Hills and Evalations CD3+

Tommek · December 2016

Hi,

I want to create a hill in one of my city maps, it should have a shadow effect from the global sun. How could I achieve this?

best regards,
Tommek

Loopysue · December 2016

I tried many different techniques to produce just such an effect in a fairly large city map that was almost entirely hill (Merelan City), and the most effective way was not by using the global sun, but by drawing hill shading polygons - simple black polygons with sheet effect transparency and a suitable blur to get rid of the hard edges. I used two such sheets so that I could have a mid shade and a darker shadow.

This technique requires that you don't intend to change the direction of the global sun once you have done it (or the hand drawn shadow would be in the wrong place), and that you literally draw the shadow of the hill yourself.

Tommek · December 2016

Sounds good. I will try this. Thanks Loopysue.

Dogtag · December 2016

You can also try applying a "Bevel, Lighted" or "Bevel" effect to a smooth poly. Each has it's own advantages. For example, the regular Bevel effect can be "leveled off." Below is an example of hastily-done lighted bevel. The shadow cast on the background (as opposed to the one on the beveled area itself) is a wall shadow effect.

[Image_7135]

If you use the same fill for the hill as you do for the background, you will probably have to use two sheets, one for the hill and one for a mask immediately below it (above it in the Sheets list), for example a HILLS sheet and a HILLS MASK sheet. The mask sheet needs a copy (or a just slightly-smaller resized copy) of the hill, and it should be a solid color. This prevents a weird dimpling effect that can happen when one sheet has similar (or same!) color values as the sheet below it.

This requires a lot of trial and error and if you don't need the hill effect itself, Loopysue's suggestion is probably best.

You'd need to monkey with the different effects settings but I've attached a quick sample, if you're interested.

Tommek · December 2016

Hi Dogtag,

Might be a thing to combine with the blurred polygon to get the symbols into the shadows.

Dogtag · December 2016

Possibly, but if you want symbols in the shadow, i suspect you're probably better off with just a blurred, semi-transparent poly and ignoring the fancy bevel stuff altogether. As Loopysue said, if you aren't going to change the global sun, it's a lot easier to just do that. I was just giving an alternative that would adjust to changes in the global sun.

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Hills and Evalations CD3+

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