The Mana World Forums

Any possibility of a dynamic shadow engine anytime soon?

From Leaiva.com

for players, objects, tiles?
Adding dynamic shadow for players and mobs is rather easy part.

This only works in the above screenshots because it is on a featureless plane. When there were some objects like walls or cliffs automated shadows would look unrealistic. Unless of course we define a 3d model to cast the shadows on, but then say welcome to mana 3d.

I think it looks fine without shadows. As I pointed out once (on the WoA forums actually) even shadows for Inventory icons won't work, because against cliffs/trees, or even on rough ground, it'll just look fake, unless the lightsource is directly behind you (in which case the shadow will look straight against any surface).

But shadows really help set things into their environment

Oh, I agree entirely. But not if they look like they're floating above the terrain


Maybe you could make shadow sprites for each type of tile