Shadows in OR vs MSTS

[jefffarq]

I've started putting in scenery on the Caliente Route, and I find that tree shapes in particular have a different shadow in OR as opposed to the shadow setting when I installed them. Trees were put in using the RE with a ROUND shadow, and that's what shows when I view the route in MSTS. But when driving the route in OR the trees have a star-shaped shadow, see the included images for the differences; Image 2 is in MSTS, Image 1 is OR. Not sure whether it's an OR setting problem, I've tried several settings in my OR setup, to no avail. Can someone point me in the right direction? I'd like to get this straightened out if possible, before I put in a million trees and have to fix their (and who knows what else) shadows. Thanks.

[ossie]

I don't have an answer Jeff but in the (possible??) "who knows what else" category, I noticed that the caboose seems to be the only thing throwing a shadow in both pics. MSTS is producing shadows for the loco, crossing sign and silo that don't appear to be there for ORTS.

[Orbita]

There are two options for displaying shadows in OR. There's "Dynamic Shadows", where if checked, the sim will only display shadows for moving objects. Then there's "Shadow for all shapes", which enables all static objects to cast shadows.

Now there's this to consider regarding the latter, and I quote the OR Manual:

"Note: Static objects provided with shadows (in the World files) will cast shadows anyway. This option adds shadows for other static objects."

[crstagg]

Did you take the screen shots at the same sim time? Note the shading on the hill behind the tree in the center of the pictures.

[oper190]

It appear the first picture was when the Sun was nearly overhead, thus the star pattern for the tree as that is the way they are made, and none really showing on most other objects. Whereas in the second the Sun appears off to the side, thus casting shadows on most all objects and the tree now from a more profile ( full ) rendering, and accounts for the shading on the hillside.

[EldoradoRailroad]

Among(st) MANY other things...MSTS is NOT EQUAL to OR. OR does not have the same type of shadow ranges as MSTS did. OR ONLY has dynamic shadows, so OR will never display what you see for tree shadows in MSTS, those ROUND ones. The star shape of shadows in this case is caused by the "sun" being almost directly overhead. If you play with the time of day settings in OR you will see that dynamic shadows change by quite a lot.

If you are planning on "planting" a million trees, use forest regions instead. Again...MSTS is NOT EQUAL to OR. The billboard shadows are NOT the same in MSTS as they are in OR. I wish they were but you will find that as the camera moves around and the time of day changes for exactly the SAME relative location that billboard shadows CAN VANISH. I wish it were not so, but it is what it is.

I am not using the "stock" code for dynamic shadows to get quality shadows. At least to my taste, you do not need the latest hardware (CPU/GPU) to achieve different results for dynamic shadows. But there are many/a few gotchas, and I think the average user will not have the "tools" to get past what they would like to see as opposed to KISS. Until it is proven otherwise, I suggest that you keep to the stock settings.

Steve