Light & shade fx:
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Here is an example of sprites doing the trick for shadows on the wall. They work fine and are real quick to implement for shadows. There are many uses for sprites and this is one of my favourites. The default texture seems to work best when using a sprite for this effect. You can try different textures; there might be instances where another texture will work better for you. Just remember to make them flat, one-sided, and transparent. There is one obvious limitation: they must be square shadows. |
Light & shade fx:
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Here we have an example of a shadow on the wall using sectors. The sector is made behind the wall and is the same width as the two points connecting the shadow from the wall to the object. As you can see there is not a big difference in the effect using either method but it would depend on what else you have planned for the area. For instance, if you plan on using lighting effects like lotags 3 or 4, either method does not respond well. You will have to experiment to achieve the effect you want. |
notes: The sprites seem to work with lighting effect lotag 12 but not with 3, 4, or 8 but there is a work around. For instance, when the light is shot out the shadow can remain darker than the rest of the wall. There might still be a light source, dim as it may be, acting as a source for creating the remaining shadow.
Making shadows on the wall using a sector behind the wall works if the lighting effect is lotag 12 and the room is set to be as dark as the shadow when the light is shot out. When splitting the texture attributes on the wall, the bottom half loses all manipulation besides alignment; scaling the texture is not possible once it is split. The bottom half will take on the same scale as the top half. Despite some of the limitations of either method, you should be able to come up with some cool effects.
Light & shade fx:
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Sprites were used for the two sets of cabinet doors on the left. Splitting the wall texture would not allow the doors to be scaled without messing up the wall over top of the counter. The sprites were given the cabinet doors texture, flattened, made one-sided and then scaled to fit below the counter. The nice thing about this trick, is that they responded well with the lighting effect lotag 12. Whether the lights were on, off, or shot out, the sprites used for the cabinet doors took on the appropriate shading. |
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