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SimCity 4 General Discussion and Tutorials => SimCity 4 General Discussion => General Custom Content Discussion => Topic started by: dogfight on August 22, 2007, 11:46:38 PM

Title: Strange shadow problem
Post by: dogfight on August 22, 2007, 11:46:38 PM
To anyone who could help:
Something strange seems to happen when rendering in 3dsmax9.
Everyother scene I render has a shadow displacement. What I mean is in the reader, the S3D files seem to be "off centre". The in game Lot's shadow (or in my case a plopable) doesn't line up to the building, but rather is a little distance away from it making the building look like it's "floating" in the air rather than on the ground.
I have tried to start a new scene and merge the old scene over to it but that usually doesn't work.
Could it have to do with the CamLightRigs?
I delete the old output and batch files frequently and I have successfully rendered scene's that work in the game.
Thanks for the help :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Strange shadow problem
Post by: jeronij on August 23, 2007, 12:25:51 AM
Could you post a pic of the model in game ¿?
Title: Re: Strange shadow problem
Post by: dogfight on August 23, 2007, 07:57:12 PM
Hello jeronij.
Sorry for the long delay in responding &ops
Long day at work (I'll say no more) %wrd
Here is the pic you asked for.
You'll notice it looks strange, not sure why. It's a huge plopable. Maybe that has something to do with it?
Anyway here's the pic..
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg207.imageshack.us%2Fimg207%2F4227%2Fshadowproblemjp1.jpg&hash=4af29c42b300408fc1da8039037012f3e77c5d10)

Thanks
Title: Re: Strange shadow problem
Post by: Nealos101 on August 23, 2007, 08:47:53 PM
I may be having the same issue as you have yet I haven't got to this stage...

Open up the model in max and tell me what you see in terms of the Cameras... Is the centre point (Where all the lines start) sitting at the origin of the scene or below the actual working plane? Mine are always below the origin, and this may be the problem becuase the camera reads this object as a floating object?

Neal.
Title: Re: Strange shadow problem
Post by: dogfight on August 23, 2007, 08:56:44 PM
It never seems to be at 0,0. When it's rendering it changes slightly for each rendering frame. It looks to be on Z,0 level though. Not to jump to conclusions but I have a feeling it's got something to do with the CamRig. I'm just not sure what :-\

Here is a second test file I created. It's worse than the first.

(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg263.imageshack.us%2Fimg263%2F5941%2Fshadowproblems2bj8.jpg&hash=0fcd76a5447628472d2b8ec02b498d72b36b085a)

I can't figure it out >:(
Title: Re: Strange shadow problem
Post by: dogfight on August 24, 2007, 10:14:00 AM
Hello again:
Ok I rendered the same scene again with a LOD tweek (I raised the bottom of the LOD's a few meters above the base of my object), and now it looks fine.
(https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg50.imageshack.us%2Fimg50%2F1022%2Fshadowproblemfixedoj5.jpg&hash=2c3dddc547d6d317e2957f9b9fc11e1e58b4093d)

Does someone know why it does this? I can't pinpoint why it looks perfectly fine sometimes and bad other times. Any help would be appreciated..
Thanks.. :-[
Title: Re: Strange shadow problem
Post by: SimFox on September 24, 2007, 02:17:12 AM
if you still haven't solved this one just PM me!