env_projectedtexture/fixes

 Note: All files (unless explicitly specified as server) in this article are available in the client project

Enabling multiple shadow maps

Valve's games only allow one projected texture to cast shadows at a time - including the player's flashlight! To surmount this, shadow casting can be disabled on each entity with the enableshadows KV, or for a proper solution a programmer can perform this C++ fix:

In CClientShadowMgr::Init() (Clientshadowmgr.cpp around line 1293), replace:

bool bTools = CommandLine()->CheckParm( "-tools" ) != NULL;
m_nMaxDepthTextureShadows = bTools ? 4 : 1;	// Just one shadow depth texture in games, more in tools

With:

m_nMaxDepthTextureShadows = YOUR_CHOSEN_MAX; //with your number

 Warning: A new render texture will be created for each shadow map you enable support for, regardless of whether it's used. Having too many RTs hurts performance, so keep your limit within reason (ideally something below 10).

Fixing targeting

Because the targeting code isn't finished in the SDK, A projected texture will flicker when bound to a target. To fix this, open c_env_projectedtexture.cpp and around line 174 there is an else block containing an assert and some commented code. Replace the whole block with this:

else
{
	Vector vecToTarget = m_hTargetEntity->GetAbsOrigin() - GetAbsOrigin();
	QAngle vecAngles;
	VectorAngles( vecToTarget, vecAngles );
	AngleVectors( vecAngles, &vForward, &vRight, &vUp );
}

The server needs code to update the entity with angles on a target as well. Open env_projectedtexture.cpp and around line 245 edit the InitialThink() function to recalculate angles towards the target:

void CEnvProjectedTexture::InitialThink( void )
{
	if ( m_hTargetEntity == NULL && m_target != NULL_STRING )
		m_hTargetEntity = gEntList.FindEntityByName( NULL, m_target );
	if ( m_hTargetEntity == NULL )
		return;
	 
	Vector vecToTarget = (m_hTargetEntity->GetAbsOrigin() - GetAbsOrigin());
	QAngle vecAngles;
	VectorAngles( vecToTarget, vecAngles );
	SetAbsAngles( vecAngles );
	 
	SetNextThink( gpGlobals->curtime + 0.1 );
}

Fixing cuts in projected texture

 Warning: Having this set will reduce your performance by a noticeable amount (~10% FPS loss)

Projected texture being cut.

When using multiple env_projectedtexture, projected textures might be cut at certain viewing angles. To fix this, force r_flashlightscissor 0 for your mod or map.

You can do this by adding the following code block into the constructor of c_basehlplayer.cpp

ConVarRef scissor( "r_flashlightscissor" );
scissor.SetValue( "0" );

Fixing Parenting

By default, this entity's position only gets updated when it gets turned on. Thus, parenting does not work. To fix this, open c_env_projectedtexture.cpp and in line 225, comment out 3 lines like this:

	// if ( bForceUpdate == false )
	// {
		g_pClientShadowMgr->UpdateProjectedTexture( m_LightHandle, true );
	// }

In line 233 in the Simulate function, change the argument false to true like this:

    UpdateLight( GetMoveParent() != NULL );

Enabling visibility tests

Projected textures are not tested for visibility. Being constantly enabled creates issues like shadows bleeding through walls. To fix them, head into c_env_projectedtexture.cpp, and make these changes:

Add a new function (remember to declare it in the header):

bool C_EnvProjectedTexture::ShouldDraw()
{
	//No need to check the flashlight for visibility.
	if( m_bCameraSpace )
		return true;

	//Trace forward to the nearest brush face to get a good leaf test vector.
	Vector vForward;
	GetVectors( &vForward, NULL, NULL );

	Vector vTraceStart = GetAbsOrigin();
	Vector vTraceEnd = GetAbsOrigin() + vForward * m_flFarZ;

	trace_t tr;
	CTraceFilterWorldOnly filter;

	UTIL_TraceLine( vTraceStart, vTraceEnd, CONTENTS_SOLID && CONTENTS_OPAQUE, &filter, &tr );

	//Check to see if our end vector is in a visible leaf.
	int LeafNum = enginetrace->GetLeafContainingPoint( tr.endpos );
	return render->AreAnyLeavesVisible( &LeafNum,1 );
}

In C_EnvProjectedTexture::UpdateLight, change the first line to read:

if ( m_bState == false || !ShouldDraw() )

 Bug: This can cause the light to not draw under certain visleaf conditions. A better solution might be to test the entity's PVS?

Enabling shadow receiving on the view model

Shadow receiving is disabled on various types of renderables. If you want to have shadows cast upon the view model then head into baseviewmodel_shared.h, find the ShouldReceiveProjectedTextures function and make it return true.

For example:

virtual bool ShouldReceiveProjectedTextures( int flags )
{
	return true;
}

This change also works for other renderables like detail models. Just search the solution for ShouldReceiveProjectedTextures.

You could also simply comment out the entire ShouldReceiveProjectedTextures function, instead of changing it to return true.

Decreasing shadow bleeding and "ghosting"

Shadows will sometimes separate from their caster, self-shadows can also "bleed" on their caster. These two values will help with that.

Set the default value of mat_depthbias_shadowmap to 0.00001 and mat_slopescaledepthbias_shadowmap to 4. You can change these values by changing the ConVar constructor at the beginning of c_env_projectedtexture.cpp.

 Warning: Reducing the depth bias ConVars results in small, grain like artefacts on the flashlight when using larger depth resolutions (i.e. 2048). A good compromise for mat_slopescaledepthbias_shadowmap is 16.

Lowering the amount of "grain" on shadows

Default (3.0f)

Modified (1.0f)

Currently the edges of shadows are quite grainy, this can also cause the shadows to blur into nothing depending on the distance between the caster and the source. To counter this, we can lower the amount of "grain". Careful when lowering this value, it's there to cover shadow map aliasing and produce soft shadows, you might want to try with different values before deciding a final.

Open imaterialsystem.h, find the constructor for FlashlightState_t and lower the default value of m_flShadowFilterSize from it's current value (3.0f) down to something like 1.0f. At increasing depth resolutions, a lower filter size can be used to still effectively soften shadow edges, but with a lower detail loss. See the table below for recommended values:

Depth resolution	Recommended filter size
512	3.0f
1024	1.0f
2048	0.5f
4096	0.2f

Create a shadow map depth texture greater than the framebuffer size

As rendertargets created with RT_SIZE_OFFSCREEN are resized to the nearest power-of-2 size that will fit into the framebuffer, we need to bypass this restriction by creating our rendertargets with RT_SIZE_NO_CHANGE. However, another problem arises when IVRenderView::Push3DView does not properly inform the material system of our new depth texture and render target. Therefore, after the IVRenderView::Push3DView call, we need to manually push our new render target and depth texture to the material system.

To fix these issues, start by opening clientshadowmgr.cpp and finding void CClientShadowMgr::InitDepthTextureShadows(). Add the code highlighted below.

//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Initialize, shutdown depth-texture shadows
//-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
void CClientShadowMgr::InitDepthTextureShadows()
{
	VPROF_BUDGET( "CClientShadowMgr::InitDepthTextureShadows", VPROF_BUDGETGROUP_SHADOW_DEPTH_TEXTURING );

	// SAUL: start benchmark timer
	CFastTimer timer;
	timer.Start();

	// SAUL: set m_nDepthTextureResolution to the depth resolution we want
	m_nDepthTextureResolution = r_flashlightdepthres.GetInt();

	if( !m_bDepthTextureActive )
	{
		m_bDepthTextureActive = true;

		ImageFormat dstFormat  = materials->GetShadowDepthTextureFormat();	// Vendor-dependent depth texture format
#if !defined( _X360 )
		ImageFormat nullFormat = materials->GetNullTextureFormat();			// Vendor-dependent null texture format (takes as little memory as possible)
#endif
		materials->BeginRenderTargetAllocation();

#if defined( _X360 )
		// For the 360, we'll be rendering depth directly into the dummy depth and Resolve()ing to the depth texture.
		// only need the dummy surface, don't care about color results
		m_DummyColorTexture.InitRenderTargetTexture( r_flashlightdepthres.GetInt(), r_flashlightdepthres.GetInt(), RT_SIZE_OFFSCREEN, IMAGE_FORMAT_BGR565, MATERIAL_RT_DEPTH_SHARED, false, "_rt_ShadowDummy" );
		m_DummyColorTexture.InitRenderTargetSurface( r_flashlightdepthres.GetInt(), r_flashlightdepthres.GetInt(), IMAGE_FORMAT_BGR565, true );
#else
		// SAUL: we want to create a render target of specific size, so use RT_SIZE_NO_CHANGE
		m_DummyColorTexture.InitRenderTarget( m_nDepthTextureResolution, m_nDepthTextureResolution, RT_SIZE_NO_CHANGE, nullFormat, MATERIAL_RT_DEPTH_NONE, false, "_rt_ShadowDummy" );
#endif

		// Create some number of depth-stencil textures
		m_DepthTextureCache.Purge();
		m_DepthTextureCacheLocks.Purge();
		for( int i=0; i < m_nMaxDepthTextureShadows; i++ )
		{
			CTextureReference depthTex;	// Depth-stencil surface
			bool bFalse = false;

			char strRTName[64];
			sprintf( strRTName, "_rt_ShadowDepthTexture_%d", i );

#if defined( _X360 )
			// create a render target to use as a resolve target to get the shared depth buffer
			// surface is effectively never used
			depthTex.InitRenderTargetTexture( m_nDepthTextureResolution, m_nDepthTextureResolution, RT_SIZE_OFFSCREEN, dstFormat, MATERIAL_RT_DEPTH_NONE, false, strRTName );
			depthTex.InitRenderTargetSurface( 1, 1, dstFormat, false );
#else
			// SAUL: we want to create a *DEPTH TEXTURE* of specific size, so use RT_SIZE_NO_CHANGE and MATERIAL_RT_DEPTH_ONLY
			depthTex.InitRenderTarget( m_nDepthTextureResolution, m_nDepthTextureResolution, RT_SIZE_NO_CHANGE, dstFormat, MATERIAL_RT_DEPTH_ONLY, false, strRTName );
#endif

			// SAUL: ensure the depth texture size wasn't changed
			Assert(depthTex->GetActualWidth() == m_nDepthTextureResolution);

			m_DepthTextureCache.AddToTail( depthTex );
			m_DepthTextureCacheLocks.AddToTail( bFalse );
		}

		materials->EndRenderTargetAllocation();
	}

	timer.End();
	DevMsg("InitDepthTextureShadows took %.2f msec\n", timer.GetDuration().GetMillisecondsF());
}

Now open viewrender.cpp and find void CShadowDepthView::Draw(). Immediately before SetupCurrentView(...) (line 4654), add:

pRenderContext.GetFrom(materials);
pRenderContext->PushRenderTargetAndViewport(m_pRenderTarget, m_pDepthTexture, 0, 0, m_pDepthTexture->GetMappingWidth(), m_pDepthTexture->GetMappingWidth());
pRenderContext.SafeRelease();

Move to the end of the function, and immediately before render->PopView( GetFrustum() ); (line 4702), add:

pRenderContext->PopRenderTargetAndViewport();

Fix configurable texture value in Hammer

Open env_projectedtexture.cpp in the Server project, find the line DEFINE_AUTO_ARRAY_KEYFIELD( m_SpotlightTextureName, FIELD_CHARACTER, "texturename" ), and comment it out. Immediately after this line, add:

DEFINE_AUTO_ARRAY( m_SpotlightTextureName, FIELD_CHARACTER ),

Find the function bool CEnvProjectedTexture::KeyValue( const char *szKeyName, const char *szValue ) (line 157) further down the file, and replace the entire function with:

	if ( FStrEq( szKeyName, "lightcolor" ) )
	{
		Vector tmp;
		UTIL_ColorStringToLinearFloatColor( tmp, szValue );
		m_LinearFloatLightColor = tmp;
	}
	else if ( FStrEq(szKeyName, "texturename" ) )
	{
		Q_strcpy( m_SpotlightTextureName.GetForModify(), szValue );
	}
	else
	{
		return BaseClass::KeyValue( szKeyName, szValue );
	}

	return true;

After recompiling these code fixes, you will now be able to set a texture value in Hammer for your env_projectedtextures. However, as the texturename KeyValue is not present in the base FGD, you will need to manually set the texturename KeyValue in each entity you wish to have a non-default projected texture. To do this, de-toggle SmartEdit and then click on Add. Set "texturename" as the name, and the path to your texture as the "value". Now your projected texture will have a specific texture at spawn without having to be set via entity IO post-spawn.

 Note: Paths of textures in entity properties are relative to <your mod>/materials and should have no extension. For example: effects/flashlight001