Hope this is the right forum.
I have created ramplights and streetlights for FSX and included them in my Volume 7 scenery file (dlf_corelibraries7_FSX.zip at FlightSim and AVSIM). Recently I and my test pilots noted large black boxes at the light base in shape of textures for the ground splash. After much tinkering, I have identified these as ground shadows from ground splash textures. In SETTINGS/CUSTOM/SCENERY, ticking on the ground shadows box on the right produces the shadows; ticking off eliminates them. I would like to have the poles of the model as well as buildings to cast shadows (box ticked on) without the splash texture area casting a shadow. All works well in night mode. I note Jim Dhaneans FSX Lights, Sidney Schwarz’s FSX lights, and the old FS9 Ramplight library all cast pole shadows in day, but no shadows from the splash in day. So I conclude I am doing something wrong with the model or texture. (Models are built in Sketchup. Textures built in Photoshop. ).
This is what I do for the ground splash textures in MCX ( all the pole textures etc I just do default material editor placing the .dds day and_LM files and hitting opaque. They seem to cast a shadow in day and look good at night.)
Here are the settings I change in MCX material editor for the splash textures (all other settings are MCX default):
At start, I hit set default opaque. Don’t hit anything at end.
Alpha Test Fxn = NEVER
Lvl=1
Z-test alpha False
BLOOM: Allow Bloom True
Allow Emissive Bloom True
Ambient Lt Scale = 1
Bloom by copying True
Bloom Modulating by copying TRUE
No specular bloom False
Spec bloom floor 0.899999 etc
COLORS: Albedo 255 x3
Ambient 255 x 3
Diffuse 255 x 3
Emissive 0,0,0
Emissive factor = 1
Specular Color 0, 0, 0
Emissive Properties: AdditiveNightOnly
Enhanced Parameters all false except: No shadow True
No Z write True
Final alpha blend Multiply = 1, Set final value = FALSE
Frame Buffer Blend: Destination Blend InvSrcColor
Source Blend ONE
In addition, I have done the following to try to correct the issue:
Dan French
I have created ramplights and streetlights for FSX and included them in my Volume 7 scenery file (dlf_corelibraries7_FSX.zip at FlightSim and AVSIM). Recently I and my test pilots noted large black boxes at the light base in shape of textures for the ground splash. After much tinkering, I have identified these as ground shadows from ground splash textures. In SETTINGS/CUSTOM/SCENERY, ticking on the ground shadows box on the right produces the shadows; ticking off eliminates them. I would like to have the poles of the model as well as buildings to cast shadows (box ticked on) without the splash texture area casting a shadow. All works well in night mode. I note Jim Dhaneans FSX Lights, Sidney Schwarz’s FSX lights, and the old FS9 Ramplight library all cast pole shadows in day, but no shadows from the splash in day. So I conclude I am doing something wrong with the model or texture. (Models are built in Sketchup. Textures built in Photoshop. ).
This is what I do for the ground splash textures in MCX ( all the pole textures etc I just do default material editor placing the .dds day and_LM files and hitting opaque. They seem to cast a shadow in day and look good at night.)
Here are the settings I change in MCX material editor for the splash textures (all other settings are MCX default):
At start, I hit set default opaque. Don’t hit anything at end.
Alpha Test Fxn = NEVER
Lvl=1
Z-test alpha False
BLOOM: Allow Bloom True
Allow Emissive Bloom True
Ambient Lt Scale = 1
Bloom by copying True
Bloom Modulating by copying TRUE
No specular bloom False
Spec bloom floor 0.899999 etc
COLORS: Albedo 255 x3
Ambient 255 x 3
Diffuse 255 x 3
Emissive 0,0,0
Emissive factor = 1
Specular Color 0, 0, 0
Emissive Properties: AdditiveNightOnly
Enhanced Parameters all false except: No shadow True
No Z write True
Final alpha blend Multiply = 1, Set final value = FALSE
Frame Buffer Blend: Destination Blend InvSrcColor
Source Blend ONE
In addition, I have done the following to try to correct the issue:
- Reinstalled newest MCX stable version.
- Reinstalled FSX Gold with Acceleration
- Checked textures that bases are pure black and rebuilt .dds textures from Adobe PSD (Photoshop) files
- Tried making the textures transparent rather than opaque.
- Tried adjusting z bias some. Shadow moves but doesn’t leave.
Dan French