Irrlicht Engine

Blindside: are there any plans to make a version that uses varying levels of detail? I ran some of the original demos again, and wished that I could have that degree of realistic shadowing in a large landscape... but I don't think I could adapt it myself. I wouldn't even know where to begin.

Since each light apparently has its own separate shadow map with its own resolution setting, would it be possible to solve the aforementioned problem (shadowing on large landscapes) by using at least two lights for the sun, where each light would have a different "field of view" cone and resolution, so that I could have detailed shadows within the player's immediate area (handled by a light with a very narrow cone) but less detailed shadows everywhere else?

Is there any (preferably build in) way to simulate sunlight with this? My idea was since I am making a topdown game anyway is have a directional light travel with the camera, however this wont do for environment shots, which I am making my engine do aswell.

you could do a large point light, but that will most likely kill most pc's out there.

I have got a problem !!

XEffects works fine with EDT_OPENGL. But when I select EDT_DIRECT3D9 I get a HLSL compile error (X3506).

How can I use Xeffects with Directx9 ?

I was using Irrlicht 1.7.1 and was getting shader errors in Direct3D, then I've tried this and was amased, really cool, tnx!!!!

Hello,

i tried XEffects with the trunk version of Irrlicht. I discovered that ambient light had no effect any more. I went back some Irrlicht releases and found a change after Revision 3651. From there the BlendOperation is set to EBO_NONE by default ( before it was EBO_ADD ). And because you render to texture, MAYBE the ambient light is not "added" any more ( so to speak ).
So i searched for places where ambient color is used and found it in EffectHandler::update(...). There again is driver->setRenderTarget(ScreenQuad.rt[0],...). "ScreenQuad" - aha. Don't know what that is or does, but it must have something to do with the textures you render into. So i added ScreenQuad.getMaterial().BlendOperation = EBO_ADD in EffectHandler::EffectHandler(...). You can also put it in front of setRenderTarget(...) but then it would be called every update.

Hope this helps.

Hmmm - i think i posted too quickly.
Now i saw in another Program that the shadows are gone, and that's what XEffects is all about, right?
Will have to digg into the problem further.

found it:

the shadows are not shown, when you activate VSM-Shadows ( in the Constructor of EffectHandler; 3rd Parameter; default is useVSMShadows=false ).
By trial and error i found the right positions for the BlendOperation(s).
It's at the end of the loop

for(u32 l = 0;l < LightListSize;++l)
{
...

ScreenQuad.getMaterial().MaterialType = (E_MATERIAL_TYPE)Simple;

-> ScreenQuad.getMaterial().BlendOperation = EBO_ADD;
ScreenQuad.render(driver);
-> ScreenQuad.getMaterial().BlendOperation = EBO_NONE;
}

Hope this time it really helps.

Holy freakin hell.

I came here the first time in ages, just to see whats in the projects. Xeffects, of course the first thing i noticed and checked, looked awesome enough to download immediately. I Ive got a couple gen old video card (geforce 9800+gtx) and i get ~800fps on the multiple reflection one. I get like 150 with the first one, i get this all while i have blender, gimp with several large images and two firefox windows with approximately 15 tabs in 1 and 1 this reply in the other, i have all of this open at the same time. The only problem i found is though i expected pixely shadows with the 512 map, I also get lines between the edges of all the frustrums of the cameras drawing the shadows.


Final thoughts.... effing amazing.

Hello,
I need realtimeshadow for some objects near the camera. The light source is not a spotlight, but a directional light (like a sun).
The shadow-receiver should be a terrain.

My problem is that the lightsource only lights a small area on the terrain, the rest of it is black.

Is it possible with xeffect to create a "big" directional light, which let shadow cast Independent of the angle between object and light?
I don't want to have shadows on the complete terrain, It is sufficient when it's calculated a few units in front of the camera.


Thanks!
Bastian

Hi BlindSide.
I implemented PSSM from nadro irrCg example.
I also added PCF for PSSM.
In a short time i will upload this(because i'm fighting with some bugs ).
IMHO That will solve xeffect's sun light problem




EDIT 2012-01-02 ADDED FIRST SCREENSHOTS WITH ALPHA TRANSPARENT MATERIALS(WORKS FINE WITH EMT_TRANSPARENT_ALPHA_CHANNEL AND EMT_TRANSPARENT_ALPHA_CHANNEL_REF). I ALSO CHANGE SHADOW MAPS TO PSVSM(i just add code from standart xeffect's vsm)

Sorry for my bad english because i'm using google translate

So just a quick question. If I'm looking at the source correctly Xeffects renders the shadow map first, then runs that through to make the actual projected shadows, then renders for appropriate lighting shades, then renders the normal scene with whatever shader material I'm using.

Don't all these rendering passes lower the overall speed? Wouldn't it be faster to combine some of those passes? I thought the key to increasing speed was to have as little draw calls as possible.

Link down?

Hi,
Seems like none of the link is working.

Regards.

Mirrors for XEffects Reloaded v1.3:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/3rjl51l
http://www.mediafire.com/?1lfi01w6qc5f794