Shadow bakign in 3ds max

Questions about models, making models and problems with models
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johnnyenglish
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Re: Shadow bakign in 3ds max

Post by johnnyenglish »

I think I've cracked this, using a 2048x2048 single image for shadows - it's a very interesting way of doing things and I'm going to carry on experimenting.

shot0116.jpg


In the screenshot I've also used a few light entities but the large round shadow at the bottom of the shot is a max render to texture.

Additionally, I'm quite interested in the idea of using a single texture for the whole or large chunk of the map, so with this one image

single.png


I can paint what I want, where I want.

bollocks.jpg

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johnnyenglish
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Posts: 898
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2011 9:23 am
Location: Nottingham, England

Re: Shadow bakign in 3ds max

Post by johnnyenglish »

I've been working on a simple tutorial for this - I'm also hoping to make it applicable to blender users also. It's a great way to make more realistic maps with what we have.

It''s not a simple process, it takes a lot of planning but the results speak for themselves.

Basically, for this tuturial I created a room using radiant and textured the walls with a simple texture.

I selected all the walls and saved them to another map.

Using q3map2 from the command line I converted this map to a .ase model which I then imported into 3dsmax.

In max I've made models for display cases, seating and wall pictures - added them to the room, added lighting and effects so I have something like this.



The next step is to export portions of the 3dsmax model to .ase models using rendered textures, so far I've made 2 models for the walls, floor and ceiling and have added them to my original room.

The results in game give perfect, crisp shadows.



All that remains is to convert the other models, add them to radiant and I'll have a complete room with fully baked on rendered shadows.

As I've said, there are a lot of disadvantages to this method and map changes will mean you'll need to rebuild your models and textures. The textures tend to be quite large (1024x1024) but, the results are very good.

As I said, I'm working through this trying to find all the best practices I can and then I'll write it all up in the wiki.

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