Question about light detection and shadows

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Naugrim
Posts: 172
Joined: 08 Jan 2016, 01:32
Location: Spain

Question about light detection and shadows

Post by Naugrim »

This is just a question because I noted some shadows are not correct but knowing how original light & shadows in Morrowind were optional, maybe this is normal and there's not much that OpenMW can do.

First in interiors (I saw https://openmw.readthedocs.io/en/stable ... or-shadows, but it does not provide much explanation regarding what to expect), for example in the intro, when you are with Jiub, there's a candle right to him, but the shadows he projects are also pointing right when these should point to left. Same for the guard that comes to you. I've seen the same in interior shops, and also my character does not project any shadow.
Then, in exteriors, buildings project a shadow that depends on Sun position, but always with the same intensity, event at night.

So..is this just a WIP thing or this is how it's going to be due to limitations on Morrowing data?

Image

Running from source on Manjaro: 1a2efd441c

These are my settings:

Code: Select all

[Shadows]
actor shadows = true
enable shadows = true
object shadows = true
terrain shadows = true
shadow fade start = 0.7
shadow map resolution = 2048
enable indoor shadows = true
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AnyOldName3
Posts: 2668
Joined: 26 Nov 2015, 03:25

Re: Question about light detection and shadows

Post by AnyOldName3 »

Unlike the original engine, the intensity of shadows actually does vary, but with the lighting settings that get imported from the Morrowind INI, the ambient and diffuse contributions from the sun (whether it's the real one in the daytime or a fake one indoors or at night) don't vary too much relative to each other. If you change the fallback=Weather_Foggy_Sun_Day_Color,111,131,151 and fallback=Weather_Foggy_Ambient_Day_Color,092,109,120 lines in openmw.cfg so that nearly all the light comes from the ambient, you'll see shadows are much fainter during fog.

Regarding the shadow direction indoors, it was decided that, at least for now, they'd be cast by the fake indoor sun (which is actually where most of the light comes from) rather than smaller lights like candles. If you've played with the vanilla engine, it's pretty jarring that your character's single shadow keeps jumping around as it always gets cast by the nearest light source, and as you move, you get nearer to different light sources. Until we've got a good way of handling the issues with Morrowind's assets, it's likely to be too slow to always have shadows cast by every light indoors.
Naugrim
Posts: 172
Joined: 08 Jan 2016, 01:32
Location: Spain

Re: Question about light detection and shadows

Post by Naugrim »

Tbh, when I played vanilla I was not paying attention to these details, I was happy enough getting 30fps in exteriors.
But at least, if there's something that can be done at some point, it's something to look forward.
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