Game lacks Fake Shadows under cars, the blob-shadows seen in many racing games. https://image.redbull.com/rbcom/052/2017-10-16/490e5465-5819-452f-ad87-c792c6a25c5e/0012/0/0/0/915/1373/1050/1/gtsport-dodgeviper.jpg Look here. This game has two shadows for each car. One is a plain texture that mimics shape of the car which is pitch black and other is real-time rendered shadow. This is what is wrong with lightning in this game. This game lacks contrast. There's no "complete darkness" areas such as those underneath the car taht would give scene more depth. I think those fake shadows could improve game's visual fidelity tenfold. Many racing games use these to enhance the effect of the scene (like Forza, GT Sport), giving more depth and believability. Saying that this game doesn't need it is actually not a good thing, because in every single game I've played, after disabling fake shadow, leaving just real time shadows, looked quite awful, lacking any sort of depth. Blob shadow also is a "point of anchor" for some people. I don't play BeamNG that often because I constantly feel like cars are "floating" above the ground. This blob shadow would serve as means to "ground" vehicle on the ground and give game more depth. It's just a texture that could actually be visible when car is only on it's wheels and it would deform accordingly with the entire vehicle as well on just Z axis (without bending up or down, just forward or back) (or perhaps get cut off). Only car's body would cast said texture and it could work for tearable parts as well (just make the axis that points downwards cast said shadow only when it's at more or less 90 degrees angle). Look here as example from Euro Truck simulator 2. There was a glitch long time ago: Look how truck has fake blob shadow and it makes truck feel "GROUNDED". https://abload.de/img/ets2_00000dcl3w.jpg Then look at trailer that is missing said shadow. It looks less "grounded" and more floaty. You do not need to use expensive methods such as SSAO to achieve this. SSAO is more taxing on hardware than using fake texture shadows with Alpha. Another example is this: Look at this modded truck for American Truck Simulator: https://atsmod.net/submissions/9895-kenworth-c500-jdm-1-32_1_WXWC7.jpg Notice how it looks just like Beam NG? Then look at the trailer in background with blob shadow. It looks SO MUCH BETTER. Not sold yet? Look here: https://images.sftcdn.net/images/t_app-cover-l,f_auto/p/4527de18-96d2-11e6-aa74-00163ed833e7/3417953429/american-truck-simulator-screenshot.jpg Notice how also Wheel Wells are dark/black. This game could also have these more darkened via texture, hell even localised SSAO. Same example, same game. Such simple solution to large issue that fixes a lot of what is wrong with game's lightning. There are benefits to this and downsides that need to be taken into account. No more SSAO (if you don't make wheel wells darker for depth), vehicles would feel a lot more "grounded" and game scene would have much more depth. I don't know any drawbacks, perhaps there are some engine limitations, but please developers, think about this. I am not sure if Torque3D supports blob shadows, but please, I beg BeamNG devs, can you do this? I know it's dumb that such miniscule issue that no one has complained about is making me sick when I play for longer periods of time, but I would really, REALLY appreciate this.
I use Pascal Gilcher's path tracing shader for reshade to get this in realtime. Only have a gtx 680 and I still run the game okay with the right settings. Look for his patreon if you are interested.
How does a fake shadow work with deformation and cars jumping or flying around? Even Forza does have problems with it when car jumps or there is uneven ground.
https://www.patreon.com/mcflypg 5$ a month will get you beta access, it's what I have. If you want you can unsub after a month once you download the current version. He updates it often with improvements and can be used on almost any game.
There are problems, sure, but those problems aren't impossible. Shadow would be a quad that would be able to adjust it's shape accordingly to the surface below. Collision? It would only render underneath entire body frame. If said frame would be squished, then shadow would "shorten" on Z axis to fit with the frame. Perhaps two quads for separatable body frames? Each larger chunk of body has it's own blob shadow. It is solvable, just requires a bit of thought put into it. Devs would probably come up with decent solution. Also I won't pay 5$ for what is basically a graphics mod.
You will have to download Reshade and install that for beamng, then once you have payed past the $5(beta access) patreon tier you will get an invite to the discord where you can download the reshade shader plugin.
