Tile Fade little questions

[Legacy_CaveGnome]

               

After some tile fade experimenting, i am left wondering at how to use effectively this Nwn engine feature. So, i got these questions.

 

- When tilefading is on, my upper tileset parts are disapearing as planned, but... The invisible upper parts still projects shadows!!! The final effect is strange. Worse, i tried to do this with diverse Bioware original tilesets and they seem to have the same defect (10 years playing Nwn and i never noticed that one! ;-). I know how to completely erase the shadows in the ASCII models, but. What can i do to deactivate the upper part shadow when fade is on and automatically switch back when fading is off ?

 

- Another one: Is there any obscure way to control the tile fading with a script or by parameters in area properties ? My idea is to drive global Tile Fading On or Off when entering an area or trigger.

 

Thanks

 

CG

 

 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Shadooow]

               

unfortunately this is completely client side and there is no way to control this behavior from a server

 

on the other hand i cant imagine why would you need it, its a players responsibility how they will see your area isnt it?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Proleric]

               No way to control it, sadly. I find the biggest issue is with placeables, since they don't tilefade. Baking them into tiles is hard work, so If I can't black box them, I just leave them hanging when the second story fades. Obviously, tilefade is a useful feature for players if the tileset has high features that obscure visibility, though good area design will reduce the need for it.


Incidentally, is it just me, or are NWN shadows actually more noticable on modern kit?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Shadooow]

               

No way to control it, sadly. I find the biggest issue is with placeables, since they don't tilefade. Baking them into tiles is hard work, so If I can't black box them, I just leave them hanging when the second story fades. Obviously, tilefade is a useful feature for players if the tileset has high features that obscure visibility, though good area design will reduce the need for it.


Incidentally, is it just me, or are NWN shadows actually more noticable on modern kit?

placeables does tilefade

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Proleric]

               

That may be true, theoretically, but in practice most don't, and since they're not always placed at ground level, it wouldn't help much if they did.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Shadooow]

               

That may be true, theoretically, but in practice most don't, and since they're not always placed at ground level, it wouldn't help much if they did.

oh this, the placeable itself might have fading parts, however engine will not fade whole placeable by his position  (which would be really usefull sometimes)

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_CaveGnome]

               

@Shadooow

"unfortunately this is completely client side and there is no way to control this behavior from a server

on the other hand i cant imagine why would you need it, its a players responsibility how they will see your area isnt it?"

 

Halas, it is what i feared! Why do i need it? Because I always crave for more control, arh, arrh... '>. More seriously, i have been toying with the "dual use" tileset idea. For exemple i was thinking of a tile with tilefade removing the walls and ceiling to transform it from interior room to external deck, mixing interior/exterior just flipping the tilefade switch.  Too bad it can't be done by script.

 

 

@Proleric

"That may be true, theoretically, but in practice most don't, and since they're not always placed at ground level, it wouldn't help much if they did.

 

Incidentally, is it just me, or are NWN shadows actually more noticable on modern kit?

"

 

My (very limited) understanding of tilefade is that it needs a special model with an independant part of the object you choose as "fadable", horizontal and vertical black lids to hide the cuts and use of the tilefade instruction. I didn't know placeables could fade. I don't remember seeing such a rare beast. Could someone point me to such a placeable?  Thanks.

 

And yes, having upgraded my computer to a modern graphic card recently, i noticed a change in quality (could be the higher resolution or superior antialiasing). The shadows seem more defined (not good with all my broken shadow tiles).

 

CG