Shadows........

Don\'t you think the games\' characters of today should all
have decent shadows ? I\'m getting a little sick \'n tired of
those black circles or those dark spots under feet. The MGS2
demo is an excellent example at this topic : don\'t you just
hate those two dark elipses at Snake\'s feet ? Ah, the one time
there\'s shadows, I believe on deck C. C\'mon !
I\'ve been playing lotsa Onimusha lately. Samanosuke\'s got a
good shadow. It even bends if you get him close to a wall or
another object.
I\'m not saying that such a shadow has to be hyper realistic. It
doesn\'t really need diffused soft outlines, nor the exact detail
of the character itself. You can\'t see the ridges of the armor Samanosuke\'s wearing in his shadow. That\'s ok, but at least the
global form of the shadow is good.
Shadows for characters like this, should be default standard for 128 bit consoles IMO. Including PS2 !
btw. I\'m curious how XBOX will handle that \'cause I\'ve been hearing all that hype talk about lighting fx these days. ..... I know, I know... Geforce 3 rocks. C\'mon Hideo ! give Snake a decent shadow.... at ALL times !
Knotter8

shadows are the last thing I worry about in a game. Resident Evil has terrible shadows, but you know what? that game series rules!!!

I could care less about shadows... what do they do to make a game good?

Originally posted by Animal Mother
I could care less about shadows... what do they do to make a game good?

Without shadows, we wouldn\'t be able to tell who\'s a regular person, and who doesn\'t have a soul!

Originally posted by Troglodyte
Without shadows, we wouldn\'t be able to tell who\'s a regular person, and who doesn\'t have a soul!

WOW i did not know video game characters had souls:eek:

Originally posted by Animal Mother
I could care less about shadows... what do they do to make a game good?

  Well umm...Animal Mother shadow effects in a game gives it a more "realistic" look and help increase the immersive factor. Without shadows in a game, it would well...uhh.. shatter the illusion of reality or something.

[Living-In-Clip]

Originally posted by kimathi
  Well umm...Animal Mother shadow effects in a game gives it a more "realistic" look and help increase the immersive factor. Without shadows in a game, it would well...uhh.. shatter the illusion of reality or something.

I thought bad voice acting was responsible for that?

Okage: Shadow King


Shadow of Destiny


Evergrace II


Dark Cloud


Tru not all the games have good shadows, but it\'s slowy becoming more popular to add in the little details.

Thanks Troglodyte, for pointing it out.
These pics you posted show good shadow fx.
I don\'t understand why you ppl ( xept Trog )
do not care about the \'shadow\' thing. If you
don\'t care about that, then why care about
something like jaggies. Hell... if we go on like
this I might throw out my PS2 and buy an Atari
2600 !
C\'mon, you know what I mean : for that money
I pay for PS2 stuff I think I\'m in my right demanding
some decent graphics fx like shadows.... And yeah
of course good gameplay with that.

Knotter8:mad:

Originally posted by Knotter8
Thanks Troglodyte, for pointing it out.
These pics you posted show good shadow fx.
I don\'t understand why you ppl ( xept Trog )
do not care about the \'shadow\' thing. If you
don\'t care about that, then why care about
something like jaggies. Hell... if we go on like
this I might throw out my PS2 and buy an Atari
2600 !
C\'mon, you know what I mean : for that money
I pay for PS2 stuff I think I\'m in my right demanding
some decent graphics fx like shadows.... And yeah
of course good gameplay with that.

Knotter8:mad:

I agree.  Notice how two of the posts came games with "shadow" in the title, and another from "dark cloud"!:laughing:

The shadow is a very important aspect in giving a three-dimentional look on a two-dimentional surface, without making it look like it\'s floating in air.  That\'s why games have shadows to begin with (even the circle ones.)  Because with out them, we\'d have trouble figuring out how far objects are and where exactly our character is standing.

Update:  But, shadows take up precious resources that could be used to speed up / enhance other apsects of the game.  A cirlce is better than nothing.  But the PS2 should have no excuse for scrapping shadows for memory space. . .  yet.

That\'s right Troglodyte !

In the MGS 2 demo, when you have Snake or some soldier
run towards the screen from a long hallway it just \'feels\' odd.
Like they\'re floating. This does effect gameplay a bit.

Kojima : \'Oh, it\'s so hard to make realtime shadows on PS2 !\'
\'It\'s so hard it makes my butt hurt !\' LOL He\'s starting
to sound like that whiner Lorne Lanning  

Knotter8

Good shawdows add realism to the game, but in no means should a game Lost credibility because of poor shadow animation.

Originally posted by GenjuroKibagani
Good shawdows add realism to the game, but in no means should a game Lost credibility because of poor shadow animation.

Not poor shadows, BUT no shadows greatly affects the game in a demeaning manner.

Realistic shadows is just the next step.