canopies don't cast shadows at all

[Aginor]

When looking at the shadow of my A-10C I noticed the canopy does not cast shadows at all (shadows on high setting).

It looks a bit weird.

[Kuky]

screenshot?

[rrohde]

I understand what Aginor is saying - and I noticed the same. Basically, in real life, even though a canopy is made up from plexiglas or similar, see-through materials, it will still cast a shadow.

 

However, in DCS (and this is the case in older DCS versions, too), the canopy seems invisible and thus does not cast a shadow. Only the canopy frame casts a shadow.

 

As an example, the attached photo shows the shadow of a canopy including the plexiglas part. That would be more realistic in DCS as well.

[Aginor]

Exactly what I mean:

If you google pictures of planes on static display you notice that their canopy plexiglass casts a shadow. That is not the case in DCSW.

 

I attached a picture of an F-15C.

 

And here some links to real planes:

http://airshowstuff.com/v4/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/MG_0315a_WM.jpg

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9THbbofiwYY/maxresdefault.jpg

 

In both cases the canopy glass casts a shadow.

[Kuky]

This is very minor bug, much more important bugs need to be squashed first

[Aginor]

yeah, of course! I just wanted to mention it. :)

[Aginor]

Hey guys!

Now that the most severe bugs in the graphics engine seem to be fixed I'd like to bring this up again.

I know it is nitpicking, still.... it looks so weird.

 

(or is that already fixed when using a higher shadow quality?)

[SkateZilla]

Technically, Canopies don't cast shadows, they attenuate the light shining thru them which makes the area appear to be shadowed.

 

:music_whistling:

[Aginor]

Yeah, whatever, I don't care. :D

It looks like a shadow and it can most likely be achieved using a shadow renderer, which is why I called it shadow. :)

[Diemos]

I wonder what kind of FPS hit lesser systems might take to render attenuated light... :noexpression:

[Aginor]

Would be really bad I guess, and also pointless since the player probably won't notice anyway.

 

That's another reason to handle it just like a shadow with half opacity which is what most games do I assume.

 

EDIT:

I don't know how transparent materials work in the DCSW engine right now though, so it might actually be hard to implement. Would be interesting to have a developer tell us about it though. (not likely to happen, I know, but it would still be cool. :) )

Edited March 9, 2016 by Aginor

[Aginor]

As I noticed this behaviour in a few recent screenshots I'd like to bring this thread up again to ask whether that bug is reported to the devs, and whether it is planned to be changed in the next versions if possible. :)