Hello there, I really like TSW3, but there are some details I do not enjoy so much. One of these is the sun shadow that lasts only a few hundret meters away from the player. Unreal Engine supports a "far shadow" for the sun light that casts a lower resolution shadow far more away. Would it be possible or is it even possible already to activate far shadow in TSW3? with kind regards Pierre
Extending shadow draw distance takes a lot of performance hits. Remember that the game also has to run on lower end machines and even higher end machines could take a hit on higher resolutions and stuff. It would take a lot of resources and time to make this happen without causing performance issues
It is a special feature in sun lights to add extra cascades at low resolution over a larger distance additional to the regular cascades. It can be done that the extra cascade(s) cast only a shadow for the landscape. This would be in most cases enough to improve the image drastically. It should have not a big effect on performance but even IF it still could be optional.
I fervently hope that DTG can at least add an option for extended shadows with a method similar to what pierrechi describes above.
If you mean "Distance Field Shadows" we already use them (since TSW2 Rush Hour i think?) - but they are only on their lowest setting for distance. We are exploring the memory/performance impacts of dialing it up BUT be aware that not everything is accounted for with UE4's DFS tech - splines for one (all those walls and fences etc) are not supported so they will still draw shadows up close. That said, i still think it's worth it as many of the shadows draw further out using this. It's with our tech art team to explore and provide feedback on at the moment. Matt.
No, it's a separate setting in UE4 from distance field shadows, as you can see in pierrechi's screenshots. It's basically an extended version of the standard cascaded shadow maps that most TSW3 assets like trains use, but it's specifically intended for long draw distance and thus is optimized for such.
TrainSim-Matt is this here still in consideration? Just to be clear again: This is not distance field shadows mentioned here.
I'm sorry to bother again: The upcoming route Linke Rheinstrecke would really profit from the far shadow feature of the directional light. Just to be clear: It would add an extra far spreading low res shadow cascade (or more if you like) that could only cast shadow of the landscape which I would recommend. It is NOT about "cranking up the shadow distance" and NOT about cast shadows of all the trees in the distance. This I think would get rid of this wall of shadow like in the image. I really think routes with near mountains beside the track would profit from this in certain light situations (like for example Kassel - Würzburg) DTG Matt did the tech art team say something about this?
