Second Life Forums Archive - Are prims shadowed by their size?

paulie Femto

Into the dark

Join date: 13 Sep 2003

Posts: 1,098

01-12-2005 20:12

What the heck is up with the "shadows" option? It appears that when you have "shadows" enabled, prims are lit (shadowed) based on their size. Here is a pic of two prims placed side by side. The same blank white texture is on both. They're made of the same "material." The pic was taken at noon (with force sunset). The sun was directly behind me in the shot. The smaller prim is obviously lit differently. That's silly.

edit: test was with local lighting turned off. turning local lighting on makes it worse.

_____________________

REUTERS on SL: "Thirty-five thousand people wearing their psyches on the outside and all the attendant unfettered freakishness that brings."

Olmy Seraph

Valued Member

Join date: 1 Nov 2004

Posts: 502

01-12-2005 21:41

You're looking at a linear color gradient. Both prims start and end at the same color values, but interpolate the values over different distances. Thus at the same height above their bases they will have different brightnesses.

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Some people are like Slinkies... not really good for anything, but they sure bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.

Carnildo Greenacre

Flight Engineer

Join date: 15 Nov 2003

Posts: 1,044

01-12-2005 23:06

From: paulie Femto

What the heck is up with the "shadows" option? It appears that when you have "shadows" enabled, prims are lit (shadowed) based on their size. Here is a pic of two prims placed side by side. The same blank white texture is on both. They're made of the same "material." The pic was taken at noon (with force sunset). The sun was directly behind me in the shot. The smaller prim is obviously lit differently. That's silly.

edit: test was with local lighting turned off. turning local lighting on makes it worse.

What you're seeing is a hiccup in the lighting model used by SL. Lighting is calculated at the corners of the prims, and then linearly blended between the corners. This is a very fast way of calculating it, but produces incorrect results -- for a flat surface, a linear blend is only an approximation of the correct shading.

_____________________

perl -le '$_ = 1; (1 x $_) !~ /^(11+)\1+$/ && print while $_++;'

blaze Spinnaker

1/2 Serious

Join date: 12 Aug 2004

Posts: 5,898

01-13-2005 02:30

Yeah, lighting is pretty poor in SL.

I've seen it in new version of EQ .. looks really really good. Like the shadow of the bars as they lay over objects in their path.

Can't wait to see better lighting in SL.

_____________________

Taken from The last paragraph on pg. 16 of Cory Ondrejka's paper "Changing Realities: User Creation, Communication, and Innovation in Digital Worlds :

"User-created content takes the idea of leveraging player opinions a step further by allowing them to effectively prototype new ideas and features. Developers can then measure which new concepts most improve the products and incorporate them into the game in future patches."

paulie Femto

Into the dark

Join date: 13 Sep 2003

Posts: 1,098

thanks!

01-13-2005 09:37

Thanks all for the explanations. I hope SL gets better lighting soon.

_____________________

REUTERS on SL: "Thirty-five thousand people wearing their psyches on the outside and all the attendant unfettered freakishness that brings."

Alan Edison

Ty Zvezda

Join date: 28 Jun 2004

Posts: 420

01-13-2005 09:45

sometime when 2 shiny obejcts the same siz beside each other have a different gradient changing point. new lighting would be great in sl

_____________________

Ty Zvezda

Are prims shadowed by their size?
paulie Femto Into the dark Join date: 13 Sep 2003 Posts: 1,098	01-12-2005 20:12 What the heck is up with the "shadows" option? It appears that when you have "shadows" enabled, prims are lit (shadowed) based on their size. Here is a pic of two prims placed side by side. The same blank white texture is on both. They're made of the same "material." The pic was taken at noon (with force sunset). The sun was directly behind me in the shot. The smaller prim is obviously lit differently. That's silly. edit: test was with local lighting turned off. turning local lighting on makes it worse. _____________________ REUTERS on SL: "Thirty-five thousand people wearing their psyches on the outside and all the attendant unfettered freakishness that brings."
Olmy Seraph Valued Member Join date: 1 Nov 2004 Posts: 502	01-12-2005 21:41 You're looking at a linear color gradient. Both prims start and end at the same color values, but interpolate the values over different distances. Thus at the same height above their bases they will have different brightnesses. _____________________ Some people are like Slinkies... not really good for anything, but they sure bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.
Carnildo Greenacre Flight Engineer Join date: 15 Nov 2003 Posts: 1,044	01-12-2005 23:06 From: paulie Femto What the heck is up with the "shadows" option? It appears that when you have "shadows" enabled, prims are lit (shadowed) based on their size. Here is a pic of two prims placed side by side. The same blank white texture is on both. They're made of the same "material." The pic was taken at noon (with force sunset). The sun was directly behind me in the shot. The smaller prim is obviously lit differently. That's silly. edit: test was with local lighting turned off. turning local lighting on makes it worse. What you're seeing is a hiccup in the lighting model used by SL. Lighting is calculated at the corners of the prims, and then linearly blended between the corners. This is a very fast way of calculating it, but produces incorrect results -- for a flat surface, a linear blend is only an approximation of the correct shading. _____________________ perl -le '$_ = 1; (1 x $_) !~ /^(11+)\1+$/ && print while $_++;'
blaze Spinnaker 1/2 Serious Join date: 12 Aug 2004 Posts: 5,898	01-13-2005 02:30 Yeah, lighting is pretty poor in SL. I've seen it in new version of EQ .. looks really really good. Like the shadow of the bars as they lay over objects in their path. Can't wait to see better lighting in SL. _____________________ Taken from The last paragraph on pg. 16 of Cory Ondrejka's paper "Changing Realities: User Creation, Communication, and Innovation in Digital Worlds : "User-created content takes the idea of leveraging player opinions a step further by allowing them to effectively prototype new ideas and features. Developers can then measure which new concepts most improve the products and incorporate them into the game in future patches."
paulie Femto Into the dark Join date: 13 Sep 2003 Posts: 1,098	thanks! 01-13-2005 09:37 Thanks all for the explanations. I hope SL gets better lighting soon. _____________________ REUTERS on SL: "Thirty-five thousand people wearing their psyches on the outside and all the attendant unfettered freakishness that brings."
Alan Edison Ty Zvezda Join date: 28 Jun 2004 Posts: 420	01-13-2005 09:45 sometime when 2 shiny obejcts the same siz beside each other have a different gradient changing point. new lighting would be great in sl _____________________ Ty Zvezda

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Are prims shadowed by their size?