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Question by ubersoldat42 · Apr 04, 2014 at 10:01 PM · hard shadows

Free Unity, with realtime shadows?

So, I understand that in the free version, the possibility of using realtime shadows is limited to one light source. I want to create a day/night cycle, but didn't have time to test any of this yet (and won't have in a while, so I kindly ask to tap into the higher knowledge of ye master Unity users).

The directional light can create shadows, and only one of them. So one source of shadows. Can I have this light orbit around the map and cast shadows on trees and such? Maybe even push it so far that the same light becomes the moon and then casts weaker shadows?

Anyways, please let me know if someone was able to find a workaround for the free users. Thanks!

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Kiloblargh

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Answer by supernat · Apr 05, 2014 at 12:52 AM

I don't know about other workarounds, but a directional light doesn't change based on position. It produces light globally in the same direction, so only the rotation angles of the light are used in the calculations.. So indeed you can get a reasonable approximation of sun and moon with it since those behave like directional lights on the micro scale. All you have to do is increase intensity toward noon and change the angle to 90 deg down at noon toward 0 degrees in the same direction as your sun model.

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avatar image ubersoldat42 · Apr 05, 2014 at 08:29 AM 0
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So,it's possible to have a directional light spin around the world and throw shadows? (mind you I am talking about a huge world :) )

avatar image Kiloblargh · Apr 05, 2014 at 09:46 AM 1
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You didn't read anything he wrote, did you?

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