Weird Shadows

[phatal]

Why do I get these unnatural shadows? The light_env pitch is set at -65 and there are no bright lights on the other side of the door. I can disable shadows I know, but in some cases disabling shadows makes it look unnatural too.

EDIT: Maybe this second picture will better illustrate. These items light appear to be coming from behind the wall. The only light in the room is coming from where the overhead light is. If you disable the shadows then they will have no shadow at all and that's not acceptable.

[hacky]

Your door prop_dynamic is casting dynamic shadows. Disable its shadows.

[phatal]

Why do I get these unnatural shadows? The light_env pitch is set at -65 and there are no bright lights on the other side of the door. I can disable shadows I know, but in some cases disabling shadows makes it look unnatural too.

Your door prop_dynamic is casting dynamic shadows. Disable its shadows.

Did you read what I wrote? :blushing:

[hacky]

I did read what you wrote, that's why I said dynamic shadows. I ended up with the exact same unnatural shadows on every prop_dymamic, but all I did was turn off the shadows on things such as doors and resupply cabinets, especially ones indoors. I wasn't really bothered by the lack of a lightmap. If you really need it, you could put blocklight or nodraw brushes to cast shadows onto the lightmap.

[YM]

you need a shadow_control entity to make sure your dynamic shadows match up with the light_environment, unfortunatly this means that any dynamic props right next to a wall facing away from the light_environment will cast really ugly shadows, no way around this, just turn off the dynamic shadow and put up with it.
This is a limitation of the source engines lighting system, which sucks, but there is nothing you can do you just have to coose the option that looks best: odd dynamic shadows or no dynamic shadows.
Dynamic shadows should be cast from the nearest and/or strongest light source, so if you are indoors thats not the light_environment but if you are outdoors that is. But valve aren't smart enough to implement a simple calculation like that :( Maybe in the next source engine?

[phatal]

Gah... Alright, guess I'll deal with the crummy lighting. Thanks.

If you really need it, you could put blocklight or nodraw brushes to cast shadows onto the lightmap.

Hmm.. you guys put blocklight brushes behind the wall in between the enviroment and the room lighting? I'll try that.