Why are my shadows so grainy?

**DannySwish** · 10-23-2015, 04:52 AM

I created a small test room involving simulated daylight using spot lights, but the shadows they produce are extremely grainy, even on the highest settings. In-game, the grains are actually persistent, and follow where you look. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

http://i.imgur.com/W7xI9an.png

I'd really appreciate some guidance. Thanks!

~~A.M Team~~ · 10-23-2015, 06:22 AM

The walls have a texture map on them called 'specular'. This gives the texture a detailed shine instead of a dull, shiny blob. The specular map is possibly causing this effect.

Or I could be wrong. That's my two cents in anyways...

**DannySwish** · 10-23-2015, 06:38 AM

If that's the case, how would I go about fixing it?

~~A.M Team~~ · 10-23-2015, 06:58 AM

Probably changing the walls? Check back with your results!

**Myster Stranger** · 10-23-2015, 07:52 AM

(10-23-2015, 04:52 AM)DannySwish Wrote: I created a small test room involving simulated daylight using spot lights, but the shadows they produce are extremely grainy, even on the highest settings. In-game, the grains are actually persistent, and follow where you look. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

http://i.imgur.com/W7xI9an.png

I'd really appreciate some guidance. Thanks!

I'd recommend splitting the job up, if I remember correctly, each spotlight has a predefined shadow resolution, a resolution set more for a single flickering spotlight with a narrow FOV, not the entirety of the sun. I'm actually creating a map at the moment that had a similar problem initially, in which a massive metal complex has light provided by a single spotlight, but I replaced the one with 8, all in the same location, each with an narrow FOV and massive radius, all slightly off from each other. The shadows this setup has provided are pretty great, with no noticeable performance hit, so see if that suits your needs.

**DannySwish** · 10-23-2015, 10:23 AM

(10-23-2015, 07:52 AM)Myster Stranger Wrote: The shadows this setup has provided are pretty great, with no noticeable performance hit, so see if that suits your needs.

Thanks, I'll definitely try this out.

**DannySwish** · 10-23-2015, 11:54 AM

I think it's just how the windows are. "Cast Shadows" is disabled by default; I guess they didn't really make them with the intention of casting nice shadows.

**Romulator** · 10-23-2015, 12:00 PM

Have you tried using a Gobo for your windows? They define the boundaries of some of your windows if CastShadows does not work well. You can specify which one you would like to use from your spotlight's properties, and find them in SOMA/lights/gobo