Tutorials/Advanced/Extended Shadows

This tutorial will provide a brief overview of the extended shadow effect used for player trucks and trailers, and guide you through correctly setting up your model for it.

Overview

The extended shadow effect is used to draw a shadow volume underneath the player's truck and trailer. A grayscale texture is used to define the strength of the shadow volume along its length and width. Within the model, two locators are used to define the shadow volume and a surface is used to define the limit of the effect in the vertical direction. The effect can be fine tuned in the corresponding chassis definition.

Locators

The origin locator (shadow_x_ori, shd_x_ori1, shd_x_ori2, etc) defines the upper boundary, center, and direction of the shadow volume. This locator should generally always be oriented so that it points down (i.e. rotated so that the locator +y points in global -Z). The corner locator (shadow_x_crn, shd_x_crn1, shd_x_crn2, etc) defines the width, length, and lower boundary of the shadow volume.

Fakeshadow Surface

A surface using the fakeshadow effect is used to limit where shading is applied within the shadow volume. By default, the extended shadow texture is projected vertically within the entire shadow volume, shading all of the geometry within. When a fakeshadow surface is present, only the volume 'outside' of the surface relative to the shadow volume origin will be shaded. So, typically, the normals of any fakeshadow surface will point toward the ground. It is also important that the fakeshadow surface covers the entire length and width of the shadow volume, or there may be undesirable shading in the uncovered areas.