direction. If I switch shadows off I get a fairly constant 90-100 FPS wandering around outside.

Both areas have lots of trees. Any thoughts why you get such a different behaviour?
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