Large shadow on ground from skybox

[Naiman Broome]

Hello , how is possible to avoid the large shadow on ground projected by a round skybox I have at 3000 m?

I generally do not see the shadow unless I cam from there to the ground and back or viceversa, if I at inground and dont cam around the shadow is not visible.

[Qie Niangao]

In my experience I won't see its shadow if I don't rez the skybox (don't fly nor cam up there) during a login session (or maybe since the last time I TP'd into the region?). Once the viewer has seen it, though, it seems to cast the shadow even though it's way beyond draw depth.

The shadow can be moved out of view by playing with the sun placement in EEP, but that doesn't help if EEP is being used for other purposes or otherwise requires a realistic sun placement.

If a third-party viewer developer got interested, they could make objects derender completely so they don't cast shadows from beyond draw depth or some other adjustable distance.

[Naiman Broome]

So its a bug?

[Qie Niangao]

I don't think it's a bug at all. More like inconvenient math. I mean, the shadow is being cast correctly, but we'd prefer that it not be. A viewer might have a feature to comply with such preference, at the expense of accuracy.

[Theresa Tennyson]

On 6/18/2021 at 3:57 AM, Naiman Broome said:

Hello , how is possible to avoid the large shadow on ground projected by a round skybox I have at 3000 m?

Don't try to look at things two miles away from where you are.

[Profaitchikenz Haiku]

Coming from another thread, there used to be a way of doing this by a prim parameter PRIM_CAST_SHADOWS, now obsolete. However, that would not be sufficient, as in addition to turning off the shadow-casting ability for the skybox, things on it such as a hacienda would then start casting a shadow that had been previously occluded by the skybox, and so on...

I think I can see now why this property was removed. It is simpler for the region to treat every object on it in the same way.

One suggestion I have though, if you set the skybox to be totally transparent, does it still cat a shadow? If not, then you could just change it's alpha state depending on whether somebody was on the skybox or near enough to need to see it, or not.

Edited June 19, 2021 by Profaitchikenz Haiku

[Ardy Lay]

Why is object culling not taking effect here?

[Lancewae Barrowstone]

Couldn't you just Clear Visible Cache?  If you remain at a lower DD while on the ground, say 96, or 200, or 400, whatever you want that is NOT in the thousands, you'll not see the shadow, after clearing visible cache.  That's my theory.  You can do it like this:  get one of those freebies that are a singple prim and say "Sit to clear visible cache,"  and keep it on your land handy.  You just sit on it and ZOOM!, up it takes you several thosands of meters, I don't reemember the height..  2000?  3000?, I forget.  And it holds you up there while your visible cache is clearing itself,  and when done it zooms you back to ground.  Simple. That skybox shadow should be gone.  That's my expectation.  And will stay gone until next time you cam up there from ground and reload it into visible cache.  

I could be wrong.  But you can probably experiment right now without that freebie.  Just hover yourself in Fly mode at ground level, make sure your dd is appropriately low, then using chat command, type: gth 3500, then hitting Enter UP you zoom. I would just hover up there  (since you are in Fly mode) for 3 to 5 seconds just to be sure it clears all.  First time i ever sat on that freebie box (shaped like a log in Gor), i was zoomed up, and there i sat in the heavens for almost 5 seconds and thought, someone just played a prank on me and so impulsively unseated myself and fell the whole thousands of meters back to land.  There was no flying ability in Gor sims. Hah, that bent my sword..  But, once on the ground all my greyness of textures was gone.  That was in the early years.  Should work still today.