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Author Topic: XShadow Problem With Custom Meshes  (Read 9232 times)

Mike Truly

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XShadow Problem With Custom Meshes
« on: October 08, 2007, 07:42:30 PM »
Carlos,

Ver 2.4

Maybe I'm not remembering correctly.  I thought XShadow worked on custom mesh objects opacity as well as the standard one or two plane tree objects.

I have created my custom 3 plane tree objects and it does not respect the opacity that is mapped to each plane... instead my shadows are of the rectangular plane objects themselves.  If I switch to one or two plane tree objects, then the XShadow shadows render fine and show the shape of the bitmap trees.

Am I just remembering wrong and XShadow never repected the opacity maps on custom meshes?

Thanks!
Sincerely,

Mike Truly
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iToo

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Re: XShadow Problem With Custom Meshes
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2007, 08:45:16 PM »
Mike,

No, XShadow didn't work with custom meshes.

We assume that a mesh may cast its own shadow, so the plugin only works with planes.

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

Mike Truly

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Re: XShadow Problem With Custom Meshes
« Reply #2 on: October 09, 2007, 12:46:06 AM »
Carlos,

Ahhhh... I must have been dreaming.  Oh well, thanks anyway!
Sincerely,

Mike Truly
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Mike Truly

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Re: XShadow Problem With Custom Meshes
« Reply #3 on: October 09, 2007, 12:50:31 AM »
One more question on this.

If you were to be able to add a new 3 plane (or more specified by the user) type to ForestPro, would it be technically possible to have XShadow work with this new type to cast proper shadows or is it impossible for it to work with more planes?

Thanks again.
Sincerely,

Mike Truly
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iToo

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Re: XShadow Problem With Custom Meshes
« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2007, 09:36:22 AM »

We are now working on Forest 3.0, to include multiple planes and other features: improved custom meshes, vray proxies...

However, there are some technical problems to solve, so i don't know if all these enhancements will be possible or how they will be implemented. By now we are reorganizing the source code and making some tests.

Carlos Quintero
iToo Software

Mike Truly

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Re: XShadow Problem With Custom Meshes
« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2007, 03:02:48 PM »
Thanks Carlos!  I look forward to the new version regardless.

One more thing to consider regarding new plane types.

I frequently make 'top' plane objects as well as 'top plus 2 or 3 plane' objects for use in FP.

The 'top' plane objects are simply 1 rectangular plane oriented to the top or +Z direction.  I use these to map a top view of the trees and they can be handy for overhead views of forested areas.  The 'top plus 2 or 3 plane' objects are simply a top plane added to a 2 or 3 plane object and again, are used to enhance an overhead view.

On all of the multiplane objects, I use falloff materials so that certain planes become more or less invisible depending on their angle to the camera.  So for example, the 'top' plane would be invisible until the camera begins to go to an overhead position... then it would become more visible and the sides would become less visible, etc.

If possible to make the XShadow work with new single 'top' planes or multi-plane objects, that would be great as I mostly use Scanline and do not use Ray-Traced shadows but shadow mapped and XShadow for most shadow work.

Thanks again.
Sincerely,

Mike Truly
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Truly Media
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http://www.trulymedia.com