Dynamic sky

[LithiumFox]

The way to make lighting look sorta correct on a map is to do a Ambient occlusion lightmap (required 3dsmax/maya to complete level). Its allot more work not less, and no PR map should be without lighting. It just looks crappy.

I think if a map like silent eagle were made to have it start really dark and then end a little bit later in the day than where it currently is, making it more of a "bright overcast", with tons of clouds, i think it might look a little better. =/

Possibly do that on top of an ambient occlusion lightmap. no one should really notice it if they do it almost real time. =) (like... "Oh hey... it's gotten brighter since the map started... now i can effing SEE D

[Sabre_tooth_tigger]

BF2 doesnt do night time half as well as something more modern like arma 2. But the video does look good, I like how the shadows cast by the vehicle moved with the sun


BF2 game engine lacks dynamic lighting which really helps define the shadows much better it seems, best feature of crysis I thought was the more subtle lighting like this.

The next 4 hour PR game would certainly seem more progressive with something like this, could even help unbalance a stalemate maybe

[OkitaMakoto]

the Humvee shadow moved though?

doesnt that count?

Reread my post... Static objects(buildings, etc) are rendered during the editor/mapping stage whereas vehicles and players are rendered in-game.

You could technically make even statics render in-game(PR has that now for some destructible fences on Fallujah and elsewhere, if Rhino committed the updates), but of course they would look jaggy like player and vehicle shadows do now, plus there would probably be a significant performance impact.

[eztonia]

The main question still stands.... Is this for BF2 engine?! *jumping up and down*

[Just_A_Thought]

The next 4 hour PR game would certainly seem more progressive with something like this, could even help unbalance a stalemate maybe

Yeah, it could be interesting to start off with the sun somewhat high (or below the horizon) and then towards the end of the round have it shining into one side's eyes. It could add a time pressure to advance quickly enough or be caught at a disadvantage.

[Rhino]

Its a nice video etc but it will never end up in PR for one quite simple reason, lightmaps.

the Humvee shadow moved though?

doesnt that count?

Vehicles and some other objects have Dynamic Shadows, yes dynamic shadows are possible in BF2 but they are also buggy and only used on a few things. For small objects like vehicles they are fine most of the time but for large objects like buildings, they simply would not work.

Dynamic shadows in BF2, as well as being buggy and low quality, the worst bit about them is there shadows only draw upto a few meters away, something like 50m or something, maybe even less.

I've got one of my pics here I took of my CSB for promo purposes and also the CSBs use dynamic shadows too because 1/2 they time they are not around, would look odd if they where un-built and had a shadow, or where built and didn't have a shadow on the ground, but still a bit of a problem with when moving away from them, they have no shadow but since the object s relatively small its not a big deal. If you look at this pic you can see both the final CSB and the Challenger 2 both are not casting shadows, where the bridge section just before it, is.



Again, not a huge issue here because the objects are both smallish.

But now think about if we had huge buildings casting there shadows with dynamic shadows, you would only be 50m away from a huge hotel building and bam, its shadow has gone. That would look really, really bad and also would effect gameplay quite a bit too, let alone the impact on performance it might have and the buggyness of dynamic shadows in BF2 as well.


As such, I dont really ever see it happening, it might be cool and all but the BF2 engine is simply not up to it and if we want that kinda thing, there is always ARMA2.

[Rudd]

reminds me of joint operations

[Arnoldio]

It doesnt need to be a full night/day circle.. just midday, sunset and sundrise cycles in real time... works good enough for me.

[ChiefRyza]

Yeah, for this to work, there would have to be a map with literally...nothing on it. Just the downside of being on such an outdated engine which was never designed for this sort of thing. PR2 on the other hand, why not? I think this was more or less just a testament to how Mosquill must be stopped before he codes something so unprecedented everyone dies.

[theflidgeface]

i guess its sorta too good to be true...

[PatrickLA_CA]

Lets pray to god: Mosquill please dont ever die!!!

[Excavus]

Mosquill cannot die, for he is immortal. This is the reason why he can do so many things on an engine that was not designed for these things. Maybe he can find a workaround for the shadows on statics.

I'll be starting the Church of Mosquill. We will worship him and pray for fast ropes every Tuesday.

[Hjid]

Please let admins have control over the sky rotation

Like in this vid:

YouTube - Half life: Full Life Consequences

1.24

[myles]

the sun should start on whatever the time is att he sevrer location that would be cool

[Rudd]

guys please read what the people who know about this stuff have said, shadows for statics aren't dynamic (i.e. they don't move) the reason for this is to decrease the amount of stuff your computer has to do - i.e. it keeps performance higher than it otherwise would be.

vehicles, soldiers, destructables have dynamic shadows, i.e. they generate them in real time. I don't see this working in bf2, however it is a admirable achievement to have accomplished this with such an old engine albeit only on the dynamic aspect..

[Celestial1]

If the sky was real-time, and the shadows were static, the sky could only progress 4 hrs total. Setting the shadows to the middle of the cycle would mean that you would have reasonably accurate shadows for the middle 2 hours of a round, and the 1st and 4th hours would only be ever so slightly off (or, setting the shadows to the most noticed setting; eg. Silent Eagle's shadows would be placed for nearly the end of the cycle so that while it's still dark the shadows aren't seen anyway and are only seen when they are appropriate).

It wouldn't be noticeable during a game, imo. I don't think it'd need to be any faster than real-time, either, because 4hrs can still make for an interesting difference in shadows and atmosphere (Barracuda would go from an early, dark, dawn, to late, orange dawn like it is now.)

[PatrickLA_CA]

Yeah the shadow of the Humvee moved

[Arnoldio]

Yeah, shadows dont move so much over 4 hour period and during dark they would be barely visible wich wont bug anyone IMO.

[gazzthompson]

Yeah the shadow of the Humvee moved

But they wont on statics, as said many times.