Dynamic shadows from the lantern MOD

[Bucic]

Seeing as you obviously have not touched the editor yet you shouldn't speak, this is HPL2, a different engine from FEAR, not build to work with dynamic shadows properly, it also runs OPENGL instead of DirectX, unlike FEAR.

Dynamic shadows in the HPL engine are super heavy to render, however as stated several times before, it is possible to make the lantern dynamic and it's really easy to do so.

I couldn't forseen this will be a problem in a game engine half a decade newer. Also if anyone have had put the info on dynamic shadows being a problem in HPL2 I would certainly acknowledge it. Any info regarding dynamic shadows in HPL 2.5+ or HPL 3?

[Your Computer]

In any engine it could effect performance, especially if the scene needs to be rendered multiple times just for the lights and shadows for one frame. Then there's the quality of the shadows which can hurt performance as well. HPL3 might have dynamic shadows for point lights, but i'm not sure on that. In any case, if you want dynamic shadows for the lantern, you'll need to manually edit a few files.

[Bucic]

In any engine it could effect performance, especially if the scene needs to be rendered multiple times just for the lights and shadows for one frame. Then there's the quality of the shadows which can hurt performance as well. HPL3 might have dynamic shadows for point lights, but i'm not sure on that. In any case, if you want dynamic shadows for the lantern, you'll need to manually edit a few files.

Noted.

Few files you say? Not just the lantern model? Could you tell us some more?

[Traggey]

In any engine it could effect performance, especially if the scene needs to be rendered multiple times just for the lights and shadows for one frame. Then there's the quality of the shadows which can hurt performance as well. HPL3 might have dynamic shadows for point lights, but i'm not sure on that. In any case, if you want dynamic shadows for the lantern, you'll need to manually edit a few files.

Noted.

Few files you say? Not just the lantern model? Could you tell us some more?

All you need is to get the modeleditor.exe, open the lantern up and replace the pointlight with a spotlight, then enable shadow casting for the light..

[Bucic]

Thanks Traggey!

I spoke to a friend of mine who played all of the Penumbra games. He says Penumbra has dynamic shadows. YouTube seems to confirm this. What has happened that it has been disabled for Amnesia?[/align]

[Traggey]

Amnesia uses a pointlight instead of a spotlight, because it's a lantern and not a torch this time, rendering pointlight dynamic shadows is hard.

[Bucic]

Amnesia uses a pointlight instead of a spotlight, because it's a lantern and not a torch this time, rendering pointlight dynamic shadows is hard.

But why? Pardon my ignorance but I see no basis for using different light sources for lantern in Amnesia vs glowstick in Penumbra. I'm genuinely curious.

[Brennenburg]

also dont forget that dynamic shadows hurt performance.

Only if your PC is archaic.

[Bucic]

And so it works! I'll post some shots in no time!

[Bucic]

Here are the screenshots.
http://sdrv.ms/ZaqZcz

The first few have been taken at spotlight FOV 60, dist 3, while the rest is FOV 220, dist 16, if I remember correctly.

Culprits:
- the shadows are jagged even at highest shadow resolution; the bigger the distance between the object that casts shadow and the wall, the more jagged shadows; on the other hand it's far less visible when you're moving as in normal gameplay
- estimated FPS hit on AMD crap Mobility Radeon HD3650: from 30 FPS down to 15-20 FPS
- at high spotlight FOVs there's a permanent shadow following the player , visible at the edge of the player's field of view (FOV). It's not visible at spot light FOV = 90 but such FOV is too narrow for lantern, making it look like a flashlight.

But the scenes are sick with those shadows! The game is even more scary now :/