Shadows Under the Furnitures

[Memo Opaque]

Hello, are those shadows under the most of furnitures in SL made with any technic in 3D programs ? Or are they just black texturea with alpha maps on some planes, put under furnitures ?

[Rolig Loon]

Some are textures drawn on prims and added to the furniture's linkset.  Some are faces in the mesh model that have been textured as shadows (either drawn or generated as an AO image).  And some are generated in world by local or global light sources (if you have Advanced Lighting and shadows turned on in the viewer).

[arton Rotaru]

Usually these are baked shadows on a plane in 3d programs. From some light sources. It's not Ambient Occlusion baking.

[Pamela Galli]

I use AO so it looks like a shadow on a cloudy day yet doesn't conflict with inworld shadows that may be turned on.

[Ivanova Shostakovich]

I've made furniture using either AO or lighted baking, depending on the configuration of the furniture and where it would (most likely) be placed. In-world shadows using advanced lighting will work if the furniture is outdoors and/or if projected lighting sources are used. I think a good feature is baked shadows you can turn off if you want the AL shadows only.

Edited May 24, 2017 by Ivanova Shostakovich

[Memo Opaque]

Your answers were helpful, thank you. i will make it by baking the texture

[arton Rotaru]

30 minutes ago, Pamela Galli said:

I use AO so it looks like a shadow on a cloudy day yet doesn't conflict with inworld shadows that may be turned on.

Last time I baked ground shadows was in 2012 actually. And the objects have the option to turn the shadow plane off indeed. Since then my take on it is, if you want shadows, turn real time shadows on.

[Pamela Galli]

I only turn on shadows if I am taking pics -- my iMac takes too big a hit from shadows.

Most of my shadow planes are removable, all of them can be made transparent. 

[Memo Opaque]

Just now, arton Rotaru said:

Last time I baked ground shadows was in 2012 actually. And the objects have the option to turn the shadow plane off indeed. Since then my take on it is, if you want shadows, turn real time shadows on.

Well, some graphic cards don't support ultra graphic settings. In that case, baked shadow can be good

[arton Rotaru]

Yes indeed, I don't say baked shadows don't look good. But personally I don't miss them much. I have real time shadows turned off most of the time as well. Because the shadows kill too much of the specular reflections. Tough life this second one.

[ChinRey]

One very important thing we have to mention about shadow planes under furniture: make sure they're not absolutely flush with the floor. They have to be positioned slightly above it to avoid annoying texture flickering.

[Memo Opaque]

Sometimes baking ends up blank, though. Any idea what may cause it from your experiences ?

[arton Rotaru]

@Memo Opaque Let us know which program you are baking in.

[Memo Opaque]

It is Blender. I had a joined object with afew materials. So i would just bake each material and then figured out i had to unjoin them to bake them