Stencil shadows failing on .3ds

Will Piovano · Post by **Will Piovano** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:19 am

Hey,

I'm not sure if it's been said somewhere, but are .3ds meshes not subject to casting shadows? When I load an md2, it shadows fine, but when I add a ShadowNode to the .3ds mesh, the whole program hangs (this by changing only the path to the mesh being loaded, nothing else).

Any ideas?

sgt_pinky · Post by **sgt_pinky** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 3:54 am

You will have to show some code if you want help, mate.

Show us the section where you add the mesh, and then how you add the shadow.

Will Piovano · Post by **Will Piovano** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:35 pm

Cool yeah. I was just wondering if there was a bug with .3ds initially since some ppl have told me there are some between irrlicht and the format. Here's the code:

Code: Select all

diceArray = new IAnimatedMeshSceneNode[8];

            Random random = new Random();

            for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
            {
                diceArray[i] = device.SceneManager.AddAnimatedMeshSceneNode(diceMesh, null, i);
                diceArray[i].SetMaterialFlag(MaterialFlag.LIGHTING, true);
                diceArray[i].Rotation = new Vector3D(0, 0, random.Next(8) * 90);
            }

            // Initialize the dice positions here

            for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++)
            {
                diceArray[i].ID = -(i + 1);
                diceArray[i].AddShadowVolumeSceneNode();
                diceArray[i].SetMaterialFlag(MaterialFlag.NORMALIZE_NORMALS, true);
            }
             smgr.ShadowColor.Set(220, 0, 220, 0);

That's it as far as the dice. The md2 model I load casts shadows and is pretty much identical in creation:

Code: Select all

            IAnimatedMesh mesh = smgr.GetMesh(@"C:/Irrlicht/irrlicht-1.1/media/faerie.md2");
            IAnimatedMeshSceneNode anode = smgr.AddAnimatedMeshSceneNode(mesh, null, 0);
            anode.Position = new Vector3D(0, 30, 0);
            anode.SetMD2Animation(MD2AnimationType.STAND);
            anode.SetMaterialTexture(0,
                driver.GetTexture("C:/Irrlicht/irrlicht-1.1/media/Faerie5.BMP"));

            // add shadow
            anode.AddShadowVolumeSceneNode();
            smgr.ShadowColor.Set(220, 0, 0, 0);
            anode.SetMaterialFlag(MaterialFlag.NORMALIZE_NORMALS, true);

The only difference is the md2 animation really. When I comment out the addShadowNode for the dice, everything works, but that single line makes it hang completely.

I'm a bit perplexed.

Thanks for the help.

bitplane · Post by **bitplane** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 4:04 pm

hmm can I have a copy of the 3ds file please? there may be something wrong with the 3ds loader. are you using Irrlicht from svn or 1.1?

Will Piovano · Post by **Will Piovano** » Sat Nov 11, 2006 11:44 pm

Here it is:

http://rza.myvnc.com/dice3.3DS

Thnx.

bitplane · Post by **bitplane** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 12:27 am

wow, thats a monster of a mesh!
I've been sat here for the last 5 mins trying to load it.. for such a simple shape you might want to try something a bit more optimized. also, you should triangulate your mesh before exporting it, that way irrlicht won't have to.
if you insist on using such a large mesh, you should use a different mesh for shadow generation (use setMeshToRenderFrom)

Will Piovano · Post by **Will Piovano** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 6:39 pm

So are you saying that the mesh is effectively hanging cause it takes too long to do the shadow calculation? It seems to be running fine with normal dynamic lights, strange...

Anyway, as far as setting a different mesh for the shadow, do I have do have that mesh loaded at a node, or do I just specify a different node and irrlicht sort of "replaces" it for the shadow calculation? (The Irrlicht doc didn't say much about it)

Thanks again for the help!

bitplane · Post by **bitplane** » Sun Nov 19, 2006 6:58 pm

Code: Select all

IShadowVolumeSceneNode *shadow = node->createShadowVolumeSceneNode();
shadow->setMeshToRenderFrom(simple_mesh);

you should really use something much smaller for your die mesh though, you'll get instant loading times and much better fps, and you'll be able to support older computers. 25k triangles is a lot for a simple cube, and most of them are a waste. i bet a polygon reducer would get rid of 90% of them)

Will Piovano · Post by **Will Piovano** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 2:18 am

Yes my mate did the die in max, I saw it and it's quite ridiculous lol. We have another low-poly version, I'll see if that works. Thnx bit.

Will Piovano · Post by **Will Piovano** » Thu Nov 23, 2006 7:16 pm

Do you know if C# has the ability to carry out that function? It doesn't have a shadowvolume node type, and neither iscenenode nor IAnimatedMeshSceneNode have functions to set the shadow rendering to a different mesh. And there's no createshadow function, only the addShadow, which returns IsceneNode. The documentation only mentions addShadow, too.

It is a problem of performance, I'm sure of that now, just need to get that shadow to be rendered by a simple 6-poly cube, but C# doesn't have that ability it seems...