Auto shadow

SHP_Master · Guest

I have a niec idea for SHP builder. I dunno if it will work or how hard it is to add it. Heres the idea:
It takes all frames, rotate them to SE angel, past them on shadow and add color #1.

Would it work? I think its a really good idea and could fix alots of bugs.

SHP_Master · Guest

oh shit, please move this to OS SHP Builder forum Sad

Ickus · General **Joined**: 25 Nov 2002 **Location**: @__@

It had this feature long ago, it didn't work as planned, hence why Banshee disabled it.

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Guest · Guest

what was wrong? Could it be error while rotating? It could use the photoshop method. But when photoshop rotate the canvas size get larger, thats why it should not rotate color #0.

Banshee?

IcySon55 · Commander **Joined**: 19 Nov 2003 **Location**: Overworld

Automatic shadows are cheese. They don't properly portray the actual shadow.

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Oshog · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:18 am Post subject:

Could someone upload that older version? With a bit of tweaking, it might become somewhat usefull - it's would still be better than nothing I guess.

Banshee · Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 4:05 pm Post subject:

They really do not protrait the shadow. The results were awful and deceiving. Even if I had the best of the ideas, to make a shadow of any 3D picture, I'd need to have the height and depth, which I don't.

Ickus · General **Joined**: 25 Nov 2002 **Location**: @__@

If your working in photoshop, use Free transformation. Neutral

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Gangster · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:40 am Post subject:

well.. I have a autoshadow solution in my mind wich will work good but only for infantry.

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Ickus · General **Joined**: 25 Nov 2002 **Location**: @__@

interesting why not anything else? (units,buildings..anims..etc) Neutral

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Merri · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 6:58 pm Post subject:

One way to solve the problem would be to create units in some form of 3D, which would allow for precise calculation of shadows. Of course, that'd require a lot of new coding, possibly a development of a new file format etc. - although I guess there would be certain advantages doing the units this way.

This far I haven't tried to program yet, I haven't found my Red Alert installation disc anywhere. I have some copies of the game but they don't seem to work too well under Vista or for some other reason and they're modded versions anyway. Thus I have a need for a fresh installation.

IcySon55 · Commander **Joined**: 19 Nov 2003 **Location**: Overworld

Merri wrote:

One way to solve the problem would be to create units in some form of 3D, which would allow for precise calculation of shadows. Of course, that'd require a lot of new coding, possibly a development of a new file format etc. - although I guess there would be certain advantages doing the units this way.

That's way more work for Banshee than it is for modders to learn 3D Studio Max and others...

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Ickus · General **Joined**: 25 Nov 2002 **Location**: @__@

yea. there is already a solution. 3d applications do that..already.

although with that in mind...possible apply the 2d sprite like an opacity map and use raytraced shadows to get that information?

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IcySon55 · Commander **Joined**: 19 Nov 2003 **Location**: Overworld

Ickus wrote:

although with that in mind...possible apply the 2d sprite like an opacity map and use raytraced shadows to get that information?

That's identical to what SHP Builder used to do: Dropping a copy of the frame onto the shadow layer then skewing it.

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Merri · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2008 11:00 pm Post subject:

With "some form of 3D" I didn't mean anything even close to fully fledged 3D applications, but merely something simple. One method that comes to my mind is tiling a few layers of 2D images on top of each other, from top perspective, end result being a pseudo 3D unit. The hardest part would be doing the code for correcting the perspective and applying a palette (as some smoothing/antialias might be required). Calculating a shadow would be, somewhat, a piece of cake in comparison.

Ickus · General **Joined**: 25 Nov 2002 **Location**: @__@

Not quite..it would copy a frame and use its silhouette
to mock a shadow. you can kinda rotate it into place but sometimes it would antialias when you don't want it do. Also being a mere copy it wouldn't line up with the object..so kinda a "peter pan" issue with the shadow rebelling against its' owner.

with the method I described you are in control of the lighting setup to produce a theoretically more appropriate shadow.

While your still working with a flat image with lighting already cast upon it. the extra light might add brightness to the diffuse map and your limited two a few angles. but your able to produce a shadow that can be used. You can adjust the length of the shadow. etc.

I tested it and had a bit of fun with it. I took NTOBEL and made a quick diffuse and opacity in PSP7 chucked them into 3DS Max set up a lighting scheme. Target light, sunlight. checked ray-traced shadows and tinkered with it to get the correct angle to my liking. I wanted to match to WW shadow closely..I know its not as low and stretched. but it can adjusted to be at the exact angle..

Obviously why do all of that when you can model out a character and set up a lighting scheme and viola. have your character with shadows...so I can understand it may seem absurd.

Also I would like to point out this never was intended to be a suggestion for SHP builder.... just alternate solution to a problem...

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