A shadow for my Nuclear Missile

xbow · Post by **xbow** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 11:16 am

I have tried to get a shadow under a missile entity I made for a new mission but to no avail. As you can see the rocket (that i made from a water pipe) looks a bit flat in the dark but in the light it looks like it is floating. A kick in the ass in the right direction to make a shadow for the thing would be appreciated.

Note: The rocket is a sprite actually its just a container where a party can scrounge some needed items.

requiem_for_a_starfury · Thu Sep 09, 2004 3:17 pm

Looks good, but I don't think sprites cast shadows, you'd have to make it apart of the sprite image.

xbow · Post by **xbow** » Thu Sep 09, 2004 4:18 pm

I guess what I need to find out is how to make a sprite with multiple layers in this case 2, One with some degree of transpancy. I think ill take a table or some other sprite that has a shadow to spray and redview and see what I can find out about those layers.

What the missile is as I said a container with a huge weight allocation for all sorts of 'JUNK' some of which is usefull, some of which is just junk.to distract the player.

requiem_for_a_starfury · Fri Sep 10, 2004 2:24 pm

Perhaps you can split the image into three, a small middle section as a sprite with the two ends of the image as tiles which should generate a shadow.

Or you can make a shadow as a floor tile?

The only other thing I can suggest is to use the sand slope tiles (under mountains) and put the missile and it's track in a shallow dip, and/or hiding the base of the missile (perhaps with curb tiles) so it doesn't appear to be floating.

xbow · Post by **xbow** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 3:57 am

Thanks requiem_for_a_starfury

I used the option of colliding floor tiles that I set to invisible with the launch rail and placed the rocket above those tiles, works like a charm. the mountain tiles you suggested got me to thinking thanks! I had never made regular tiles invisible before, but it works just fine. Hell, you could use invisible wall tiles to channel an enemies attack if you wanted to. The shadow cast by the floor tiles looks good enough I think. I sure wish I knew how to make a multi layer sprite where the bottom layer is the shadow layer.

I will be working on canteens and bottled water this weekend.

requiem_for_a_starfury · Sat Sep 11, 2004 2:08 pm

Surely you can draw the shadow as one image, without the need for layers? At least that works with tiles.

xbow · Post by **xbow** » Sat Sep 11, 2004 4:59 pm

You can draw a shadow as part of the sprite but unless you can make the shadow to some degree transparent the ground beneath it will be blocked out (as far as I know). Also without that transparency the shadow would look satisfactory in only one lighting situation.

Flamescreen · Post by **Flamescreen** » Sun Sep 12, 2004 12:43 pm

Sure looks good though. I like both versions. I don't think the first looked like floating though.

Flame

xbow · Post by **xbow** » Sun Sep 12, 2004 8:15 pm

Thanks for the kind words Flamescreen

The subdued lighting tends to make the images look better. In the daylight is when the image seems to float a bit. But, I think i have it knocked now by placing invisible floor tiles beneath the object but above the ground even though you can't see the tiles the engine still renders the shadow they make. here is where I am at with the biggest missile the invisible floor tiles appear to be doing the job.