Page 1 of 1

[0.12.31] (Minor) Shadows rendered with wrong lamp type

Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 7:04 pm
by TruePikachu
I noticed while looking at the Assembly Machine 3 that the shadows for machines, etc. use a point light source (where rays are cast from a single point) instead of a "sun" light source (where parallel rays are cast from the environment; this can also be described as a point lamp with no falloff located infinitly far from the scene). This has the effect that, for instance, two parallel edges in the asset's model cast non-parallel shadows.

I dummied up a model of the Big Power Pole in Blender, and demonstrated that it does appear that renders are being preformed with a point source instead of a sun source. In these two images, the upper-left quadrant has my very simple model with the game's sprite overlaid, the upper-right has just the rendered shadow layer, the bottom-left has my model, and the bottom-right has the game's sprite. These are all rendered with a point light source.
0001.png
0001.png (117.34 KiB) Viewed 1555 times
0003.png
0003.png (122.96 KiB) Viewed 1555 times
You will notice that the edges which are vertical in the front composite cast non-parallel shadows in the side composite. I did not do renders with a parallel light source, but it would result in the shadows remaining parallel, which is likely the intended scenario (as it mimics reality far better, and could potentially lead to slightly smaller sprites).

EDIT: For completeness, here are renders with a parallel light source (at 30 60°):
0001-s.png
0001-s.png (103.02 KiB) Viewed 1544 times
0003-s.png
0003-s.png (93.02 KiB) Viewed 1544 times
The only difference in these renders, with respect to shadow shape, is the use of a parallel light source instead of a point. (There are a couple of minor, unrelated changes, as well: integrator settings for Cycles, and the texture of the "ground")

Re: [0.12.31] (Minor) Shadows rendered with wrong lamp type

Posted: Tue May 24, 2016 1:46 pm
by Klonan
Thanks for the report,

While interesting, It may not be able to be looked at for a while by the GFX department