I got up early today for a Skype call, and stayed up to code. The downside to that plan was that I did not stop and it's now 2AM. A quick calculation and you have a very tired Lee. So much to show you, but no energy to translate it into blog. That said I will try.
Here is a nice shot from inside a tent with the light rays streaming through the canvas netting casting the old shadow density.
As the word self-shadowing was mentioned over twenty five times in commentary, I decided to check it out and add it to the entities to see what happened. Turns out the performance hit was negligible compared to more oppressive issues elsewhere in the engine, so it was a nice bonus.
I am however hitting a brick wall that has stolen three hours of development time, a small triangle of non-shadow in the top left corner of the test game screen where the nearest two shadow cascade views are not quite getting enough scene to calculate all the shadow for the main screen. It's one of those five minute fixes that frustratingly never gets solved, despite no less than five different ways to fix it. I have run out of time and eyeballs for one day but there cannot be much more I need to do before I find and fix this one. It does not get in the way of anything, it's just a visual annoyance!
All that said, here is the latest shot using the new self-shadowing and adjustable shadow strength.
I had a little fun placing some items around, but I had planned to spend a few hours creating some nice scenes for a video we are working on. Alas all that time was spent tweaking the self-shadows and eventually getting lost in the put of 'non-shadowing triangle hell'.
The Lush Hand Of Salvation
As a wonderful refreshing change of scenery, Mark rather timely, sent a preview of the second terrain texture set. As you know we have been prototyping the desert theme for our asset pack, but it was felt as we went along that a green scene is an excellent visual, so we added a terrain theme of 'green lush'. I'm really happy with what Mark created, especially the new grass, and hopefully this will increase the type of environments you can place your games.
It speaks for itself really. I can't wait until we explore more terrains in the future such as ice world, fire world, alien world and underground world. So much creation, so little time!
Signing Off
My apologies in advance if there are spelling errors or typos here. I cannot even see the words now, I'm just touch typing to the end of this blog :) I have uploaded a new version for the internal team, so hopefully Rick can distribute that to the artists. Rick is doing something at the weekend with Reloaded and 15,000 people, but I will allow Rick to reveal as much as he feels is appropriate through his own social feeds. For me, I wish to eat, drink and be sleepy. The software is coming along nicely now, and the IDE looks pretty solid with it's new icons and reduced less complicated appearance. I will leave that surprise until the beta though, something to anticipate!
Call To Action
One last thing. If you could tell two of your closest computer savvy friends about this blog, and get them to read a page or two, I might be able to get my daily views up and over 1500. I hope to improve my readership counter as well as the code inside Reloaded, so anything you can think of to achieve that would be most welcome. As always, let the comments flow!!
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