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[karla]

Shadows cast by aircraft on carrier flight decks are created using a shadow receiving mesh - ShdwRcv0.msh. It consists of two identical meshes separated by 0.03 to 0.10 metres in the Z axis. The upper one has no material and the lower one usually has a _Default_ material. They are related to a node.

I wasted quite a few hours creating various meshes, naming them ShdwRcv0 and testing before I realized the complexity of the method. Conversion of samples from different authors from .msh to .obj gave single objects whereas conversion to .3ds gave trios of objects. Once they're in Blender I don't understand nor replicate the linking between the three items and I've carried out many test with no luck. Currently, I've copied an existing mesh and adjusted it's Z coordinate to suit my carrier but only half of my flight deck has a shadow capability.

Probably only two or three guys know the answer to this - can you help?

[western0221]

Carrier flight deck's shadow receiver is troublesome or mysterious.
I'm failing many times in building a new carrier model about it, need try and errors.

Your researching about existing / stock carriers looks perfect and nothing maybe rest I can add or advise to you.
I prepare this image to describe how to tune heights between main mesh and shadow mesh. But you've already know it.


Shadow receiver msh nodes can be made as (maximum) 10x separated nodes ---- from ShdwRcv0 to ShdwRcv9 .
I haven't made ShdwRcv10 or later numbers, so I don't know they will be ignored or usable.
Under this rule, You can separate Shadow receiver polygons and make them simple shapes.
Shadow receiver looks like needed to be in simple shapes.
And after separated, you can find troubled area and fix it easier.

[karla]

Thank you for your attention western. As you said, this is a feature that is mysterious so I'll carry on and try different settings until I get it to work - or otherwise. If they don't work, I can always use an existing carrier shadow to cover some of my large deck. Of course, if I discover anything further I'll post it here.

[asheshouse]

I have up to ShdwRcv17.msh on the Ark Royal model.  Numbering must be sequential -- no gaps in sequence.

I use Maraz Exporter.

Example of two meshes which forms s shadow are  L0_ShdwRcv0   and YL0_ShdwRcv0. I apply a single material ID to these in Max. 

L0_ShdwRcv0  is a normal mesh on which the shadow will be "painted".  This mesh must be planar. May have multiple polys but all must be in the same plane.

Orientation of pivot points is critical.
Make pivot point at centre of object. Orientate the pivot so that Z axis is at 90deg to the plane. This is how you align the shadow correctly on curved parts at nose or tail of flight deck.

In hier.him enter correct matrix to locate and orientate the L0_ShdwRcv0 mesh. Mesh must be "Hidden" in hier.him.

Example from Ark Royal

Code: [Select]

[ShdwRcv14]
Mesh ShdwRcv14
Parent _ROOT_
Hidden
Attaching 0.884703 0 -0.466155   0 1 0   0.466155 0 0.884703     118.474 0 15.012
This is the mesh file. I apply a material, but this may not be necessary in final file. Maraz Exporter needs to see a material to work.

Code: [Select]

//IL-2 export plugin by 6S.Maraz - http://www.diavolirossi.net
//Filename = C:\Users\Owner\Documents\3dsmax\scenes\HMS ArkRoyal\Exports\ShdwRcv15
[Common]
NumBones 0
FramesType Single
NumFrames 1

[LOD]
500

[Materials]
PrimerYellow

[FaceGroups]
18 16
0 0 18 0 16 0

[Vertices_Frame0]
0.586754 -1.678155 -0.047874 0.000770 -0.044937 0.998990
0.665024 -0.000001 -0.006638 -0.006401 -0.000001 0.999979
-0.363724 -0.000001 -0.013222 0.000504 -0.000001 1.000000
-0.395882 -1.369435 -0.030167 0.019434 -0.030893 0.999334
-0.560196 -2.881110 -0.067154 0.087710 -0.047542 0.995011
0.312202 -3.363941 -0.159782 0.057821 -0.064459 0.996244
-0.730362 -3.985215 -0.106186 0.138629 -0.060515 0.988494
-0.115425 -4.520472 -0.221954 0.114019 -0.069677 0.991032
-0.952042 -5.212168 -0.144585 0.185453 -0.064196 0.980554
-0.582397 -5.354453 -0.223808 0.163154 -0.066930 0.984328
0.586754 1.678153 -0.047867 0.000767 0.044937 0.998990
-0.395882 1.369434 -0.030167 0.019430 0.030894 0.999334
0.312202 3.363940 -0.159782 0.057819 0.064460 0.996244
-0.560196 2.881109 -0.067154 0.087709 0.047543 0.995011
-0.115433 4.520471 -0.221954 0.114018 0.069677 0.991032
-0.730370 3.985214 -0.106194 0.138627 0.060517 0.988494
-0.582405 5.354453 -0.223816 0.163163 0.066928 0.984326
-0.952042 5.212168 -0.144585 0.185468 0.064193 0.980551

[MaterialMapping]
0.969632 0.570389
0.970180 0.561360
0.966694 0.561360
0.966156 0.569387
0.965550 0.577566
0.968685 0.579480
0.964204 0.584148
0.966749 0.586581
0.961441 0.591768
0.963916 0.592067
0.969632 0.552331
0.966156 0.553334
0.968685 0.543240
0.965550 0.545154
0.966749 0.536139
0.964204 0.538573
0.963916 0.530653
0.961441 0.530953

[Faces]
0 1 2
2 3 0
3 4 5
5 0 3
4 6 7
7 5 4
6 8 9
9 7 6
10 11 2
2 1 10
11 10 12
12 13 11
13 12 14
14 15 13
15 14 16
16 17 15

[ShVertices_Frame0]
-0.573776 -2.881110 -0.041382
-0.409454 -1.369435 -0.004395
-0.377304 -0.000001 0.012550
-0.743942 -3.985215 -0.080414
-0.965622 -5.212168 -0.118813
-0.409454 1.369434 -0.004395
-0.573776 2.881109 -0.041382
-0.743950 3.985214 -0.080421
-0.965622 5.212168 -0.118813
0.298622 -3.363941 -0.134010
0.573174 -1.678155 -0.022102
-0.129005 -4.520472 -0.196182
-0.595978 -5.354453 -0.198036
0.651451 -0.000001 0.019135
0.298622 3.363940 -0.134010
0.573174 1.678153 -0.022102
-0.129013 4.520471 -0.196182
-0.595985 5.354453 -0.198044

[ShFaces]
10 13 2
2 1 10
1 0 9
9 10 1
0 3 11
11 9 0
3 4 12
12 11 3
15 5 2
2 13 15
5 15 14
14 6 5
6 14 16
16 7 6
7 16 17
17 8 7


; eof

[karla]

Thank you Ashes for generously sharing your knowledge. I'll start to apply this to Nimitz this week.

[karla]

At last - Phantoms cast shadows on Nimitz. I tried several methods - using a shadow mesh with Z height adjustment from CVA-31 (which worked), importing .3DS and .OBJ shadows from CVA-31 and manipulating them, creating simple and more complex boxes and simple and complex double layers. Imported .OBJ shadow meshes were found to be single objects but .3DS imported shadow meshes consisted of three objects which helped in the understanding.

To create a shadow mesh in Blender: create a plane with sufficient faces to cover the deck, name it ShdwRcv0, give it a simple material without a texture map, duplicate it, move the copy up the Z-axis by 0.05m, remove the material from the copy and rename the copy as ShdwRcv0-sh, parent the -sh mesh to the original and parent them both to the model node. Export with BlendyBlendy.

To be sure of a result I started with one of the imported .3DS HMS Eagle meshes, re-sized it, manipulated it and removed several vertices to get the appropriate shape. Then I proceeded with the rest of the process.

[SAS~Malone]

sounds promising. eagerly awaiting updates