GI Substitute

[EBAndrew]

So, what I'm doing is making an eye-level skybox of a mountainous area with lots of rocky areas and height variations and so on. The problem that I'm running into is that every skybox method I've run into says that global illumination should be turned off to prevent seams... but without it, the shadows are pretty much black. I've tinkered around with the Enviro Light and Sunlight settings, but I haven't been able to get a brighter shadow.

I was curious if there's anything I can do to get around this, or if there's a specific GI setting that won't produce seaming.

Thanks in advance guys, I know you'll know what to do!

[RArcher]

This is likely what you are looking for:

http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=580.0

[EBAndrew]

Awesome! I KNEW there had to be a workaround. I'm in the process of breaking out a test box right now, I'll let you know if it works.

Thanks dude!

...Hah HAH! It works perfectly! Many thanks!

[bigben]

There's also this one which provides a few extra lights for dealing with overhangs.
http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=1921.0

I still have some tests to run before updating it with a soft shadow on the zenith light.

[dhavalmistry]

since we are on GI topic here.....I am gonna ask if there are any plans of implementing "Radiosity" in TG2, maybe not in final release but in future updates??

[Cyber-Angel]

Radiosity is a superset of Gobble Illumination which is based on Diffuse to Diffuse Radiance Transfer which is a concept in thermodynamics and the two are closely related. Radiosity is good for things like diffuse and ambient lighting across surfaces but is not so good at reflections and refraction but Ray-Tracing is, that is why many of the Renderers in use today are hybrid systems that have both Renderosity/ GI (Depending on the software and which buzzword they like) and ray-tracing thus they balance out the weakness of each method.

Regards to you

Cyber-Angel             

[Oshyan]

Radiosity is a superset of Gobble Illumination which is based on Diffuse to Diffuse Radiance Transfer which is a concept in thermodynamics and the two are closely related. Radiosity is good for things like diffuse and ambient lighting across surfaces but is not so good at reflections and refraction but Ray-Tracing is, that is why many of the Renderers in use today are hybrid systems that have both Renderosity/ GI (Depending on the software and which buzzword they like) and ray-tracing thus they balance out the weakness of each method.

Regards to you

Cyber-Angel             

Actually I believe it's the other way around - Global Illumination is a superset of Radiosity. Radiosity is a type or method of simulating global illumination, with others being photon mapping and irradiance caching to name a few. This Wikipedia article has more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_illumination

Here's a quote from Wikipedia which explains the confusion on Radiosity terminology further:

Confusion about terminology

Radiosity was perhaps the first rendering algorithm in widespread use which accounted for diffuse indirect lighting. Earlier rendering algorithms, such as Whitted-style ray tracing were capable of computing effects such as reflections, refractions, and shadows, but despite being highly global phenomena these effects were not commonly referred to as "global illumination." As a consequence, the term "global illumination" became confused with "diffuse interreflection," and "Radiosity" became confused with "global illumination" in popular parlance. However, the three are distinct concepts. (This confusion frequently shows up in marketing jargon for commercial software packages - for instance, LightWave has a "radiosity" option for global illumination that is actually more akin to irradiance caching.)

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiosity

In any case radiosity is just one method and is not inherently superior or inferior. Like most rendering methods it depends on the scene and its characteristics to determine which would be most effective and efficient. Bottom line TG2 has a Global Illumination system - having multiple methods of achieving GI isn't strictly necessary unless they are useful in different ways.

- Oshyan

[dhavalmistry]

But isnt Radiosity the more accurate in photon mapping without taking so much resources???

[Cyber-Angel]

Yes come to think about it Global Illumination is a Superset of Renderosity easy enough mistake to make?

Thank you for the correction.

Regards to you.

Cyber=Angel   

[Oshyan]

But isnt Radiosity the more accurate in photon mapping without taking so much resources???

In a word, no.

- Oshyan