Dynamic moonlight

[MirceaKitsune]

Very useful thread. I'd like to use a dynamic light for the moon in some missions... even the sun, as I've pondered a few daytime maps as well (not the standard model of TDM I know).

 

Problem was that from what I knew, TDM doesn't (easily) support infinite distance shadow-casting lights (A.K.A. sun lamps). To make a sun or moon, you have to add a normal point light and give it a huge radius... though no matter where you place it, it's easy to tell from the shadow angle that it's unnaturally close, so yeah. Hopefully this is incorrect. If so, maybe a new light texture could be added for this purpose?

[rich_is_bored]

There's a checkbox in the light inspector labeled parallel that will do the job.

[SteveL]

Yes, parallel lights do the job perfectly. They sometimes behave weird especially if you stretch them over several visleafs, but there are workarounds like the one I posted on the last page, and once you've got them working right they are perfectly stable.

 

Strictly speaking, parallel lights are not really parallel -- they are omni lights with the light origin moved 100000 times further away from the light centre than where you put it in DR -- but it's plenty good enough for the difference to be invisible. And in the unlikely event you can see the shadow diverge in a big scene, you can just move the light vertex further out in DR. However far you move it will be multiplied 100000x by the engine.