Tri-directional lighting issue

[primaveranz]

I have noticed that the tri-directional lighting often causes black patches to appear on props that I make. The old Directional equivalent lighting does not do this (see picture). I have tried changing the various colours in the lights but they do not affect this. NB these are NOT backfaces on the model. What causes this?

Attached File(s)

 compare.jpg ( 23.75K ) Number of downloads: 43

 

[corthew]

I'll say that the second image looks better to me than the first. It also seems to have a lower light level though.

The first one looks a bit washed. Like the shutter speed is too slow for the light level.

I assume the complaint is about the second image but to me that looks like an improvement.

Maybe the image is too small for me to really see what you mean though.

[iceaxe]

What causes this?

An unnecessarily complex and difficult to control lighting system which replaced the old easy to use and understand system perhaps...?

[lucindamc123]

What program did you create the model with? And did you check all the lines and make sure they did not show shadows in the original model? In Sketchup you can choose the Wireframe face view and select all and it will just select the lines and you can make sure they don't show or cast shadows. That makes props in Moviestorm look a lot better. I just learned this a couple of weeks ago.

[primaveranz]

And did you check all the lines and make sure they did not show shadows in the original model?

Of course I did.
Some of us check things before we post.

So before you drag this thread off down a path where you end up blaming Firefox or spouting some other nonsense, I offer you a deal.

You stop posting in my threads and I will stop posting in yours. Feel free to keep posting your nonsense in everyone else's threads though.

End of story.

[corthew]

You stop posting in my threads and I will stop posting in yours. Feel free to keep posting your nonsense in everyone else's threads though.

I think its a mistake but you have to do what you think is right.

[keithlawrence]

You stop posting in my threads and I will stop posting in yours.

Oh, I just had a Deja Vu

[Ben_S]

What colour is your rim light, in your tri directional light model? I would guess that it is black or near black.

Basically, surfaces which face the light are lit by the 'front' or 'shadow' light colour (depending on if they are in shadow or not); ones that are perpendicular to the light, are lit by the 'rim' colour, and ones that are facing away are lit by the 'rear' colour.

There is a possibility that the normals on your prop are not correctly set up - if there is a normal map, and it has black or white in it, or the path to the normal map is not set up correctly, then this would cause problems with directional lighting. Try (with the Directional+Ambient lighting model) turning the ambient to black, and moving the directional light around - are you getting the same black areas in places, where the light should be shining, and they are coloured when the light is in the wrong direction?

[primaveranz]

What colour is your rim light, in your tri directional light model? I would guess that it is black or near black.

No it actually doesn't matter what colours are used in the tri-directional mode. I can change them all to white and the same surfaces are still black.

Try (with the Directional+Ambient lighting model) turning the ambient to black, and moving the directional light around - are you getting the same black areas in places, where the light should be shining, and they are coloured when the light is in the wrong direction?

If I use ambient and directional things are fine until I make the ambient black then those same surfaces are black. If I move the light around it makes no difference to these surfaces. What I'm wondering is whether if you have a 3D object like a mudguard you have to make the underside surface a backface if using the tri-directional. I can't imagine that is the case, as then the surface would be missing if you showed the object from below.
I tried selecting the two-sided option for the material in MW but that makes no difference either. Will keep playing around though.

[Ben_S]

It is also possibly to set up a template so that some materials dont react to directional light. If you have done that, then they wont work well with the tri-light, which is only directional lighting.

In the template, for each material, there should be a colour section, eg:

CODE

      <ambientColor>0.5859375 0.5859375 0.5859375 0.0</ambientColor>
      <diffuseColor>1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0</diffuseColor>
      <emissiveColor>0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0</emissiveColor>
      <specularColor>0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0</specularColor>

If the ambient colour has a value, and the diffuse colour is black (0's), then that would produce the effect you are seeing.

[primaveranz]

If the ambient colour has a value, and the diffuse colour is black (0's), then that would produce the effect you are seeing.

Sadly that wasn't the case. There was a diffuse colour (which I have now removed) but it wasn't black, and it didn't fix the problem.
I think it might be something to do with the way Milkshape creates extruded surfaces, so I'm rebuilding the model without them and will let you know the outcome.

Cheers.

[Ben_S]

I would be interested in seeing an addon with this object, so I can (hopefully) reproduce the problem myself. It may be the case that it is due to either the props configuration in the modders workshop, or to a bug in Moviestorm - with the addon, I might be able to work out if either is the case.
You could email me at ben.sanders (at) moviestorm.co.uk

[primaveranz]

You could email me at ben.sanders (at) moviestorm.co.uk

Will do Ben.