Re: [Adonthell-devel] Shadow is back ... sort of

[James Nash]

Hello!

Some thoughts on the shadow topic...

On 23 Jan 2009, at 20:57, Kai Sterker wrote:

> My first attempt at adding back the character shadow isn't ready for
> prime-time yet, but for a dirty hack it works better than expected.
> See attached screenshot.
>
> Currently, the shadow is a map object like all the others (although
> without collision information). It's position gets updated as the
> character moves around. Without any collision information it doesn't
> have a bounding box right now, so that's messing up the rendering at
> times.
>
> I am also wondering: for the actual game, it makes sense that only
> characters have shadows, as that's the way for people to tell whether
> they are on the ground or in the air with the perspective we have.

Yup, having a shadow for characters is definitely a good idea.  
However, some questions:

What happens if the shadow covers surfaces with different heights?  
E.g. if the character is walking up some stairs. Ideally the shadow  
will be split and the portion covering each flat surface will be  
drawn with the appropriate offset. However, I'm guessing that might  
be tricky to implement.

Also, can we have shadows shrink if the character is higher above the  
ground? Alternatively, we could just fade the shadow (i.e. make it  
more transparent). I'm thinking if the character is on the ground the  
shadow beneath him/her has maximum size / opacity and if they jump  
upward the shadow either contracts or fades. That would give players  
some clues as to how far above things they are when jumping around.

> However, for the map editor, it might make sense if all objects had a
> shadow, so that it becomes easier to place them correctly ... so
> shadow should possibly be a property of each placeable, which can be
> enabled or disabled depending on whether we want it or not for any
> particular object.

While agree that object shadows are important for the map-editor I  
think the requirements may differ compared to what we'd want for  
characters in game:

- They should provide an accurate shadow / outline of the area an  
object being moved around will occupy on the ground to help map  
designers to place them correctly.
While the same would be cool for in-game characters I think it's  
acceptable to either have a simplified shadow like an oval (as you  
used in your screenshot) or a custom bitmap shape provided by the  
character designer.

- I think you wouldn't want any shrinking/fading if objects move  
further up since that would make object placement more difficult for  
map designers

Well, that's my 2¢. What do you guys think? ;-)

                - James

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