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Alpha and Shadows = Problem?

by Associa · in Artist Corner · 07/09/2007 (6:38 am) · 3 replies

Hello people. I hope you can help me with a certain issue.

We are making some characters for a game, and, when we put them on the map, some of them cast shadows, and some of them won't.

We noticed that those who don't cast shadows have some kind of alpha channel (Cartoon floating eyebrows, jet boots, etc).

So, I ask, there are issues about alpha chanels and the cast shadows from sunlight?

Another question. For the eyebrow chara, we tryied to export as a detail, but the detail does not shows up, or it shows with problems, like with inverted normal, or hierachy issues.

Thanks for the help
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Torque Owner John Kabus (BobTheCBuilder)
#1
07/11/2007 (2:27 pm)
TGE doesn't include surfaces with alpha channels in the dynamic shadows. The shadows are based on the object's geometry instead of its textures, which would give unexpected results (leaf textures would cast shadows in the shape of the quad they're mapped to, not the leaf texture shape).

Torque Owner Associa
Default Studio Name
#2
07/12/2007 (7:45 am)
Ok, but there is a way to use just the geometry to cast shadows, and the Alpha be ignored? I mean, just like those healt vials, the geometry of the healt pack cas a shadow, but the glowing cross above it don't.

Torque Owner John Kabus (BobTheCBuilder)
#3
07/18/2007 (11:45 am)
Try using two different materials in the modeling app (Multi Sub Object Map material in max - assuming the object is one mesh) - one transparent material for the surfaces that need transparency, and a solid material for the rest.